Six lessons from facilitating a formalised mentoring programme

Recognised types of mentoring in the higher education environment range from informal mentoring (where people might build a relationship with a helpful, knowledgeable colleague) or peer mentoring (where colleagues formally or informally support each other) through to more formalised institutional mentoring schemes (where staff are matched with a more senior colleague for a set period of time, usually with guidelines to help achieve their career goals). In my experience, this last form has the best outcomes; however, institutional support is needed to develop and manage such a programme.

In 2008, I initiated a mentoring programme for my academic colleagues at the University of Canterbury (UC). This initiative arose from discussions about early-career enhancement support, in response to feelings of isolation that some new academic staff had expressed, and the benefits people saw from building a network outside their discipline, school, department or faculty. More senior staff had spoken of the desire to “give back” and the need for the university to provide meaningful service opportunities. A formalised mentoring programme appeared to be the ideal solution.

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The UC’s programme is small – making just under 300 pairings since it began – but its size offers huge value. Its bespoke nature means the mentor matches can be personalised to meet the needs of the individual mentees, which is important because I ask for a commitment of a year to the partnership.

I’ve reflected on the lessons learned from my years of developing and managing the mentoring programme, and here are my top six:

Lesson 1: The programme has impact on people’s careers, lives and professional relationships

Feedback shows that mentoring makes a huge difference to academic staff and their careers. Many academics who were mentees as new lecturers are now professors who talk about the positive difference it made. Some talk about how their mentor helped them overcome the challenges of moving to a new country for their career or how it helped them confidently build their networks. Mentors often talk about their own learning experiences from developing others.

Lesson 2: People, not computers, create the best matches

Mentors and mentees complete online profiles, and these are studied and added to what we know about people’s professional goals and personal experiences. A small committee of three staff with good knowledge of the university (myself, a people and culture business partner and one of our academic developers) is responsible for the matching. Knowing the staff is crucial – we endeavour to create a good match personally as well as professionally.

Lesson 3: Mentors are generous with their time and experience

This programme relies on the generosity of senior academics who wish to get involved and give back. The time commitment is whatever the mentor is prepared to give over the course of a year – I recommend one meeting per month as a minimum. Mentors have the option of opting out of the programme in years when their workload does not allow them to commit to this. As well as seeing their mentee flourish, mentors often talk about what they learn from the experience, and these experiences reinforce the mentor’s commitment to the programme.

Lesson 4: Keep the necessary compliance appropriate and small

The formal aspect of the mentoring programme has a light touch. There’s a 90-minute induction session before being matched. The new mentees come together for one session, and a separate one is held for new mentors. Each pairing signs a code of conduct to ensure that boundaries and confidentiality are discussed, as well as a mentoring agreement to develop understanding of what topics the mentoring discussions might cover. The participating mentors and mentees are sent an online survey so they may feed back an evaluation of their experiences to continuously improve the programme.

Lesson 5: Keep your pool of mentors growing – in number and in skills

About 25 per cent of our university’s professors and associate professors are signed up as mentors. Senior academics resign or retire and availability fluctuates, so increasing the pool of mentors is vital. This year I’ve established a new community of practice for mentors – an attempt to enable discussion regarding challenges in a confidential, peer-learning environment. I invited the current pool of mentors to come together for two hours. We shared food, enjoyed a video of previous mentees reflecting on the impact of their mentoring experiences, the sponsor of the programme (UC’s deputy vice-chancellor for research) talked of how UC values this service contribution, and then we broke into groups to workshop typical mentoring scenarios. It is early days yet, but feedback is positive. On reflection, this is something I should have established much earlier.

Lesson 6: This is a rewarding experience

It is important for your organisation to formally recognise academic career mentoring – both as a crucial service activity from the mentors, and a willingness to commit to ongoing learning from the mentees’ perspective. Our promotions process explicitly recognises mentoring as a valued service and citizenship contribution.

If there was ever a win-win situation, formalised mentoring appears to be one – for everyone involved as well as the institution itself.

Karen Mather is the director of academy affiliation and organisational development at Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury, Aotearoa New Zealand.

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