8 Successful Mentoring Programs: Real Examples & Strategies

Harvard Business Review reports that 98% of Fortune 500 companies have mentoring programs—but only 37% of professionals actually benefit from them. So what separates the ones that work? The most successful mentorship programs aren’t necessarily carbon copies of one another, but they do share some common traits. And after working with hundreds of companies, we’ve seen these patterns up close.

What do the best mentorship programs have in common?

What sets the best mentorship programs apart from the rest? Here are some of the characteristics the best mentorship programs tend to have in common:

• They start with a clear goal and audience. Your mentorship program shouldn’t be one-size-fits-all. You’ll be much more effective if you define exactly who should participate and what types of outcomes you expect for both participants and your company on the whole. 
• They provide structure and support. Program managers who run effective programs offer orientation sessions, training, and resources to help participants understand their roles and develop the skills they need to succeed. 
• They prioritize inclusion. Successful programs connect mentors and mentees across different departments, levels, and backgrounds to promote knowledge sharing, fresh perspectives, and a more inclusive workplace culture.
• They take administrative tasks off program managers’ plates with the right technology. For many program managers, running a mentorship program is part of an already overloaded to-do list. If you have to spend too much time on things like matching participants or sending reminders, it’s hard to expand or improve your program. Successful program managers rely on technology to reduce the time they spend on manual tasks.

Now let’s take a closer look at a few examples of mentorship programs at companies that are putting these principles into practice!

8 examples of successful mentoring programs

1. Louisiana Office of Public Health closes skills gaps with mentoring

• Company: The Louisiana Office of Public Health
• Industry: Public health
• Size of the program: 70+ employees
• Type of programs: 1-on-1, peer mentoring
• Key outcome: 83% of employees say they've achieved "practical application"of new skills

The goal: Addressing pain points of employee turnover and skill gaps

Working in public health is an intense experience that takes its toll on workers: Over 70% of public health workers are experiencing at least one symptom of burnout, according to the Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS).  

Through an internal pulse survey, the Office of Public Health (OPH) in Louisiana discovered two things: a need to connect with others, and a gap when it came to leadership skills training. These challenges—employee turnover, talent gaps left by retiring staff, and an emphasis on employee well-being and connection—led the OPH Workforce Team to explore mentorship.

“The idea of a mentorship program originally came up in the 2019 cohort of our OPH Leadership Development Institute as a solution to improve retention. Once we realized that it could help us reach other organizational objectives, like closing skill gaps and boosting employee engagement, we knew that a mentorship program would be worth the investment,” said Jennifer Taylor, Deputy Director of Workforce, Louisiana Department of Health.

OPH defined several goals for their mentorship program, including: develop key public health skills, increase retention, and improve succession planning. They also chose several key performance indicators related to themes like mentee development, program engagement, and org impact to measure the success of the program.

The results: Making major strides to close the skills gap

The transformation at OPH is undeniable: Prior to the mentorship program, only 16% of employees said their skills were at the “practical application” level. And once they’d been through the mentorship program, 83% of employees said they’d achieved practical application level. You can learn more about the results of OPH’s mentorship program in the video below.

2. Avison Young’s commits to advancing women to senior positions

• Company: Avison Young 
• Industry: Commercial real estate
• Size of program: 500+ employees
• Type of program: 1-on-1, group mentoring
• Key outcome: Company recognized externally as "active supporters of women in the field"

The goal: Improving diversity and inclusivity in leadership roles

Avison Young, a global commercial real estate firm, launched a company mentorship program to improve diversity and inclusivity, particularly in leadership roles. Their focus was on advancing women into senior positions.

The program connected seasoned employees and organizational leaders with members of various employee resource groups (ERGs), which supported women and other underrepresented groups. Mentorship provided these women with the guidance needed for leadership roles.

While participation was limited to specific ERGs, such as the Black Professionals Resource Group and LGBTQ+, mentors came from different areas of the company. Avison Young's employee mentorship program highlights how mentoring within ERGs can create a more equitable workplace.

The results: A positive impact on employees and external validation

The year after the mentorship program was launched, its positive impact was clear. “We saw a decrease in turnover and an increase in retention, which is almost unheard of. That’s attributable, at least in part, to the implementation of the Together Platform,” said Joan. 

Participants clearly loved the mentorship program, with 98% rating it satisfactory or very satisfactory.

And the company received external validation, too. Avison Young was named an “active supporter of women in the field” by GlobeSt. Real Estate Forum and one of America’s best employers by Forbes. 

Learn more about the results Avison Young saw with Together in this video:

3. New York Life cultivates inclusion and belonging

• Company: New York Life
• Industry: Insurance
• Size of program: 500+ employees
• Type of program: 1-on-1
• Key outcome: 53% diverse pairings

The goal: Connecting ERGs with senior leadership through The Empower Program

New York Life (NYL) created the Empower Program to connect members of the organization’s employee resource groups (ERGs) with senior leadership. This nine-month workplace mentor program paired members of specific employee resource groups with mentors from other ERGs. 

Using Together’s mentoring platform, NYL leveraged pairing features and mentorship resources to achieve their goals, which included:

• Guiding and supporting mentees to reach their goals through mentor expertise.
• Encouraging mentors to share their professional journeys and career progress.
• Cultivating connections among employees from different parts of the organization.
• Facilitating peer learning.
• Enabling mentors to refine their coaching skills and provide meaningful learning experiences.

The results: 53% diverse pairings

The program was able to deliver on its promise of making mentorship programs more varied: 53% of all the pairings in NYL’s professional mentoring programs included matches where both participants shared a diverse background. Doing this allowed for a stronger bond between mentors and mentees as they could share common experiences in the workplace. 

The program also gave leaders a fresh perspective and ERG members opportunities as it opened up conversations with more junior employees with diverse backgrounds.

4. Cooley’s company mentorship program sets up new associates for success

• Company: Cooley Law 
• Industry: Law
• Size of program: 500+ employees
• Type of program: 1-on-1, groups
• Key outcome: 95% of employees say Cooley is a great place to work
  

The goal: Accelerating onboarding with Cooley’s CAMP program

Cooley, a global law firm with over 1,500 lawyers, designed the Cooley Academy Mentoring Program (CAMP) to onboard new attorneys and prepare them quickly for their roles. By connecting new hires with experienced colleagues, the program provided a robust support system, helping new employees become competent in their roles faster.

The results: Employees highly satisfied with both the company and mentorship program

Cooley’s revamped onboarding program helped mentees expand their professional networks, learn by example from real leaders who’d achieved ambitious goals, and get support from someone who wasn’t their immediate manager. 

A “mentoring madness” challenge incentivized participation by setting mentoring milestones like having a conversation about the mentee’s personal brand or sharing tips on internal networking. 

Mentors and mentees both had positive experiences, giving the program an average score of 3.9 out of 4. And overall, Cooley employees are highly satisfied with their work environment—95% say it’s a great place to work.

5. Cruise accelerates engineer training for future transportation

• Company: Cruise Automation 
• Industry: Self-driving cars
• Size of program: 300+ employees
• Type of program: 1-on-1
• Key outcome: 50% more participants enrolled than anticipated
  

The goal: Upskilling for engineers with Cruise’s professional mentoring programs

Cruise Automation, a leader in developing self-driving vehicles, recognizes the need for its engineers to stay on the cutting edge of technology. To achieve this, mentorship is a key component of their strategy.

However, Cruise ran into an administrative roadblock: Program managers realized that manually matching program participants and monitoring the quality of each match just wasn’t realistic since they had over 1,000 engineers.

The results: Mentorship program enrollment exceeds goals

Together helped accelerate the registration process, sending automated reminders and matching participants based on the questionnaires they’d filled out. A process that would have taken days ended up being completed in mere minutes. 

And that’s not all: With program managers spending less time on admin tasks, they were able to engage 50% more engineers than anticipated. While they’d originally aimed to have 200 engineers participate in the pilot program, they ended up recruiting nearly 300 participants! Plus, mentors and mentees both loved the program, giving it an average rating of 3.8 out of 4.

6. The Forum’s company mentorship program empowers female entrepreneurs

• Company: The Forum
• Industry: Entrepreneurship incubator
• Size of program: 900+ employees‍
• Type of program: 1-on-1
• Key outcome: 4x mentoring program participation

The goal: Scaling mentorship for female entrepreneurs

The Forum, a Canadian non-profit organization, aims to help female entrepreneurs connect with resources and the community to thrive in business. One of their key initiatives is connecting members with mentorship opportunities.

Over the past 20 years, The Forum has connected over 2,000 women with career-changing mentoring experiences. To expand and offer tailored mentorship to more female entrepreneurs, they needed to automate the matching process. 

The results: A wider reach and more effective mentoring

Discovering Together’s mentoring platform allowed them to grow their program to four times its original size. The software expedited the matching process and provided an easy way to monitor pairings, enabling meaningful mentorships for more entrepreneurs.

The Forum now has insight into how each mentoring relationship is progressing using Together’s Health Monitor Dashboard. They can see who’s meeting, how often, check out the meeting’s rating, and review the feedback mentors and mentees provide after each session—all within one place and at a glance. When discussing Together’s Health Monitor, The Forum shared that it supported them “by ensuring no one fell through the cracks.”

7. University of North Texas builds a culture of continuous improvement with mentorship

• Company: University of North Texas (UNT)
• Industry: Education
• Size of program: 1,000+ employees
• Type of program: 1-on-1
• Key outcome: 100% of mentees satisfied with experience

The challenge: Making UNT’s professional mentoring programs more effective and efficient

The University of North Texas (UNT) has a long-standing tradition of mentoring through its Professional Leadership Program, which has been a cornerstone in developing participants' skills since 1994. As the mentor program matured, the need for a more advanced and efficient mentoring platform became clear, leading UNT to seek a new solution.

The results: High ratings from both mentors and mentees

The introduction of Together's mentoring software was a turning point for UNT. Jose Grimaldo, UNT’s program administrator, said, "We were very, very pleased with the transition [to Together].” The platform not only transitioned UNT’s program effectively but did so in a remarkably short timeframe. “Together was able to get our program transitioned in just a couple of weeks," Grimaldo noted.

Together's user-friendly interface and improved matching algorithm have been instrumental in fostering more meaningful mentor-mentee relationships. The mentor programs have benefited from enhanced data analytics, facilitating continuous improvement and expansion.

Overall, mentors rate the program 3.89 out of 4 and mentees rate it 3.98 out of 4. Mentor and mentee satisfaction is also high, with 95% of mentors and 100% of mentees saying they’re satisfied with the program.

8. Compass Group creates connections with a targeted campaign

• Company: Compass Group 
• Industry: Food services and facilities management 
• Size of  program: 90+ employees
• Type of programs: 1-on-1, peer mentoring
• Key outcome: 39% increase in scheduled mentoring sessions

The goal: Scaling mentorship across a dispersed workforce at Compass Group

Eurest and ESFM, divisions of Compass Group, operate across numerous client locations nationwide. Eurest delivers food services and ESFM provides integrated facilities management to the business and industry (B&I) sector. This widespread operational footprint led to a recurring challenge: how to foster meaningful connection and support professional development among managers scattered across different regions, many of whom worked in isolated environments. 

According to Kelly Pope, Onboarding and Development Program Manager at Eurest, managers consistently expressed a desire for more support and connection. They wanted mentorship—not just in the traditional sense of career coaching, but also in the form of peer-to-peer support to troubleshoot daily challenges, share best practices, and feel a sense of community within a vast organization.

Together enabled Compass Group to reimagine mentorship with flexibility at its core. After surveying past participants to better understand what “mentorship” meant to them, Compass Group designed two distinct yet complementary programs within the platform: the Connect Program for casual, lightweight peer support and the Grow Program for more traditional, career-focused mentorship.

The results: Strong program participation and sky-high ratings

Eurest and ESFM’s mentoring programs saw a major spike in activity thanks to a promotional campaign called “New Year, New Mentor.” The campaign included internal marketing, a team video, and a prize draw for those who completed a mentorship within a set timeframe. The results: 

• A 39% increase in scheduled sessions during the campaign period
• Over 60 hours of future sessions booked, indicating sustained engagement beyond the promotional window. 

Notably, participants didn’t just “show up” to win prizes. They stayed engaged, scheduling additional sessions independently—demonstrating the long-term value they found in the experience.

Plus, mentors and mentees rated their experience highly in both programs. The average scores were:

• 3.86/4 from mentors in the Grow program
• 3.91/4 from mentees in the Grow program
• 3.96/4 from peers in the Connect program

Build a mentoring program that actually works

The examples we’ve explored here show what's possible when mentorship is built with intention. Start with the foundations: a clear goal, the right structure, and technology that handles the heavy lifting of admin. Once you have that framework in place, you’re well on your way to success. Whether you're trying to close skills gaps, advance underrepresented employees, or simply connect a dispersed workforce, you now have the key to a well-designed mentoring program that delivers results.

‍Ready to build yours? Book a demo to see how Together can help you bring these mentorship program best practices to your organization.

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Corporate mentorship program FAQs

1. How do companies with mentorship programs manage all the administrative tasks of their programs?

Most mentorship programs are managed by an HR or L&D team member who's already juggling a full workload, so automating administrative tasks is a necessity. Dedicated mentoring software handles the time-consuming work of matching participants, sending reminders, and tracking

results. This means that program managers can focus on improving the program rather than just running it. Mentoring software also makes scaling much easier and gives you access to data you can use to prove the ROI of your program.

2. What are some common examples of mentorship goals?

At Together, we recommend using the SMART-ER framework for mentorship goals. In this framework, each letter of the word “SMARTER” provides guidance about how to set goals.

• Specific – Target particular leadership competencies
• Measurable – Include quantifiable outcomes
• Achievable – Set realistic expectations
• Relevant – Align with business objectives
• Time-bound – Establish clear timelines
• Evaluated – Build in assessment checkpoints
• Readjusted – Allow for program evolution

Applying this framework, here are a few example goals:

• For an upskilling/reskilling mentorship program: "Increase retention of high-turnover roles (e.g. customer support) by 30% within 18 months by developing emotional intelligence and conflict resolution skills through structured mentorship relationships."
• For a new manager training mentorship program: "Increase new managers’ ratings by their direct reports by 30% within 18 months by developing communication and team management skills in new managers through structured mentorship relationships."

3. How do you measure the success of a mentoring program?

When defining success for your mentorship program, make sure you include a mix of quantitative and qualitative metrics. On the quantitative side, you can track:

• Participation rates: How many employees signed up and completed the program?
• Retention: Are mentored employees staying longer than those who didn't participate?
• Satisfaction scores: How do both mentors and mentees rate the experience?
• Goal completion: What percentage of mentees achieved the goals they set at the start?

Qualitative signals matter, too. Make sure you do regular check-ins and collect end-of-program feedback (in the form of quotes or personal anecdotes). 

Just remember to decide on your success metrics before you start your program so you can genuinely track how well it’s measuring up.

4. How do you choose the right format for your corporate mentorship programs? 

While most people are familiar with traditional 1-on-1 mentoring, there are plenty of other formats for corporate mentoring programs that you might want to consider. For example, peer mentoring matches employees from the same department or level, which can be useful for skill building or onboarding. Reverse mentoring is another format where younger or more junior employees take on a mentorship role, often sharing their technical skills or generational perspective with their mentees.

To decide which format will work best for your company, start with your high-level business goals. For example, are you trying to accelerate ramp-up time for new hires or prepare more employees to step into leadership roles? Depending on your goals and the specific people within your company they apply to (such as new hires or early career individual contributors), you can decide on the format that is likely to be most effective.

5. How often should mentors and mentees meet?

Most mentoring programs recommend monthly meetings as a baseline. This cadence is frequent enough to maintain momentum, but not so demanding that it becomes a burden. In some cases, bi-weekly check-ins make more sense, especially during an onboarding period or when a mentee is working toward a specific short-term goal.

Consistency is key here. A predictable meeting schedule helps build trust and keeps the relationship from fading when work gets busy. When designing your program, build the recommended meeting frequency into your guidelines from the start, and use automated reminders to help participants stay on track.