How Mentoring Women Employees Increases Career Path Opportunities

Overview

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% 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% (14% higher than company average)
• increase the number of women in leadership roles at the organization by 3%

In comparison, the global percentage of women in senior roles took five years to increase by 3%.

“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 Solution

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.

The last measure of a good vendor was the reporting feature. Chronus’ admin dashboard allowed Pieri to be confident in following the health of the mentoring program.

“The Chronus dashboard is just awesome,” Pieri said. “It allowed us to know exactly where we were spending our money. I know where the connections are, and how many open spots I have. From an administrator perspective, I know where I’m getting value.”

Chronus Software Enables Quality User Experience And Reporting

With a simple interface and up-to-date reporting, Chronus supports Paychex’s pursuit of gender parity in the workforce. Features that keep them moving forward are:

• Admin Dashboard: Empowers smart program reporting to illustrate progression of the mentoring program, and allows the organization to see where they’re getting value and driving results.
• Simple User Interface: Ensures mentors and mentees can easily access program, complete profiles and find matches without getting lost along the way. With the software available on desktop, tablet or mobile, users can access their mentoring connection anywhere, anytime.
• Expertise in Building Diversity Mentoring Programs: Aids program owners in best practices for running a mentoring program, including tactics for increased enrollment/participation, and software tips for more efficient program administration.

The Impact

Proper matching and advanced reporting allowed Paychex to see how the mentoring program impacted women in a very real way.

By tracking mentoring connections in conjunction with job advancement, Paychex increased the number of women in leadership positions.

• Mentoring program participants are 12% more likely to see a change in position, and 7% more likely to see a change in job band.

“While we look at any career progression as a positive (lateral movements, organizational change movement, etc), it’s the job band movement that is most important because it tells us women are applying and moving into higher leadership roles,” Pieri said.

• Participants within the mentoring program have a 94% retention rate, almost 14% higher than the average for the rest of the organization.
• Survey results captured through the software also showed 86% of mentees achieved their goals, improving competencies in leadership presence, strategic thinking, and relationship building.
• Meanwhile, 58% of mentors found the experience very beneficial, and 97% of them were interested in pursuing the program further.
• Of the mentors, 34% noted interest in also becoming a mentee in the next cohort.

With help from Chronus software and the mentoring experts, Paychex has built an impactful funnel for their future leadership pipeline.

“Chronus has helped us move the needle within our Women in Leadership initiatives,” Pieri said. “Now, we continually assess our results on an ongoing basis and remain agile to the needs of our people and business as we aim to drive a stronger workforce population.”

Chronus has helped us move the needle on our Women in Leadership initiative.
– Michael Pieri, senior project manager of leadership and organizational development

Conclusion

Paychex implemented a career mentoring for high potential women employees in order to
increase the percentage of women in leadership roles across the organization.

They required a software that could match on customized criteria and report impactful data on the progression of participants’ job band and position growth, while providing an engaging, satisfying experience. Chronus provided these and top-notch mentoring experts to lead them on their journey.

Why Global Organizations Choose Chronus

Leading enterprises turn to Chronus for its powerful, scalable platform to address key workplace challenges like disengagement, turnover and disconnected teams, especially in remote and hybrid environments. Chronus mentoring software enables organizations to leverage mentoring and employee communities to create meaningful connections, enhance engagement and promote continuous learning.

With its simplicity, strong security protocols and proven scalability, Chronus helps companies efficiently manage and grow programs that drive retention, productivity and collaboration. Trusted by brands like Amazon, LVMH, ExxonMobil, T-Mobile, Harvard University and Paychex, Chronus breaks down silos and builds a culture of development and connection, ensuring employees are engaged and supported. For organizations looking to nurture talent and stay competitive, Chronus is the solution.