Mentoring Programme Evaluation and Review
Improving Quality, Assessing Effectiveness and Justifying the Investment
A good evaluation process will ascertain the degree of success of the programme by providing information on the level of satisfation with the mentoring process, whether the intended outcomes have been met, identification of the areas needing refinement and ascertaining whether the business needs been fulfilled.
Before you start have the end in sight
The evaluation process needs to be planned early in the programme design to ensure realistic expectations are held by senior managers, line managers and programme participants.
Clear setting of the purpose and boundaries of evaluation information is crucial. There are often many questions that you’d like information about – the key is to be selective and focus on a few key measures that are meaningful to stakeholders and the business of the organization.
Reviewing, Measuring, Evaluating
It is essential that your mentoring programme is evaluated and reviewed throughout its life. This can help to trouble shoot any aspect of the programme and to acertain the extent to which the programme is delivering the expected outcomes.
Tracking changes in business indicators as a result of mentoring programmes is a challenge. There are a range of methods and measures for calculating return on investment – from comparing performance ratings, staff turnover rates, improved retention of key staff and comparisons with 360 degree feedback rating. These can consume resources so consider the resources you have available and what are the most important things for your organization to know.
We recommend lowering the complication of evaluation by finding easy ways to gain high quality information about the impact of the mentoring alongside some key measures. Using what you gather to make improvements and take mentoring to the next level breathes life into mentoring as an organisational learning intervention .
If you’re considering setting up a programme or have a programme and not sure it’s working to best advantage Many organisations appreciate having NZMC as an independent external auditor of their programme and we can provide implicit bench marking of your programme against best practise.
NZMC can provide this service, or parts of it, for in-house evaluation.
Written evaluations can be designed and customised for an organistion and administered by NZMC. This can be conducted in-house or done online via email to NZMC for confidentiality. Results can be collated and an evaluation report produced demonstrating the degree of value of the mentoring initiative to inetersted stakeholders.
The New Zealand Mentoring Centre is a member of the board of the International Standards for Mentoring Programmes in Employment (ISMPE). www.ismpe.com