Leeds School of Business Taps Chronus Mentoring Software to Engage Over 2,000 Alumni and Students; Participants 40% More Likely to Secure Job Prior to Graduation

BELLEVUE, WASH. – September 12, 2013 – Chronus Corporation, a leading provider of software for talent and career development, today announced that the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado is using Chronus Mentor to launch and manage several mentoring programs for first-year students, undergraduates and MBAs, and alumni. To date, more than 2,000 students and alumni have enrolled in the mentoring programs run on the Chronus platform, including more than 50% of all undergraduates in attendance at Leeds.  According to the university’s research, students in the Professional Mentorship Program (for Leeds juniors and seniors) were 40% more likely to secure a job upon graduation, and 100% of participants stated that they would  recommend the program to their peers.

According to recruiting firm Adecco, a survey of 500 hiring managers found that 66 percent believe new college graduates are not prepared for the workforce after leaving college, with 58 percent of respondents not planning to hire entry level college graduates this year. Programs like those being implemented at the Leeds School of Business give students a competitive edge and drive alumni engagement with the university.

The university contacted Chronus after implementing a pilot mentoring program based on an in-house developed tool. The school was experiencing numerous challenges as the tool for matching and tracking was limited in scope, difficult to update, and required a significant amount of manual work for administrators. Looking to expand the mentoring program school-wide, and to support the program’s rapid growth to over 1,000 students and alumni, program administrators began researching third-party solutions to overcome their mentoring infrastructure  challenges.

“Our goal is  to provide professional development, counseling, and career readiness support for our students throughout their academic and professional progression,” said Katie Connor, Director of the Leeds Mentoring Office. “With Chronus, we’ve exceeded those goals and developed a meaningful way to engage our students and alumni as a community. Chronus Mentor has provided us with the personalized approach we needed for our mentoring program success.”

After evaluating available options for improving the existing mentoring program, the Leeds School selected Chronus Mentor software based on the company’s experience with educational institutions plus the product’s ease of implementation, scalability, and automated bulk matching capabilities. The Leeds School of Business mentoring program now connects alumni representing 27 states, eight countries, and 400 companies with over 700 students. With Chronus Mentor, the school has expanded to offer a virtual pipeline of mentoring consisting of four mentoring programs, including a Peer2Peer (P2P) program which supports first-year students with a peer mentor, a Young Alumni Mentors (YAM) program that connects sophomores with recent graduates, a Professional Mentorship Program (PMP) which partners undergraduates and MBAs with seasoned professionals, and a CoLab Orientation program that connects first year students with corporate and alumni mentors through team building and communication challenges.As a result of these programs, the Leeds Mentoring Office saw a dramatic increase in student and alumni engagement.  All of these programs are now supported by and connected via the Chronus Mentor platform, which facilitates students and mentors participating in multiple programs throughout their academic and professional careers. Other highlights include:

• Participation in Leeds mentoring programs grew from 397 in 2009 to over 2,000 in 2013
• Over 50% of all Leeds undergraduates are involved in one of the Leeds Mentoring Office programs
• 100% of mentees would recommend the Professional Mentorship Program to their peers
• Professional Mentorship Program (PMP) students are 40% more likely to secure a job upon graduation than non-participants
• Through detailed profiles, the Mentoring Office is able to make better matches for improved mentoring chemistry and results
• Milestones throughout all of the mentoring programs build upon one another to allow for a continuous look at a mentee’s progress
• The ability to connect students both 1:1 and to the greater alumni community

“With their considerable student enrollment and growing interest in their mentoring programs, the Leeds School of Business required a software solution capable of automating the creation and execution of multiple mentoring programs across thousands of participants,” said Steve O’Brian, vice president of client services at Chronus Corporation. “Chronus’ scalable and customizable mentoring software allowed Leeds to implement and automate the large-scale program they desired. As a result, the school increased student and alumni engagement, and greatly improved the likelihood of job placement after graduation.”

Chronus Mentor is software to start, manage, and measure mentoring programs online. This configurable, cloud-based solution is ideal for use by corporations, government entities, academic institutions and associations running large scale programs. For more information on Chronus Mentor and the Leeds School of Business, including complete case study, please visit https://chronus.com/.

About Chronus Corporation

Chronus empowers organizations to develop and retain talent through software that fosters learning, improves performance, and reduces cost. Leading organizations worldwide rely on Chronus for easy, adaptable, cloud-based solutions to mentor, coach, and drive engagement among organization members. With products that support career development, leadership readiness, employee onboarding, alumni relations, and a host of other talent development initiatives, Chronus helps enterprise-scale organizations, academic institutions, and professional associations realize potential from within.

Discover more about Chronus at www.chronus.comor follow Chronus on Twitter @ChronusSoftware. Blog articles on talent development topics including mentoring can be found on the Chronus website at https://chronus.com/blog.

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Contacts:

Michelle Manson
Director, Marketing Communications
Chronus Corporation
425.269.9035  l   michelle.manson@chronus.com

Daniel Jensen
Barokas PR
chronus@barokas.com
206-264-8220