What are Group Mentoring Programs?
Group mentoring is when one or more mentors guide and support a small group of mentees. This approach uses the mentors’ combined experience to help several people at once and build a sense of community. It is often used in academic settings, corporate environments and professional development programs.
For organizations with limited mentors, group mentoring is especially helpful. It allows a single mentor to guide multiple mentees simultaneously, maximizing the reach and impact of mentorship. This format ensures that more employees benefit from the guidance and support of experienced mentors which promotes a culture of learning and development across the organization.
Group mentoring is one of several mentoring varieties on the rise and it’s clear why: we humans tend to naturally thrive in groups. Why? Because we love to learn and find support in small groups, identifying and formalizing those groups makes sense. Below you will find three common questions about group mentoring programs.
The Impact of Group Mentoring on Organizations
One of the biggest areas of impact that group mentoring can have is workplace learning and upskilling. While each employee’s needs when it comes to learning and development are unique, there will likely be many overlaps regarding what employees want to learn, and the skill shortages in the organizations.
Another benefit of group mentoring is the opportunity to improve teamwork and group communication skills. This can be accomplished via formal instruction, exercises and feedback led by the mentor. However, learning how to collaborate and communicate effectively may also happen informally and naturally as the group members interact with each other and their mentor.
Group mentoring can also help organizations optimize their resources. When mentoring is done in a group, more employees have the opportunity to engage in mentoring, and mentors have the chance to reach more mentees. This can be a great way to ensure that employees interested in mentoring can participate, even if it’s not one-on-one.
Group Mentoring for Workplace Learning
Identifying those specific skills and introducing a targeted mentoring and learning program around those skills allows employees to gain knowledge while networking and connecting with others who are interested in learning the same thing.
In return, companies can expect engaged and loyal workers. Millennial employees, in particular, are twice as likely to stay in a company where they’re satisfied with personal development opportunities, including mentoring, than those who are unsatisfied. It is worth noting that group mentoring does have its challenges. Introducing any company-wide initiative requires a lot of tracking and coordination, which means an additional workload for at least one employee on top of their existing responsibilities.
Of course, there are ways for companies to work around this challenge. They can introduce a task force to spread work across multiple employees and utilize mentoring software to help relieve the additional workload that comes with implementing a group mentoring program.
Using Group Mentoring to Improve DEI
Group mentoring is also a great tool to improve DEI. An inclusive, diverse organization is one where employees feel comfortable being themselves and are respected regardless of their race, gender, age, socio-economic background or disability status.
Making strides in improving DEI requires practice, perseverance and difficult conversations. And group mentoring provides a safe space and opportunity to have those conversations—particularly in an intimate setting. Through group mentoring, employees of different backgrounds can share their experiences, struggles and provide suggestions and feedback on what the company can do better to enhance their DEI efforts.
Additionally, group mentoring can serve as a segue for employees to form an Employee Resource Group (ERG), which are often based around a common identity, issue or interests. These interactions often lead to the natural formation of ERGs, where employees can continue to support one another, advocate for their needs and foster a sense of belonging within the company. The progression from group mentoring to ERG creation can strengthen internal networks while enhancing overall workplace culture and inclusivity.
What to Consider When Designing a Group Mentoring Program
Preparation is key for a successful group mentoring program. Before you begin with the nuts and bolts of putting a program together, you need to make some important decisions to create a strong foundation that will enable your program to grow and thrive. Consider the following factors when seeking to design a group mentoring program that can facilitate professional growth and development for all involved.
Leadership Buy-In
Do you have one or a few senior leaders in your corner, backing this project? Having senior leadership invested in the program can be an important element to ensure your program gets the resources and visibility it needs to be successful. The leadership team’s support can facilitate smoother cross-departmental collaboration and help overcome organizational resistance. Additionally, senior leaders can champion the project at executive meetings, securing long-term commitment and alignment with the company’s strategic goals.
Goals
What do you want your group mentoring program to accomplish? Your goals should align with the goals and needs of the organization and they should be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound). Having clearly defined goals—and communicating them well to participants and stakeholders—makes it easy for everyone to understand their purpose and role in the program. This common understanding acts as a guiding light and helps to keep the program on track.
Program Metrics
If you’ve created SMART goals, the program metrics that will demonstrate progress should already be clear. It’s becoming more common to see organizations that can get away without KPIs, thanks to a high level of conceptual support for mentoring. However, others do need to track organizational outcomes to see the program go the distance. You’ll also want to track program health – how many people signed up, how many groups were formed, how well they persist over time and participant satisfaction. If you have mentoring software, measuring this information becomes much simpler.
Training
Mentoring is not innate; it’s a learned skill. And mentoring a group is its own unique learned skill. Though groups tend to form organically in real life, it does take a trained leader to ensure their rallying cry is clear and persistent. Training can be useful for participants as well. This can be as simple as making sure they understand the program goals, what is expected of them and any rules they need to know. A mentoring group can get a head start on accomplishing its goals with a trained, confident leader and participants who understand their roles.
How to Create a Group Mentoring Program
To ensure that participants and organizations reap the benefits that group mentoring can bring, companies need to be intentional about designing and implementing the right programs. To maximize the chance of success, organizations need to consider the following factors.
Determine how many people should be in each group
The Dunbar number pinpoints five as the standard size of a close support group. According to research by Wharton management professor Jennifer Mueller, beyond five participants you’ll see fewer individuals contributing and speaking up. But whether that matters depends on the function or task of the group: after all, throughout history, military units have been subdivided into sections of 10-15 and most popular team sports fall into the five-to-11 range.
Many group mentoring scenarios operate like support groups, relying on lively discussion, multiple perspectives, and opportunities to contribute. This type of group will need to be careful of size. Regardless of the group’s function, we’ve observed that it’s impractical to coordinate and track individuals’ participation in group activities beyond approximately 10 mentees.
And remember, a mentoring group has an adviser or mentor. This is an extra one to two people in addition to the recommended group size of “five to question mark”.
Decide how often the mentoring group should meet
For one-on-one mentoring programs, participants are typically asked to engage in mentoring for approximately six months to a year. However, it is recommended that, for group mentoring, about three months yields better, longer-lasting results.
Group mentoring sessions can be held in person at the employees’ workplace or a neutral location like the library. Many groups are taking their mentoring sessions virtually these days, as it provides more accessibility and flexibility for members, facilitators and leaders. For a successful group mentoring program, groups should meet at least one to two times per month.
Establish which topics might make sense for the group to discuss
There are some interesting applications for group mentoring out there. You can get creative, specific, structured or let your mentees propose their own topics. The benefit of the latter is that your oversight involvement can be very lightweight. This way the group of mentees suggests the topics and you can facilitate and lead.
Some corporate group mentoring program examples:
- Employee-proposed mentoring circles on diverse topics ranging from “working moms” to “better communication skills in the workplace.”
- New-manager training with a few newly promoted employees jointly working through a leadership competency development curriculum.
- Group support for new hires. Onboarding often involves 1:1 support, but with group mentoring new hires can share their experiences with other senior employees to gain new insights and practical tips.
Some academic group mentoring program examples:
- A nationwide prep program for applying for MBA programs. This program offers geo-localized peer support groups with monthly meetups to share experiences with local MBA-hopefuls.
- A university that offers peer groups for international students to acclimatize and network. Second-year students lead these groups and ultimately earn a special “lead” certificate that is displayed on their transcript.
Another thing to keep in mind are mentorship program ideas, or activities and events, that can keep participants engaged and moving toward their goals.
Group Mentoring Tips
With your group mentoring program established and your foundation of sponsorship, goals, metrics, and training in place, it’s time to launch the group mentoring process and start recruiting participants (mentees) and leaders/facilitators (mentors). Here are some tips to help you create an environment conducive to success for your group mentoring program.
Consider personality types within the program
Many different personality types exist, and sometimes it takes a little more effort or finesse to ensure all personalities work well together in a group setting. It’s wise to anticipate the possibility that some personalities will be bigger or more participatory than others. The mentor needs to be aware of this and prepared to share the spotlight across the group so that everyone participating feels heard and has the opportunity to speak up.
Extroverts might come in with guns blazing and wallflowers may try to sink into the background at first. Some people might show up early, while others show up after the session has started. Mentors need to set a precedent for attendance and participation of mentees to make the sessions productive.
Understand group dynamics
Bruce Tuckman of Princeton University developed the Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing method of group development.
- Forming – At this early stage, participants rely heavily on the leaders for direction and guidance. The main focus tends to be establishing introductions and determining objectives.
- Storming – Cliques commonly form in this stage, and the leaders of the group are usually tested by the participants, resulting in a power struggle.
- Norming – This is the stage where an agreement is met, and responsibilities are well-defined. Cohesion and effectiveness describe this stage.
- Performing – The beautiful stage where group unity is achieved in shared objectives and goals, and the group is united in achieving them.
When starting a group mentoring program, mentors and mentees must be aware of these principles to develop good dynamics moving forward.
Use mentoring software to expand group mentoring benefits
Small, in-person mentoring meetings are useful, but virtual mentoring sessions also offer many benefits. Bringing your meeting to a virtual arena can allow more accessibility for group members who may not make it to a physical meeting location for several reasons.
Having a virtual meeting (either through Zoom, Skype or in-platform video conferencing) still allows participants to communicate visually, have a centralized location to communicate between sessions, and enables program administrators to measure group activity easily. The ability to record meetings also allows members who can’t make a session to keep engaged and remain up to speed. Going virtual with collaboration platforms doesn’t have to be an either/or. Some groups opt to be completely virtual, while others may opt for hybrid models (having some sessions virtually and in-person).
Tracking Group Mentoring’s Key Success Metrics and KPIs
Determining the right metrics and tracking them regularly is crucial to the success of group mentoring. Not only does this ensure that companies are on the right track, but having access to their ROI can also encourage executive stakeholders to invest more resources into a mentoring program as it scales across the company. Many programs focus on an array of the following metrics:
- Retention of participants vs. non-participants
- Advancement of participants vs. non-participants
- Satisfaction of participants vs. non-participants
- Skills/knowledge learned
- Tasks completed by participants
- Number of participants vs. total pool of invitees
- Program growth year over year
The results of a mentoring program can be measured through qualitative and quantitative surveys. Impactful outcomes that have been documented as a result of group mentoring include:
- Networking opportunities that continue beyond the scope of the program
- A deeper understanding of the organization and its institutional knowledge
- Refined skills
- Significant increases in group members’ confidence
- Breaking down barriers or silos between departments or functions
- A stronger connectedness and commitment to the organization
Engaging the right tools, such as Chronus, can ensure that the company does just that. The software tracks data and metrics such as enrolled users, program match rate, and activity and engagement levels, which allows the company to track its program’s success and evaluate and tweak strategies as needed. Chronus also has deep data analytics capabilities to spot trends and patterns and generate reports on the program’s ROI.
Group Mentoring with a Mentoring Platform
A mentoring platform empowers an organization that’s running a group mentoring program to take care of administrative and logistical burdens more effectively and efficiently. Group mentoring requires a company to introduce something that can work at scale, and yet is personalized to the needs of different groups and individuals. From matching to establishing a structure and connection plan for the group to follow during the engagement, a mentoring platform helps to add stability and automation to the process.
Automate Group Mentoring with Chronus Software
One of the main features that make Chronus so great for group mentoring is that the software supports a range of formats—mentoring circles, traditional or peer-to-peer. It also supports customizable matching criteria with its AI-driven technology to match the right people together for productive mentoring.
In today’s workplace, it’s best practice to provide virtual options for mentors and mentees who can’t attend physical sessions (or can’t make it at the designated time). With Chronus’ mentoring software, you can integrate the communication tools your organization already uses, whether that’s videoconferencing or instant messaging to provide an open (and optimal) group mentoring experience.
Furthermore, its robust reporting allows you to see the real-time impact mentoring is having on the participants, tracking metrics like retention, advancement, satisfaction and belonging. The Chronus platform helps you showcase mentoring impact to stakeholders and employees alike for a clear understanding of mentoring successes.
Conclusion
Group mentoring is growing and it’s here to stay. Organizations are turning to the format to combat a lack of mentors or to scale certain mentors’ skills and knowledge across a larger number of mentees, without overwhelming a mentor with numerous one-to-one mentoring relationships.
With the help of virtual tools, group mentoring can serve those with different learning styles and mentoring availability. Group mentoring allows for the stretching of organizational resources along with greater accessibility and flexibility for group members. With group mentoring programs helping optimize skill-building, knowledge transfer and talent development, an organization can grow stronger, more resilient and successful.
