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Convergys Moves Mentoring Online
September 04, 2007
By Sarah Boehle
Mentoring was made easy at Convergys Corporation last year when the company launched MentorNet, an internally designed portal that facilitates self-managed mentoring partnerships among professional-level employees spread throughout the company's worldwide operation.
How does it work? Those logging into the system for the first time are asked to complete profiles detailing their strengths and development needs. Based on this information, mentees then choose their own mentor using a criterion-based search. Both partners must agree to their partnership before it is formalized—which Convergys says establishes a firm foundation of commitment and mutual agreement.
In addition to matching up mentors and mentees, the MentorNet portal also provides both parties with instant access to all of the necessary resources to make their partnership a success—including tools and activities to assess readiness to enter into a mentoring partnership, build trust, structure the initial conversation, resolve conflicts, keep a mentoring journal, track progress, navigate challenges created by cultural and geographic differences, and establish closure at the completion of the partnership.
Training recently spoke with Scott Conklin, Convergys' director of global talent development, and Coleen Spaulding, VP of the company's Center of Excellence for Talent Development and Performance Management, to find out what makes MentorNet tick:
Training: What results has the program delivered to date?
Conklin: Prior to implementing MentorNet last year, fewer than 30 active mentoring partnerships were taking place globally throughout the company—mostly within the executive ranks. At the time, the Global Talent Development team also was required to do a lot of hand-holding. We were responsible for identifying mentors, matching them up with mentees and then facilitating each relationship over time.
Today, by contrast, the process of matching mentors with mentees is automated, and most mentoring relationships are self-sufficient. The amount of mentoring taking place throughout the company is also increasing. We only had 27 partnerships in place before MentorNet was launched. Today, we have more than 517 partnerships (i.e., active mentoring relationships) currently in progress in our executive and professional ranks, 1157 active mentees, and 970 active mentors.
Training: What are some tips you can offer to other training professionals who are interested in launching a similar program?
Conklin and Spaulding:
• Stand-alone doesn't work. If the importance of mentoring isn't continually stressed and if mentoring isn't integrated into a comprehensive talent management strategy, it will be viewed as a "nice to have" rather than a necessity. At Convergys, MentorNet is just one component of an overall talent management strategy, and we continually emphasize the importance of mentoring as a means for targeted development. We also continually remind people of the talent review and develpment process.
• Arm partners with the right tools. A key strength of MentorNet is its matching capability. But the real cornerstone to the portal's success is the tools. MentorNet doesn't just match up mentors and mentees, it also provides partners with all of the resources they need to make their partnership a success—from how to approach a mentor and get the ball rolling to how to build trust within a relationship and how to keep a mentoring journal.
• Provide a way out—and set limits. All MentorNet partnerships are formed for a fixed time period (either six, nine or 12 months) to ensure progress, goal specificity, and closure. Incompatible mentoring relationships can be dissolved at any time at the option of either partner. And because early dissolution of a partnership can potentially lead to touchy situations, we also provide both mentors and mentees with tools for exiting partnerships gracefully.
• Get out of way. Before the launch of MentorNet, the Global Talent Development team served as a go-between. We were responsible for identifying potential mentors for mentees and facilitating each match. Initially, we were concerned that mentoring wouldn't take off if we stepped out of the picture, but we have found the opposite to be true. In fact, by stepping out of the way and allowing a self-managed process to evolve, we have removed barriers to mentoring and increased the number of mentoring relationships taking place throughout the company.
• Do check-ins. Within MentorNet, mentoring partners have the opportunity to give each other feedback once at mid-term and again as their relationship draws to a close. This affords insight into what each partner can do to improve current and future partnerships, and it helps the Global Talent Development team identify additional support needs and determine what we can do to enhance the system and the tools we provide.
• Don't get too hung up on numbers. The tracking capability that MentorNet provides is nice, but we fully realize that the numbers we glean from the system don't represent the full picture of the mentoring taking place. If employees want to log in to the system and make use of the tools in MentorNet to facilitate mentoring relationships with others outside of the organization, for example, they can do so. They also can make use of the tools to facilitate mentoring relationships inside the company, without formally inputting those relationships into the system. These relationships aren't necessarily captured and tracked by the system, and that's fine. For us, the most important thing isn't tracking everything that goes on. It's providing a resource for employees that fosters successful mentoring relationships.
Convergys Corporation is a customer care, billing, learning and HR services company headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. The company placed 110th on Training magazine's 2007 Top 125 list, an annual ranking of organizations that excel at human capital development.
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