Actionable resources to build impactful mentoring programs

Mentorship software makes it easy for companies to run mentoring programs at scale. In this guide, we break down what mentoring software is, who would use it, specific features, and how to get started.

Women and mothers have disproportionately left the workforce over the pandemic. This has given rise to the popularity of return-to-work programs for mothers. Here are 5 examples of returnships, as they're being called, and how you can start your own.

Mentorship likely already happens within your professional association. Why not formalize it so that the benefits of mentorship can be available to all? Here are five ways mentoring improve the experience of joining a professional association.

People development is about helping employees develop the capacities the organization needs to succeed. We break down 8 examples of ways you can close skill gaps and accelerate employee development.

The world of tech startups is fast and always changing. For founders to maintain their edge and employees to continue growing, mentors play a critical role. Here's everything you need to know about mentoring in tech.

It may not be clear whether to encourage informal mentoring in the workplace or to start a formal mentorship program. Here's how to decide.

Learn what kind of training mentors need to succeed in their roles.

It's worse to do mentorship poorly than not at all. Mentors need certain skills to help their mentees grow. Here are the 10 non-negotiable mentoring skills you need

Looking to start a mentoring program but not sure where to start? This article provides a template for a mentoring plan. It documents the overall goal of the program and specific logistics.

Here are 5 KPIs to focus on when improving your team's productivity.

Here are over a dozen studies on mentoring and what you need to take away from them.

We all have different styles of working. They fit into 4 categories. We explore each and how you can leverage them to build effective teams.

We've compiled a list of several discussion topics for mentors and mentees. No matter what kind of mentoring relationship you have these discussion topics will open up learning opportunities and meaningful connectin.

Employee coaching guides team members on how to improve their performance through regular and systematic feedback, support, and development. Here's everything you need to know about introducing coaching programs and tips to get real results.

Every organization should encourage peer coaching. Here are the benefits and how to start pairing employees in your workplace.

Increasing workplace productivity is always in the back of a manager's mind. Here are 7 ways to make your team more efficient and measure it.

Discover the meaning of ‘employer branding’, its importance in the modern business landscape, and strategies for implementing it effectively.

It's well known that organizations that encourage knowledge sharing gain a competitive advantage over cultures that reinforce knowledge hoarding and secrecy. But continually promoting a knowledge-sharing culture can take time. Here are 6 ways to build a knowledge-sharing culture that leads to lasting benefits.

Flextime is becoming more popular as workplaces navigate the changes around returning to the office, staying remote, or adopting a hybrid approach. Here's everything you need to know about flextime and if it's right for your organization.

Here are over a dozen workplace inclusion activities. We've broken them up by activities you can do in one day and those that can span an entire quarter.

Professional mentors play a critical role in spuring our growth and development. Here's everything you need to know about what they are, their importance, and how to find a professional mentor.

It's not surprising that our social ties at work play a huge role in our productivity, feelings of belonging, and overall happiness. In this article, we look at what social ties are, the science behind them, and how they play such an important role in building a thriving organization.

How do you go about finding a mentor? And once you have one, how do you make the most of the relationship? In this article, we break down 10 ways to find a mentor and several considerations for how to choose one.

Mentor and mentee relationships need to have clear roles and expectations. Here are several expectations to agree upon in your mentoring relationship.

Does your employee retention strategy need a refresh? Here are 10 examples of successful retention strategies to learn from.

Here are six examples of learning and development strategies to inspire your own.

How would you describe your team culture? And how do you know if it'll lead to high performance or not? In this guide, we break down what team culture is, its importance, 12 examples, and what you need to do to build a high-performing team.

Here are 5 examples of diversity and inclusion strategies to inspire your own.

Achieving your diversity, equity, and inclusion goals takes time. Having the right best practices employed will keep you on the right track. Here are 5 best practices to keep in mind with every DEIB initiative.

Numerous studies show BIPOC employees—employees who aren't white—have far fewer opportunities for career advancement. They have fewer mentors and career sponsors to help them grow. This article will unpack 4 types of mentorship for employees from underrepresented backgrounds.

Here are 10 examples of diversity and inclusion performance goals to inspire your companies initiatives.

Employee development is crucial to organizational success. Fewer and fewer organizations are looking to hire talent because competition is too fierce. Instead, they're looking inward. To create a winning employee development program here are the 5 essential components. Leverage each and you'll drive your teams' performance, morale, and impact to new heights.

Here are four onboarding strategies to set up your new hires for success.

If you're ready to start a speed mentoring event in your workplace here's everything you need to know.

Mentorship for women is a meaningful way to encourage their advancement in the workplace. We spoke to several women at different stages of their careers to understand how they feel about mentorship and its impact on their careers.

Remote training programs have to adapt if they want to deliver rich learning experiences. Here are 7 tips for training employees in a remote workforce.

Here's a templated mentorship program to inspire your own. From planning to launching, and reporting, here are the six steps every mentorship program needs to follow.

Learning at work is critical to L&D initiatives. Gone are the days of pulling teams away from their work for days at a time. Now, learning needs to happen in the flow of work and be personalized to each of their career journeys. This article dives into 3 ways employees learn and two strategies you can implement to support workplace learning.

Remote work has made employee training hard. There's no doubt about it. Here are 4 steps to conducting effective virtual training.

The impact of the future of work is already ripping across every company. Of all the changes the one most pressing for HR and L&D teams is the impact on employee development. How can they build a robust and effective L&D plan? This article will outline the 9 steps to build a perfect L&D strategy for 2022.

Here are the top trending skills for employees in 2022.

Want to improve employee retention and engagement in your workplace? Here are 7 strategies to keep your team together.

Learning shouldn't stop for employees. That's why continuous learning is so popular within the workplace today. If employees are encouraged to continually grow and develop their skills the organizations they work for will be more agile and resilent. Here are 6 ways to promote continuous learning within your company.

Remote training is the new normal, but our strategies need an upgrade. Here are 3 ways to make remote training more collaborative and effective.

For employers, finding talent is harder than ever. To stand out, companies need more than generous employment packages. Mentorship is a way to stand out.

Learning in the workplace is critical to long-term organizational success. If you want your teams to be competitive in the future here are 5 ways to encourage more learning in the workplace. By following these tactics, you'll slowly build a learning culture over time.

Much of our L&D programs have an over-emphasis on coursework, quizzes, and training videos—independent activities. But what employees want is to learn socially through mentors. This article will outline how mentorship can close the knowledge and performance gaps in your L&D strategy

Do you have a plan for how to train employees? This article will walk you through the steps of building an employee training plan.

Mentorship programs are a viable way for companies to increase retention rates. We'll outline 3 ways to increase your own retention rates and provide several ideas to inspire your own mentorship program planning.

We spend a quarter of our lives (at least) working. We'd hope that the norm isn't to be burnout and stressed during all that time. Thankfully, using The Six Dimensions of Psychological Well-Being, created by psychologist Carol Ryff, leaders have a framework for supporting mental health in their workplaces. This article outlines the six dimensions and what it means for your workplace well-being.

Here are six examples of corporate learning strategies to inspire your own.

Learning and development focuses on building the skills of employees so they can be more effective within the organization. But what's the best way to go about this? Until now, L&D efforts mostly focused on enrolling employees in courses. Now, however, L&D efforts are leveraging mentorship as a way to aid existing L&D efforts. Here are three reasons why your L&D program should include pairing every employee with a mentor.

"What happens if you train your employees and they leave? What if you don't and they stay?" This adage sums up why all companies should be building robust employee training and development programs. Here are 5 examples of companies doing it right.

Employee recognition is crucial. One of the top reasons employees quit is because they don't feel appreciated by their managers or leaders. To avoid costly turnover and build happy, high-performing teams here are 12 ways to recognize your employees in 2022.

Strategic workforce planning involves having the right people with the right skills at the right time. In this article, we explain the 6 stages of workforce planning and how to anticipate future workforce needs to prepare action plans that align with business strategy.

Corporate e-Learning is here to stay. As more organizations go remote more and more employee training will also be done online. But for learning to be effective and lead to meaningful improvements they need to have a social component. For that reason, e-Learning tools and software are not a silver bullet for preparing employees for the future of work. Instead, they need mentorship and peer learning. We'll argue why in this article.

Together has raised $5 million USD led by Altair with participation from TRAC, Garage, Rebel, Funders Club to fix learning at work.

Too often, poor preparation for mentoring sessions leads to poor results. To have impactful and productive mentoring meetings, here are 5 tips.

Running a pilot mentorship program is a great way to get early feedback, work out any tweaks, and get comfortable doing it before rolling it out to your whole organization. Here are several helpful tips to run a successful pilot program.

Should you step back and let mentorship happen informally? Or should you establish a formal mentorship program for employees? Here's how to decide.

Knowledge transfer is how organizations get the critical skills, insights, and ways of doing things from employees who may be leaving the organization to those who are sticking around. In this article we break down what knowledge transfer is, why it's important, and how to work out a plan for it in your company.

Knowledge sharing is defined by organizations that have processes in place to exchange critical information across the workforce. Organizations that do it really well have a culture of knowledge where employees are encouraged to share what they know with others instead of hoarding it. Team leaders, here's everything you need to know about knowledge sharing, its benefits, and how to encourage it in your company.

The employee life cycle is six stages that span the period from when an employee applies to when they eventually move on from the company. It's an expansive model for HR professionals to outline and optimize the employee experience. If used correctly, the employee life cycle can lead to greater retention, engagement, and development of individuals. This article will break down each stage and explain how you can apply it in your company.

There are many benefits associated with mentorship—for the mentee, mentor, and the company they work for. Here is a list of all of them for each.

Onboarding buddies are essential for setting up new hires for success. Here's everything you need to know about buddy programs with examples.

Getting new managers up to speed is much easier with mentors. Here are the top 5 skills new managers can achieve through mentorship.

The future of work is here and the skills employees have today will either need a refresh or become redundant much quicker than in the past. This is your guide to upskilling and reskilling your workforce.

As a mentor what questions should you ask your mentee? Here are 27 thought-provoking questions to build a meaningful mentoring relationship that leads to growth. Let's break the ice and go deep to unlock growth.

The shelf-life of existing skills your employees have is getting shorter each year. What can you do? Replace your workforce by hiring people with the skills you need on your team? That'd take a ton of time and resources. Perhaps a better way—that's better for your culture and bottom line—is to train and develop employees internally. This article covers the benefits and potential challenges of internally training your employees. We also provide tips on how to introduce an in-house development program.

What qualities should you cultivate as a mentor? In this article, we outline the 12 defining qualities that the best mentors all have in common.

Being a mentor for the first time can be daunting. Here are 15 tips to help you build a successful mentoring relationship.

Reverse mentorship became popular in the 1990s as a way to keep executives informed on technology changes and the internet. Now, however, reverse mentoring is taking on a new purpose: to support diversity and inclusion initiatives. This article will give you a toolkit for introducing reverse mentoring programs into your company's D&I strategy.

Remote workplaces are becoming more of the norm than the exception to the rule. While there are advantages to this style of working, there are distinct disadvantages around employee development. Remote mentoring programs are becoming a viable way to keep teams connected and growing. Here's how to start one in your organization.

Here's the ultimate guide to starting a peer mentoring program. We outline when peer mentoring is better than senior-junior mentorship, 12 ideas for activities, and how you can quickly pair peers together.

We've been working hard on the biggest change to the platform ever. A new type of program format has arrived, and we call it Evergreen.

Building an inclusive community is just as important in a remote work environment as it is in a physical one—if not more. Here are 5 best practices to make your remote team more inclusive.

Training for diversity and inclusion is becoming more and more common in the workplace. But having a DEI strategy isn't enough and sometimes it can do more harm than good. In this article, we break down how to do diversity and inclusion training right with several examples.

High potential employee development programs are usually designed with two goals in mind: (1) prepare them for future leadership positions and (2) avoid their turnover. The best and brightest minds are always looking for opportunities to learn and grow. What better way to fulfill that need with mentoring programs? This is your guide on starting a high potential mentorship program.

Employees from diverse backgrounds stand to gain a lot from mentorship. And research shows that when workplaces offer formal mentoring programs, 3/4's of diverse or minority employees opt-in. Organizations should take note. Achieving diversity doesn't start and stop at equal numbers. To meaningfully support diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in the workplace, organizations should start formal mentoring programs. This guide will show you how.

Mentorship for new employees is essential. Up to a third of their salary can be spent attracting and recruiting them. Make sure that when they do join your team they're set up for success. In this article, we break down how to start a mentorship program for new hires.

Developing a learning culture may be the best thing organizations can do to remain competitive amidst all the changes of the 21st century. To attract top talent and develop new and innovative products and services, leaders should be investing in employee learning and development. In doing so, they’ll cultivate a learning culture that pays dividends well into the future.

Despite the war for talent, studies show that organizations are having a hard time hiring the skills they need. An alternative to constant recruiting is building the necessary skills in your existing employees. Building an employee development program that includes mentorship, peer accountability, and exposing employees to different roles may be an effective way for companies to remain competitive.

Exceptional employees are usually promoted to a role they have little to no training in: a manager. As new managers, these employees are left on their own to learn as they go. But for organizations that want to set up their new leaders for success, they should be looking for ways to mentor them. Mentorship is a fantastic way to help new managers grow into their roles as leaders.

Mentoring Circles are a great way to encourage knowledge sharing and community building with your mentorship program. We explore the ins and outs of Mentorship Circles in this article and how you can introduce one into your organization.

There's a mountain of research showing that diverse and inclusive organizations perform better. So how can we encourage more inclusive behaviors at work? In this article we break down 10 ways organizations can encourage inclusive behaviors among their employees.

It's no surprise that great leaders and thriving organizations care about empathetic communication among their teams. But research shows that empathetic communication skills are in short supply. In this article, we outline six ways leaders and workplaces can practice empathetic communication in the workplace.

Being a mentor can be one of the most exciting decisions you make. You’ll be in a position to help someone else develop skills and habits and build a successful career. But it can feel intimidating to call yourself a mentor. In this article, we'll address why we can hesitate to take on the role of a mentor and how to know if you have what it takes.

When you're starting a workplace mentoring program you may not consider running group mentoring instead of traditional 1-on-1 mentoring. Depending on the outcomes you're hoping to achieve with your program one might be better suited than the other. In this article we outline the differences between group and 1-on-1 mentorship and explain which to use depending on your goals.

When you're starting a mentoring program, it can be hard to get busy execs on board. But it isn't impossible. This article outlines 6 ways you can not only convince executives to join your mentoring program but be excited about it.

Mentors can be critical to our career growth and advancement. But finding the right one can be hard. Here are 6 mistakes to avoid when looking for a career-changing mentor.

When deciding between looking internally or externally to fill leadership positions People Leaders should be aware of hidden talent already on the payroll. Identifying high-potential employees isn't the challenge so much as preparing them to take on leadership roles. Group Mentorship programs are an effective way to pave a career path for them to become future leaders. This article argues why Group Mentoring is key to developing future leaders.

Getting managers up to speed quickly is a difficult task. And there's only so much you can learn from leadership books. What new managers need is to learn from each other and from those with more experience. At every organization what they need are Learning Circles. In this article, we break down what Learning Circles are and why they are the best way to get new managers up to speed quickly.

How easy is it to pair up employees with mentors using spreadsheets? It depends on the size of your program. As more mentors and mentees join the number of possible pairing combinations expands exponentially. How can program managers ensure meaningful matches at scale? Learn why Together's mentoring software makes it easy to build a high-impact mentoring program at scale.

One of the most common challenges we hear from our program administrators is that they can't get enough mentors to sign up. This article is your go-to guide for attracting mentors to your program.

Despite the effort to make sure employees can still work from home, there’s been a lack of support for helping employees learn from home as well. Continuous learning is an approach in the workplace that gets employees to participate in learning activities regularly rather than only at predetermined times like once a quarter. In this article, we outline why continuous learning is necessary for remote workplaces, examples, and how to build a culture of learning.

Starting a new job–especially if remotely– can be daunting, to say the least. And according to research, new hires aren't getting the support they need: only a third feel adequately prepared. What can people leaders and managers do about this? It's not revolutionary, but connect new hires with each other and give them meaningful support from leaders. We call this group mentorship and it's incredibly effective at taking your onboarding process to the next level. Your new hires will thank you.

The well-being of your remote teams should be a top priority for managers. As workplaces navigate whether to go hybrid, fully back in the office, or remain remote, it's an uncertain time for employees. This undoubtedly leads to stress. To mitigate the challenges of workplace well-being for remote teams here are four ideas managers can consider.

Growth and learning are directly tied to an individual’s level of engagement. That’s why it’s so important that businesses invest in their employees' development. Here are 9 tools to support your team's growth and development.

Building a coaching culture in your organization requires effort, but it offers significant advantages, such as higher revenue and a more engaged workforce as indicated by numerous studies. In this article, we share five steps to developing a coaching culture in your organization.

knowledge sharing is how important know-how is shared across the organization. But knowledge sharing at scale is only effective when employees are empowered to share what they know. And leaders can empower employees in five ways.