Mentoring Evaluation – Start At The Beginning!

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There are questions you should ask yourself before you embark on mentoring:

• Why do you think mentoring is needed?
• What do you expect of mentoring?
• How will mentoring make a difference?
• Where will the results of mentoring improve outcomes, and how will you know?

Having clear answers to these questions from the outset will sharpen the focus of mentoring, increase the likelihood of success and provide the basis of evaluating your mentoring initiative.

With ever-increasing demands on resources, it is critical that mentoring is shown to have a positive impact on the organisation that invests in it and the people involved. So you need to plan how you will evaluate from the beginning.

During the strategy development phase you need to identify:

1. Success indicators
2. Performance measures
3. Sources of information to collect
4. Methods of gathering the data
5. How and to whom will you report

What To Evaluate

There are three main areas to evaluate:

The Program – recruitment, selection, matching and communication processes; and participant support, including, training, materials, resources and support activities.

The Mentoring – whether relationships were maintained and their quality.

Outcomes – for mentorees, mentors and the organisation.

When To Evaluate

Plan to gather both qualitative and quantitative data before, during and after the mentoring.

• Early Follow-up – check in with people soon after the program launch
• Monitor – stay in touch
• Mid-point – participant review
• Finalé – a final group event
• Post-program – scheduled measure of longer-term success

The bottom line is you have to know specifically, what you want your mentoring strategy to do before you can figure out how you will know that it is working. Planning your evaluation at the start gives you the best chance to make sure your mentoring works.

Mentoring resources For You

Mentoring is all about producing better outcomes for individuals and organisations. So, if you want to ensure that yours does, the Evaluating Mentoring webinar recording and e-book is for you.

If you want to know

1. What return on investment in mentoring can you expect
2. How can you put “hard” measures on “soft” values
3. What should you evaluate in your mentoring program

Buy the Evaluating Mentoring webinar/ebook combo for just $20.00 now or get both in the Fast Track Pack that includes:

15 webinar recordings

6 e-books and

the manual, How to Design and Run Your Own Mentoring Program

See details or buy now for $99.00 all available online instantly!