Best Practice in Mentoring: advice for scheme organisers

Transcription

1 The purpose of this document is to provide new scheme organisers with a step by step list of actions they are likely to need to take to create an effective mentoring scheme. These actions are advisory and so do not have to be adhered to, although the shaded elements represent legislative obligations that must be abided by. Standard 1: Setting up schemes 1.1 Establish a clear, central aim and expected outcomes for your mentoring scheme for all stakeholders. 1.2 Allocate ultimate responsibility for the scheme to a member of staff to make major decisions and resolve significant problems. 1.3 Ensure you have the necessary financial resources to establish and run a scheme. 1.4 Ensure you have a designated, skilled administrator with enough time to manage the day to day running of the scheme. 1.5 Benchmark your planned resources against other similar schemes within the University and/or beyond. 1.6 Identify legislative requirements your scheme needs to abide by e.g. safeguarding, equal opportunities, health and safety, data protection and scheme access. 1.7 Decide who will be your mentors and mentees in your scheme and the criteria for their selection. 1.8 Identify mentors and mentees numbers for your scheme. 1.9 Developed documentation and procedures to run the scheme Identify a clear and realistic timeline for each mentoring cycle Decide how you are will evaluate whether the scheme achieves the aims and outcomes set down Decide whether to have your scheme accredited to any external mentoring body Assess whether there are other networks or schemes that may overlap with the ones you are trying to establish. -out A A A E E N N N A O

2 Standard 2: Safeguarding 2.1 If you have mentees who are vulnerable adults and/or under the age of 18 you need to consult regarding safeguarding training for you and your mentors. 2.2 If your mentees may put your mentors at risk from a safety perspective, or vice versa you need to consult on the actions you must take. 2.3 Closely monitor conversations between mentors and mentees if safeguarding is an issue, which can be achieved through a mentoring IT system. -out Standard 3: IT systems -out 3.1 To match mentors you should consider an IT system to support you, especially if you have many mentors/mentees. A O O A A 3.2 Use IT to support bulk s to make announcements, organise events, stimulate engagement or evaluate schemes. O O O O O 3.3 Use an IT system if you need to accurately monitor the amount of engagement that is taking place on a regular basis. O O O O O 3.4 Decide if your budget covers the cost of an IT system. 3.5 Decide if your scheme can function on basic Office tools, and perhaps closed social networking groups. 3.6 Anticipate whether your mentors and/or mentees would be willing to use an IT system. 3.7 Consider data protection legislation in your data management and use of IT systems.

3 Standard 4: Recruitment 4.1 Decided upon your mentor and mentee recruitment criteria. 4.2 Create recruitment criteria to allow you to judge commitment, skill, eligibility, matching and risk assessment. 4.3 Design and set up an online/manual application form or similar process. 4.4 Identified core recruitment sources for mentors and mentees. 4.5 Create clear marketing materials that convey the main scheme aims, eligibility and recruitment criteria. 4.6 Ensure criteria allow you to review expectations/ personal goals of mentors/mentees to judge suitability. 4.7 If alumni are involved calculate their time contribution and inform Campaigns and Supporter engagement. -out E O A E E N N N N E Standard 5: Matching -out 5.1 Decide upon matching criteria to support your scheme aim. 5.2 Communicate matching process to mentors/mentees. 5.3 Check if your matching criteria are achievable. 5.4 Plan in time for matching as it is time consuming. 5.5 Check if basic matching rights being catered for e.g. choice of gender regarding who being matched to. 5.6 Create policy on matching rejection/appeal. 5.7 Decide mentor/mentee ratio limit (typically 1:3 max.) 5.8 Create policy for managing mentors/mentees who go unmatched. A A A A E

4 Standard 6:Training/Guidance -out 6.1 Decide what your training/guidance will cover. 6.2 In your training/guidance deliver a clear outline of the aims, objectives and expected outcomes of the scheme to manage expectations. 6.3 Train/guide mentors/mentees how to maintain engagement. 6.4 Train/guide mentors/mentees about rules and regulations around interaction and behaviour for the scheme and commitment expected. 6.5 Develop the skills of mentors and mentees, e.g. to listen, contract and manage expectations. 6.6 Brief university students regarding ambassadorial role for the University if external stakeholders involved. 6.7 Convey the key principles of mentoring to mentors and mentees to ensure students take ownership. 6.8 Decide upon methods to train/guide mentors/mentees. E A A E P E E N N E E O E E E 6.9 Develop tools and guidelines to support the training.

5 Standard 7:Engagement 7.1 Establish an ideal frequency and timeline for mentor/mentee interaction to informally guide participants. 7.2 Regularly check mentor/mentee engagement levels throughout the running of the programme. 7.3 Check progress in terms of scheme outcomes during the scheme. 7.4 Provide ways to stimulate engagement between pairings should the need arise. 7.5 Provide someone to consult if mentors/mentees are unhappy with the engagement levels they are experiencing. 7.6 Establish a policy regarding re-matching if mentors or mentees are dissatisfied with low engagement. -out A A A E E

6 Standard 8: Reward, Recognition and Closure -out 8.1 Create a reward/recognition policy for your scheme. E A A A E 8.2 Provide certificates or thank you letters to mentees/ mentors. 8.3 Provide an award for outstanding mentors or mentees. O O O O O 8.4 Run an event to celebrate each cycle of the programme. A O O O A 8.5 Use publicity from awards and events to market scheme. A O O O A 8.6 Ratify student applications for the RED award that use your scheme training and volunteering/work. 8.7 Formally close the scheme on a specific date to signal the end of University responsibility for mentors/mentees and allow re contracting of relationships to take place. 8.8 Produce guidelines on re contracting of relationships post scheme. 8.9 Carefully dispose of confidential data about mentors or mentees as per your data protection commitments Calculate any hours provided as volunteers by alumni and communicate to Campaigns and Supporter Engagement. N N N N E 8.11 Produce a policy for external accreditation of mentors involved in your scheme (for schemes using professional counsellors, relevant qualifications and supervision may take the place of accreditation). O O O E O

7 Standard 9:Evaluation -out 9.1 Evaluate the effectiveness of your scheme. 9.2 Measure scheme processes and scheme outcomes. 9.3 Decide which methods to use to evaluate: surveys, focus groups, interviews? 9.4 Evaluate your scheme regularly at the end of the mentoring cycle. A A A E E 9.5 Evaluate your scheme during the cycle to measure progress against outcomes and general satisfaction. A O O E E 9.6 Incorporate evaluation findings into new marketing. 9.7 Communicate evaluation findings to key stakeholders.