HONOLULU (April 28, 2011) — In the first month of a new mentoring initiative, members of the Human Resources Institute of Alberta (HRIA) established nearly 100 mentoring relationships by using the self-service mentor/mentee matching capabilities of Mentor Scout’s online mentoring support system. The software’s ability to automate the mentor matching process as well as provide communication, goal setting and program measurement tools is enabling the HRIA to offer mentoring-based professional development opportunities with minimal administration.
The HRIA mentoring program — believed to be the first of its kind for a regional HR association — was launched in response to requests by the organization’s 5,000 members. More than 300 of the group’s HR practitioners enrolled as mentors, and a nearly equal number signed up in search of mentor partners, immediately after the program was rolled out in November 2010.
“In offering a professional mentoring program, we needed easy administration and sustainability. Manually reviewing hundreds of mentor and protégé applications looking for suitable partnerships was not an option,” said Michèle Luit, co-chair of the HRIA Mentoring Committee. “With Mentor Scout’s self-matching strategy, protégés and mentors find each other with a few clicks. The number of matches made in the first month was triple what we projected and directly related to our decision to use an electronic matching platform.”
Prospective mentors and protégés use Mentor Scout to complete detailed online profiles about their backgrounds or interests — including narrative entries that are keyword-searchable — and then search for matches by any group of parameters. This automated strategy eliminates time-consuming manual matching by a mentoring program director or committee, as well as making it possible to form better partnerships by easily pinpointing commonalities.
Users can also take advantage of Mentor Scout’s:
• Workspaces for mentor/protégé communication and goal setting.
• Repository for all program documents.
• Comprehensive suite of one-click reports, charts and graphs for assessing program progress.
• Industry-first group mentoring features, including point-and-click mentoring group formation and group workspaces.
HRIA expects to use the software’s group mentoring functionality to connect multiple members with common needs, such as support in pursuing Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP) designation.
“Many HR practitioners work in isolation in one-person HR shops or very small HR departments. Having a mentor outside their own organization — and particularly one with more experience — can be invaluable in addressing difficult issues, enhancing skills, advancing careers and simply expanding their professional network,” said Beth N. Carvin, CEO of Mentor Scout. “HRIA is among the first HR associations to recognize that today’s automated tools make it possible to set up a formal mentoring program as a membership benefit.”
The Mentor Scout platform has facilitated thousands of mentorships for organizations from Costco to Xerox. It is designed to support general mentoring programs as well as programs for specialty affinity groups, high potential employees, new hires and/or new supervisors.
Mentor Scout is provided under the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) delivery model, requiring no in-house installation. More information is available at http://mentorscout.com.
About Mentor Scout
Mentor Scout develops Web-based software that facilitates mentoring-related talent development, knowledge transfer and collaborative interaction in large companies and professional associations. Mentor Scout Standard Edition is the first automated corporate mentor/mentee matching and administration platform that can accommodate any one-to-one or group mentoring scenario. Mentor Scout Talent Networking Edition adds social networking tools designed to help engage, nurture and retain Generation Y employees. Customers include organizations such as ConAgra Foods, Costco, Covance, Excellus BlueCross Blue Shield, Portland General Electric, United Technologies, United Way, and Xerox. The company is a division of Nobscot Corporation, the pioneer in exit interview management software. For more information, visit http://www.mentorscout.com.
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