A large Public Sector organisation engaged with Future of Work Institute for design and delivery of a Mentoring Programme as a key retention tool for high potential female leaders in their organisation. The organisation understood that women of a certain age and level were either leaving their organisation and/or not progressing further into leadership roles. The organisation understood the value of having women progress through their business and wanted to provide additional support through a bespoke Mentoring Programme over a 6 month period. This programme formed part of their commitment to building a more sustainable future for the business and people along with their approach to ensuring the organisation build the right skills and promote equal opportunities across the business.
Our Approach
Conducted a series of focus group sessions and Psychometric Assessments to understand key skills gaps and requirements from the target cohort
Co-created a series of Mentoring Circles designed to support the skills gaps indentified. These were facilitated as workshops and to provide peer-to-peer networking and support
Designed a 2 day Mentor Training for the Senior Leaders identified as Mentors
Coordination and management of all events over the 6 month period, check in sessions with Mentors for support, communications plan and feedback mechanisms in place to ensure continuous improvement year on year.
Outputs included
Mentor Training for Senior Leaders to equip them with the tools to mentor and prepare mid- level high potential leaders to move into senior roles,
Psychometric Assessments for Mentees (high potential cohort) to help them identify gaps and understand areas of strength and improvement,
Mentoring Circles for Mentees to include facilitated group coaching on 4 key leadership themes such as Self Awareness, Strategic Thinking, Personal Brand and Strategic Networking, Wellbeing and Work-Life Balance as well as peer to peer networking to support mentees on their journey
Mentor Matching through a matching technology platform to engage and manage mentoring objectives and knowledge sharing
Ongoing evaluation and feedback of the overall programme
We have run this programme with this organisation for the past 4 years and continue to gather feedback and insights to continue to develop and enhance the programme to their needs. Since our initial launch the programme has had seen over 30 Senior Leaders trained as Mentors, the programme highlighted as a key contributor to their EDI (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) ambitions as outlined in their Zero Pay Gap Report, expansion to include both female and male high potentials across the organisation to garner further inclusivity and retention and over 60 high potential leaders have been through the programme in the last 3 years achieving their objectives together with their mentors.