Association Mentoring
Overview
Professional Association Mentoring Engages Your Members
Association members are constantly looking for tangible proof of their membership benefits—and more associations are choosing mentoring programs as one of those. Why? Mentoring is a cost-effective strategy that engages members while also enabling them to connect and network regardless of location. Read on to see whether mentoring fits your association’s needs.
Membership Networking
Membership networking bridges the gap between senior executives and younger professionals while also engaging members with your association, which is a key challenge many associations face. Membership networking and mentoring allows participants to share ideas and build networks. Ultimately, a structured program for membership networking accomplishes the following:
- Makes it easier for members to seek new knowledge from each other
- Facilitates and provides structure for networking
- Increases member satisfaction, engagement, and retention rates
- Improves the value of your association
See How Software Can Run Professional Association Mentoring Programs
Professional Development
Associations are trying new engagement techniques and turning to innovative technology as a way to provide professional development options to their members. Today, it’s easier than ever to find knowledge through the Internet. But what articles and webinars can’t provide is the hands-on, real-world information that person-to-person mentoring can. Whether you decide to implement a flash-mentoring program, a longer-term traditional mentoring program, or both at the same time, professional development mentoring:
- Provides education and access to experts within your organization
- Improves knowledge sharing across the association
- Engages members throughout all levels of the association
- Allows members to find the value they seek in your association
The Challenges of Running
Professional Association Mentoring Programs
Many professional associations run their mentoring programs with spreadsheets, newsletter items, and other manual methods. Challenges we typically see with these programs include:
- Difficulty connecting people across geographies
- Participants aren’t sure what they should be doing, how often they should connect, or next steps to take
- Low program adoption rates
- Inability to easily report and share results for program visibility
Solve these issues and take your association’s mentoring program to the next level with software
Software Makes Running Mentoring Programs
for Professional Associations Easy
Start a new program or revitalize an existing program with mentoring software. Purpose-built to make things easier for you while also expanding your program’s capability, software enables you to create a flexible, easy-to-scale program that allows your members to connect no matter where they’re located. Scale your program easily, reduce necessary admin time, provide an extra value to your members, and quickly pull results to show your association’s leadership. Mentoring software adds to your program by delivering:
- Smart connections for great chemistry – rich profiles and an auto-matching algorithm is great for self- or bulk-matching
- Reduced admin time and cost – with features like automated email sends and alerts, software streamlines administrative work while ensuring member engagement
- Easy access from anywhere – a simple-to-use online platform with a mobile app and social integration
- Flexible mentoring program formats – implement flash mentoring, longer-term mentoring, or both at the same time
- Easy access to program metrics – demonstrate the successes of your program to leadership