Peer mentoring refers to a one-on-one relationship in the work between employees at the same level. It has two-fold benefits. The first is the sharing of job knowledge. This means transferring technical knowledge and soft skills. The second benefit is psychosocial support.

It can boost recruitment efforts and improve engagement. The relationship between a mentor and a mentee is based on mutual trust and it can even become personal. The mentee is more likely to share his concerns. Apart from improving retention rate and knowledge transfer, it also makes employee onboarding easier. 

Steps To Launch a Peer Mentoring Program

Ready to launch your peer mentoring program but need help in getting started? Here are the tips: 

Develop Goals and Outcomes

Develop a committee of peer mentors. This may or not differ from a committee established for mentoring for healthy company culture. 

Include employees of all levels in this committee whether it’s DSPs, leaders, supervisors, or even junior employees. You may also appoint a program facilitator for leading the committee. This individual will push everyone along the program, oversee its implementation, and monitor progress.

Develop the Program 

Once you have established goals for buddy mentoring and built a committee, it’s time to work on developing the program. These are the questions you must ask: 

• How long will the program last? 
• Where will the mentorship take place?
• How often will the mentor and mentee meet?
• What type of training will the mentor provide?
• How will the organization support the mentors?
• Who will be eligible to be the mentee?
• What is the size and scope of the program?

Find the Mentors 

Choose mentors for Peer mentoring carefully. Look for qualities such as knowledge of procedures and policies, years of experience, understanding of the organization’s mission. They must also demonstrate strong communication and problem skills.

Provide the Mentors with Training

It’s important to provide mentors with some sort of training. This training should outline the goals of the program. Specify what outcomes the program will achieve just like you did in case of mentoring for Corporate Social Responsibility. When a mentor expresses their willingness to share their expertise and commitment to improving the organization’s service, appreciate them. The focus of the training for buddy mentoring must be on communication, leadership, problem-solving and interpersonal skills.

Measure the Success 

Last step of any program is to track the success of the program by getting feedback from mentors and mentees. You can make use of a mentoring software to track and trace the progress with a high detail of transparency.