Creating a mentoring program at your company can help recent hires more quickly ease into their new jobs, and promote ongoing professional development--but you'll need to train your mentors, and that's where mentoring consulting can help. No matter how skilled your mentors are at their jobs, they'll only be effective if they're just as adept at coaching.

Mentoring consultants can teach your employees how to prepare their protégés for personal and professional achievement. Questions to ask when considering mentoring consulting:

1. Is there a mentoring consultancy firm that specializes in your industry?
2. How much assistance do you need the mentoring advisor to provide?
3. Would in-person or online/software training work best for your company?
4. How many clients has the mentoring consulting company worked with?

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Hire a consultant for mentoring

Enlisting the aid of a mentoring consultancy can ensure your company's mentors understand how to motivate and encourage other employees. Career mentoring consultants can work with your mentors individually, or set up a mentor training program for ongoing use.

I recommend: Find a mentoring consultant through the mentoring trainer and consultant directories at the International Mentoring Association and the Association of Mentoring Professionals.

Get mentoring advice through in-person or online mentor training

Training programs can offer your prospective mentors essential advice for mentoring. Through in-person seminars and workshops, they benefit from one-on-one interaction with mentoring advisors. With online training, they can work at their own pace, balancing the training with their existing job duties.

I recommend: Strategic Futures offers mentoring training and coaching programs with an emphasis on workforce and succession planning. Insights to Better Mentoring, from Quality Media Resources, is an educational video that spotlights four successful mentor/mentee relationships.

Consider professional mentoring software

The Internet is becoming increasingly important in mentoring relationships, keeping mentors and their mentees connected no matter where they are or what time it is. While computers are no substitute for this personal relationship, mentoring software can help guide your company's mentoring program.

I recommend: MMentPro/MentoringComplete, from Management Mentors, is designed to facilitate the mentoring process by reducing administrative time by up to 40 percent. This software manages any forms and paperwork associated with your mentoring program, and matches mentors and mentees based on their profiles. Saba Career and Competency Management software is designed for helping employees develop their career paths, and determine how they can best be served by mentoring programs.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Before you hire a mentoring consulting firm, ask your employees what they need and want from a mentoring program. You can pass this information on to the consultant, so they can help you create a mentoring program that most effectively addresses your employees' concerns.
• •  Decide your goals for implementing a mentoring program. Do you want to focus on individual employees, and their career and professional development, for example? Or is the emphasis on workforce and succession planning, so you can identify which employees should move up within the organization?