Matching Mentors The new way to connect mentors and protégées Alyson Nyiri, CHRP   In the dating world, finding a compatible mate can be hit or miss. There are plenty of websites boasting their method results in better matches and possibly true love. For those looking to find an ideal mentor, however, true love isn’t the goal but a better match certainly is. MentorCity is an online mentoring matching solution, connecting people to meaningful mentoring relationships.   MentorCity’s early beginnings   Shawn Mintz is the creator and president of MentorCity. Before launching MentorCity in 2011, he spent 13 years in the career and employment services sector. As the senior manager of marketing and communications for ACCESS Employment in Toronto, he worked with new Canadians to link them to employers. During his tenure at ACCESS, he was impressed by the energy and excitement generated by mentee and mentor conversations and became inspired about the many possibilities of mentoring.   “Throughout your life and career, there are times when you can benefit from the advice, guidance and support of a mentor,” said Mintz. “There are also times when you can share your expertise and experiences to guide mentees in the right direction. MentorCity creates a mentoring community that enables you to engage in a series of give-and-take relationships.”   Simple and straightforward   For both mentees and mentors, the mentorship program is easy and straightforward; simply create a profile in the automated profile builder. A user’s LinkedIn profile can be uploaded to the system. The criteria are the same as for LinkedIn: industry, job function, experience, gender, location and language. Soft skills are matched using algorithms in the background and are not displayed to potential mentors or mentees.   Once complete, the system provides a list of possible matches based on the criteria entered in the profile, giving a compatibility rating with potential mentors. Mentees can send a request directly if the self-serve option is available or have the administrator make the match. An initial conversation and evaluation is set up where both parties determine the type of relationship they want.   The program eases the administrative burden by automating initial meetings, progress updates and evaluations with data easily exported into Excel. The reporting features of the platform are simple and customizable, allowing administrators to pull data they want from information uploaded on training or recognition and incentives, for example. An administrator dashboard tracks the number of hours completed, the status of the relationship and the number of searches and invitations sent out by users.   How is mentoring being revolutionized?   MentorCity can be used across the entire organization, regardless of geographical location, for member engagement, succession planning, leadership development and diversity and inclusion strategies. An organization can develop and use its own training tools or speaker series, better utilizing in-house expertise.   “MentorCity was launched in September 2013 to our global employee base; re-affirming our value proposition to provide meaningful and impactful development, tailored to meet each employees individual needs,” said Rebecca Nemaric, senior director of Global Talent Management, Development and Strategic Acquisition at Celestica, one of the program’s largest clients, having successfully implemented the platform across the entire global organization of over 30,000. “The MentorCity rollout was synchronized across the company to capitalize on cross business and cross geographical knowledge sharing and enterprise-wide collaboration.”   For Celestica, choosing MentorCity complemented their existing mentoring strategy.   “Mentoring has always been a key part of Celestica’s talent strategy and critical for the development of our employees. Given the global nature of our business, MentorCity is an integral component to rounding out our well established mentoring program – providing the flexibility to match our employees across the 13 countries in which we operate,” said Nemaric.   Employees can seek their own mentors through a structured and guided communications process that matches people based on mentor strengths and mentee development needs.     Benefits for HR professionals   The Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA) decided to standardize the MentorCity platform in the fall of 2013, making it available to all 28 chapters across Ontario. The previous mentoring platform, Mentor Scout, will be phased out by August 2014. HRPA, in its 2010 annual member survey, discovered that soft skills were a common concern among its membership. With the introduction of Mentor Scout, and now MentorCity, the number of HRPA members enrolled in chapter-based mentoring programs has increased from less than 300 in 2011 to over 1,400 by the end of 2013, according to Chris Larsen, HRPA’s vice president of Marketing, Membership & Professional Development. HRPA members also expressed a need for help advancing their careers, and access to senior professionals with experience and skills to offer is crucial for a junior HR professional. Mentors, Larsen says, can help junior professionals accelerate their “promotability” and get the necessary experience faster. Mentees can search for mentors specializing in their own areas of practice, such as health and safety, recruitment, compensation or training and development, allowing mentees access to members who can help advance their careers.   “Mentorship is a way to stay passionate about the amazing work you’re doing with your company,” said Mintz.   This article was originally published in the May/June 2014 edition of HR Professional magazine, the official publication of the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA). To view the full issue, visit hrpatoday.ca. Reprinted with permission.