Mentoring Women Employees at Paychex Increases Retention
“We looked at a few solution providers, and Chronus bubbled right to the top. Their matching algorithm put us at ease when it came to matching our high-potential female employees with the right mentors to help them succeed.” – Michael Pieri, Senior Project Manager of Leadership and Organizational Development at Paychex
Mentoring Women Employees Increases Career Path Opportunities
Paychex, a provider of integrated human capital management solutions for payroll, HR, retirement, and insurance services wanted to create a Women in Leadership (WIL) initiative to build a better talent pipeline for the organization. With women making up 60 percent of the employee population, Paychex wanted to build greater job progression for women in their workforce. Mentoring was an essential component to this strategy.
By creating a career mentoring program for high-potential women, Paychex was able to raise retention rate for participating employees to 94 percent (14 percent higher than company average). Over two years, they increased the number of women in leadership roles at the organization by 3 percent. In comparison, the global percentage of women in senior roles took five years to increase by 3 percent (2011-2016).
“By pairing high-potential women with mentors who could help them apply for and reach new management levels, we knew we could build a stronger pipeline of female leaders,” said Michael Pieri, senior project manager of leadership and organizational development at Paychex.
Paychex’s mentoring program sought not only to help women move job bands within the company, but also feel confident when applying for other roles or stretch assignments. These actions reinforced the value pillars of Paychex—integrity, respect and inclusivity. Relying on an already strong learning culture, the mentoring program offered an opportunity for women to learn from senior leaders and their peers in order to gain the skills and knowledge to advance within the organization.
The Challenge: Making the Perfect Mentoring Match
Paychex found the hardest part about starting a mentoring program was matching the right mentors and mentees. Assessing employees for high potential was something the company had already been executing for a few years, but when it came to matching, Paychex was looking for software that would minimize internal workflow and alleviate the pressures of finding the right matches.
“We were looking for software that could hone in on the important matching attributes such as functional experiences, career experiences, and competency development and properly match our participants with the right mentors,” Pieri said.
Paychex wanted resource materials and best practices to help guide mentors and mentees through their mentoring connections. They also wanted software that would show real impact gained from the mentoring program, like job band growth, job changes and overall employee retention.
The Answer: Chronus Software for Career Mentoring High-Potential Women
Paychex started a search for solution vendors with an emphasis on matching mentors and mentees.
“We looked at a few solution providers, and Chronus bubbled right to the top. Their matching algorithm put us at ease when it came to matching our high-potential female employees with the right mentors to help them succeed,” Pieri said.
Paychex chose Chronus for their MatchIQ® algorithm that allowed for matching flexibility
and overall satisfaction rate. Along with matching capabilities, Pieri knew Paychex would benefit from an easy-to-use platform for mentors and mentees. With an approachable user experience, Chronus software allowed for participants to easily search, find and accept mentoring connections. The mentoring resources and best practices Chronus offered for program owners, mentors and mentees also alleviated much of the ambiguity around where to start.
