Knowledge transfer mentoring—Part 2 Designing and implementing a mentoring program focused on knowledge transfer

Assessing outcomes

No matter what business purpose an organization pursues through mentoring, it must evaluate its program to determine whether it is achieving its goals. In many instances, an analysis of outcomes is needed to obtain leadership buy-in and justify ongoing time and resource allocations for mentoring. Measurement also helps programs identify improvement opportunities and communicate the value of mentoring to potential participants and their managers.

For mentoring programs focused on the transfer of discipline knowledge, visions of success usually center on improving employee skills and competencies. Boeing’s engineering mentoring program has one of the most rigorous approaches to evaluate learning outcomes. The organization’s mentoring action plan includes the ability to rate a mentee’s level of knowledge on a scale of one to 10 at various stages of the partnership. Mentees rate themselves on the knowledge to be shared at the start of the mentorship, with mentors finalizing the score. The pair then sets a numerical target for three or six months out.

The ratings allow pairs to track progress over time and help managers better understand the capabilities of their teams. Program leaders also aggregate that data to evaluate mentoring’s effectiveness as a learning tool. For example, they look at how many mentees are reaching their goals, how much their knowledge ratings increase and average ratings for skills. On average, mentees increase from a rating of two out of 10 in their target knowledge areas at the start of a mentorship to six out of 10 at the mentorship’s conclusion. This helps the organization verify that time spent on mentoring relationships is generating a meaningful return on investment.

Rather than measuring employee knowledge before and after mentorship, Praxair focuses on monitoring improvements in mentee job performance, including the achievement of established first-year technical milestones and project results. Those measures are tracked via LTOP final review documents and follow-up reports from participants. “The LTOP process requires participants to not only demonstrate both tacit and explicit knowledge of Praxair’s products, services and processes, but also their ability to apply that knowledge by successfully completing each technical project and assignment,” said Barb Jordan, global supply systems knowledge management program manager.

Another strategy to assess learning outcomes involves looking at whether mentoring participants advance more quickly than their peers do. MD Anderson does not monitor that directly, but it does track the number of positions it fills through internal promotions vs. external hiring as an indication of mentoring’s impact on employee “promotability.” Since the organization reinvigorated its mentoring program, the percentage of positions filled through internal promotions has risen from 30–33 percent to 35 percent. Although that change cannot be directly attributed to the mentoring program, program leaders believe that mentoring and the development opportunities it enables are significant contributors.

Next steps

Organizations that use mentoring to transfer knowledge want to structure the mentoring relationships in a way that maximizes learning. That starts with picking good mentee candidates—employees with capacity and interest to learn what’s on offer—and partnering them with mentors with the right expertise and disposition. Once pairs are formed, mentoring programs should encourage participants to be clear about their goals, expectations and ground rules for interaction. And throughout the duration of the mentorship, program leaders should provide tools and support to help pairs troubleshoot, track progress and assess the knowledge conveyed through their interactions.

The final article in this series will explore the interplay between mentoring and networking and how mentoring can serve as a springboard to help employees form the boundary-spanning relationships required for effective enterprise collaboration. In the meantime, you can learn more about the research and download the full report at apqc.org/mentoring.