So, you've mastered your tech skills and are wondering what's next? Sure, job hunting might be on your mind, which is okay. But have you considered something more fulfilling, like starting a tech mentorship program?
Simply put, a tech mentorship program is a structured program where you and your team teach less-experienced techies (mentees). Then, over a specific duration, you, the more-experienced mentors, guide mentees to grow and achieve their professional growth. A mentorship program is more personalized than general networking, which means the learning trajectory may vary from mentee to mentee.
In this guide, you’ll learn five simple steps to run your tech mentorship program successfully.
Define a goal for the mentorship program
The fastest way to set your program up for failure is to go in without a goal. Essentially, your mentors and mentees won’t align on the specific goal to focus on or outcomes to achieve. So, their meetings would be nothing more than a random sit-and-gist. And in the end, you’ll discover they’ve achieved nothing.
Moreover, without a goal, it will be difficult to measure success. You’ll find out how later on in this guide.
So, how can you define your goal?
First, you need to fully understand your program’s target audience and their specific needs. Are you focusing on junior developers struggling with React, or perhaps on tech companies wanting to upskill their employees in AI? Then create a measurable and actionable goal based on the needs. With this goal, you’ll also better understand the types of other mentors to bring in.
For instance, for junior developers needing React help, your goal might be: By the end of the six-month program, mentees will demonstrate a 50% increase in their ability to write clean and efficient React code. This also clarifies the kinds of other mentors you need—the ones with a solid React JS background.
Keep in mind that as your program grows, you might have multiple goals to cater to different tech audiences. Just keep them defined and clear to keep everyone aligned.
Carefully pair other mentors with mentees
Mentor-mentee compatibility plays an important role in the success of any mentorship program. A mismatch would only frustrate both partners and it’s all downhill from there.
The first thing to consider is this: you and your potential mentors’ skills and expertise.
Of course, you want to match mentees with mentors who have the skills and experience that align with their career path. If you’re a tech professional, you wouldn’t want to mentor an aspiring graphic designer. You wouldn’t know what to teach them in the first place. You wouldn’t want a machine learning engineer mentoring a UI/UX design mentee, either.
Apart from expertise, ensure your career goals and aspirations are compatible. A mentor who just wants to make a difference might not gel with a mentee who is about the money, for example.
Then there’s communication style. Some mentees might prefer a structured approach, while others may like a collaborative style. Getting the right communication match ensures a comfortable and productive learning environment.
Lastly, consider availability. Check the schedules and time zones of both yourself and the other mentors and your mentees to ensure you can meet conveniently and have enough time for regular communication.
But how do you know these career goals, preferred communication styles, and availability? It shouldn’t be difficult to know what yours are. As for the other mentors, just hold an onboarding session with them to discuss these aspects. For mentees, include these questions in your application forms.
Once you have the details, streamline the process by using automated mentoring software like MentorLoop or Chronus. These tools analyze the data and help you make the perfect matches.
Prioritize diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB)
It’s important to make your tech mentoring program welcome to everyone—mentors and mentees—regardless of their background. That’s where DEIB initiatives come into the picture.
When you encourage activities that promote DEIB, you’ll be bringing lots of other underrepresented yet talented mentors into your program. Moreover, more mentees in this category would be more comfortable choosing your program, thus leaving you with even more opportunities to make an impact on upcoming tech talents.
For starters, make it clear that people from diverse backgrounds can apply. Include this in your marketing materials, job posts, and so on.
You can even partner with organizations that focus on underrepresented groups to uphold your commitment to diversity. For instance, to open your opportunity to people with disabilities, you may partner with initiatives like Tech Disability Project or The Arc.
Plus, when onboarding other mentors, make sure it’s strictly skill-based and has nothing to do with their backgrounds.
Integrating DEIB principles into your program's structure and design is also a good idea. For instance, you can offer workshops and training sessions on unconscious bias, cultural competence, and inclusive communication for your other mentors. You can also create policies and procedures that address things like discrimination, harassment, racism, and other misconduct, helping you create a safe space for everyone involved.
Give rewards for effective mentoring
One problem mentoring programs often face is mentors' churn. It doesn’t matter if you stick around; you can’t possibly teach all your mentees if you’re the sole mentor in your program. Mentors are experienced professionals themselves in the tech field. As a result, they can easily work or mentor anywhere they want. So,= while the satisfaction of helping others grow can be rewarding, you still need a solid reward system to keep them motivated to stay.
Tracking mentor contributions through social media analytics can help in recognizing their valuable input. As a matter of fact, highlighting your reward system in your job ads for potential mentors makes it easier to attract top talent to your program. Why do you think top companies often have a “perks” section in their job posts?
Of course, the reward doesn’t have to be monetary (although monetary rewards are excellent, too). Even a simple recognition can go a long way. You can, for instance, acknowledge outstanding mentors in your newsletters or via awards ceremonies.
Moreover, 94% of employees won’t leave a job that rewards them with training opportunities. These could work here too.
So, you can offer your best-performing mentors training through exclusive workshops and conferences as an incentive. You can also give them access to online courses for skills development. There are online course platforms that allow you to create these easily. Some platforms even come with quiz features that enable you to assess what your mentors have learned.
However, rewards can be tricky. Some mentors may feel demotivated if they perceive bias in the process of selecting the best performers.
It's best to, first, have clear eligibility criteria and then, you need a transparent system for monitoring and evaluating mentors for reward. This could involve getting feedback from peers or mentees or conducting periodic reviews of mentor performance to keep everyone on the same page.
Measure the success of your program
Don’t just create your program and leave the rest to chance; you need ongoing evaluation to understand what’s working well and areas due for improvement. That’s how you can ensure the success of your tech mentorship program.
So, how do you measure success? It's simple: set metrics. The first metric to set would be related to the goals you defined earlier. Keep checking in on your mentees and mentors to track the mentee’s progress toward their professional development goals. If it’s on track, that means you and your other mentors must be doing something right. If not, return to the drawing board.
In addition to this, monitor general business metrics like engagement and retention.
You can measure engagement by looking at things like meeting frequencies and participation rates. Higher engagement simply means both parties are getting a valuable and rewarding experience. However, low engagement over time may suggest the mentor-mentee relationship isn't clicking. So, re-matching might be necessary.
As for retention, keep an eye on how many of your mentors and mentees complete the program. A high completion rate indicates that your program offers a well-structured and fulfilling experience. Otherwise, you might want to work on your quality and structure
Remember, before considering mentorship, your own tech skills and those of your mentors need to be top-notch in the first place. Consider enrolling in one of Ironhack’s Bootcamps or checking out their new AI School to sharpen your skills today.
Good luck!
