Back in July, Suw chatted with Tech Talent Charter’s CEO, Debbie Forster MBE, about mentoring best practice.
They covered a lot of ground over the hour, starting off with a look at the benefits that mentoring brings not just to mentees, but also mentors and businesses. One big challenge for STEM businesses is that women tend to leave the industry mid-career, which is one cause of the gender pay gap. That’s something mentoring can help with.
They also went over things to think about when you’re setting up a mentoring program, in particular, how to think about matching, why your program needs structure, and how KPIs can help your business understand success.
They also talked about some of the myths that persist around mentoring, including the worries mentors have about how much time they think mentoring will consume and the doubts they have about whether they have the skills to be a mentor.
There were a lot of great questions, including ones on the importance of good communications when you’re recruiting participants, measures of success, improving retention and the financial cost of losing a member of staff, as well as thoughts around collecting data and choosing tools.
So please do enjoy the conversation, which starts at about 08:28.
If you’d like to learn more about starting or improving your own mentoring program, Suw can help. Email her now to set up a free, no-obligation 45 minute call!
About TCC
The Tech Talent Charter is a government-supported, industry-led membership group. They bring together 700+ Signatory organisations and equip them with the networks and resources to drive their diversity and inclusion efforts. If your company’s not a member, join up now – it’s free!