One way to help people develop their career in advice is by providing a mentoring scheme — enabling them to tap into the professional knowledge, experience and support of others who want to ‘give something back’.
But the impact of mentoring goes beyond the career aspirations and altruism of the individuals involved. It can enable employers in the sector to nurture diverse talent pools and provide much-needed support to people from under-represented groups.
That said, traditional mentoring is difficult to scale, which limits the number who can benefit from it.
Can technology streamline the process to help it reach more people and create a better experience for everyone involved?
Tech has the capability to analyse skills, goals and experience
“Traditional mentoring often involves complex co-ordination, time-consuming scheduling and a heavy administrative load,” explains Liz Sebag-Montefiore, a mentor, career coach and director of HR consultancy 10Eighty.
Her opinion is echoed by Simon Reichwald, chief progression officer at cloud-based mentoring software provider Connectr.
“It’s hard work bringing it all together to make it happen, so it’s small scale and doesn’t have the impact it could have,” he says.
Apps and platforms
However, a lot of these issues can be alleviated with digital tools such as the 10Eighty app and Connectr’s employee-mentoring platform.
Technology like this can match mentors and mentees quickly and more efficiently using filters such as topic and mentoring style.
We even have tech that shows how long mentors typically take to respond to mentees
“The most critical aspect of mentoring is finding the right match,” says Hoxton Wealth chief technology officer Mansel Oliver. “Technology, particularly AI-driven platforms, has the capability to analyse skills, goals and experience, pairing mentors and mentees who might not otherwise cross paths.
“This method of matching allows mentoring relationships to be based on professional alignment, rather than geographic or organisational proximity, which is especially relevant for international firms like ours.”
One of the biggest hurdles in mentorship, according to Oliver, is scheduling.
“With online scheduling tools, diary management becomes frictionless,” he says. “The ability to automate this process allows mentors and mentees to focus on their development and set clear agendas, making each session more productive and focused.”
The 10Eighty app has a scheduling feature that seamlessly integrates with calendars, making it easier for mentors and mentees to make appointments.
The app’s direct messaging and video meeting software also enables flexible communication between mentors and mentees.
‘Mentoring in the moment of need’ is where someone has a specific challenge and reaches out to a mentor who is an expert or has experience in that subject matter
“Advisers can focus on meaningful growth, tracking progress through goal-setting features,” says Sebag-Montefiore.
The result?
“Mentoring becomes more efficient, accessible and scalable, enabling more professionals to benefit from guidance without being constrained by time or company boundaries,” she says.
Empowering the mentor
The use of technology in the field of mentoring is not all about the mentees. If advice firms want to encourage extremely busy people in more senior roles to share their knowledge and experience through mentoring, their needs must also be considered.
Reichwald says some people may be put off becoming a mentor because they think they must commit to long-term arrangements for which they do not have time. This does not have to be the case, however. Mentors can give only the time they have to spare and technology can help them manage expectations around this.
Technology platforms offer virtual meeting spaces, shared resources and ongoing communication tools that keep mentorship effective
Connectr’s software enables mentors to make themselves unavailable on the mentoring system if, for example, they are going on holiday or they think they have enough mentees already. Potential mentees will see they are unavailable and be unable to contact them.
“It puts the power into the hands of the mentor,” says Reichwald.
“They don’t have to spend time writing emails saying, ‘I’m sorry I can’t help this time. I’m busy.’”
He adds that, with traditional mentoring arrangements, relationships can “wither on the vine” when a mentor is away or busy. However, with technology such as Connectr’s platform, mentees are able to take a view on whether to wait for a specific mentor to become available or find an alternative.
Either way, the mentor-mentee relationship does not just fizzle out and leave the mentee without options for more support.
“We even have tech that shows how long mentors typically take to respond to mentees,” says Reichwald.
Technology enables us to expand mentorship programmes to a larger audience without sacrificing the quality of engagement
“The tech pulls that data through from the algorithm.”
Another potential problem with traditional mentoring is that arrangements can be set up by employers with a vague idea about one person learning from another but without any clear objectives, so there is no real purpose to it.
“To young people, having a mentor is like a badge of honour — a sign that their employer thinks they are good,” says Reichwald.
“But they don’t know how to make the best of it and they don’t have the confidence to ask.”
Mentoring with a clear purpose over a short timeframe — which Reichwald calls “mentoring in the moment of need” — overcomes this problem. It also takes up less of a mentor’s time and is easily scalable using technology.
“Mentoring in the moment of need is where someone has a specific challenge or problem in that moment and reaches out to a mentor who is an expert or has experience in that subject matter,” says Reichwald.
Advisers can focus on meaningful growth, tracking progress through goal-setting features
“It can be quick as it’s moving away from a long-term commitment, and we’ve seen more interest from mentors as a result.”
It may take only one or two calls for the mentee to get the guidance they need, he adds.
“In time, it could lead to a longer-term relationship, but they’re not signing up to that at the start.”
Feeling valued
One of the advantages of this kind of approach is that mentors feel valued by their employer. They are being showcased as an expert in their field without having to sacrifice huge chunks of time on a regular basis.
It is also an ideal solution for firms that want to ensure the knowledge and expertise of people in senior roles are passed to new talent as it comes through.
With online scheduling tools, diary management becomes frictionless
“Technology enables us to expand mentorship programmes to a larger audience without sacrificing the quality of engagement,” says Oliver.
“Virtual mentoring sessions — supplemented by digital tools for knowledge sharing, feedback tracking and goal setting — make it possible to maintain a strong connection even as the programme grows.”
Oliver says this scalability is crucial for industries such as financial services, where mentorship is “vital for professional growth but is often time intensive”.
He also points out the role of mentoring technology in supporting a remote and freelance workforce.
“More professionals are operating outside traditional corporate structures — working remotely, freelancing or shifting between companies,” he says.
In such an environment, mentorship that spans different organisations becomes more important, Oliver believes.
“Technology platforms facilitate this kind of mentoring by offering virtual meeting spaces, shared resources and ongoing communication tools that keep mentorship effective, regardless of the participants’ employment status or location,” he says.
Traditional mentoring often involves complex co-ordination, time-consuming scheduling and a heavy administrative load
However, some commentators observe that mentoring technology is effective only if it meets the needs of its users and if those users are properly trained to employ it.
Zensar Technologies executive vice-president and head of Europe Chaitanya Rajebahadur says: “I have an example where a client — a very large firm — spent £15m on a customer relationship management project.
“After six months, the chief financial officer was informed that none of the sales professionals were using it because they couldn’t — it was too cumbersome.”
This article featured in the November 2024 edition of Money Marketing.
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