At a Multinational Consumer and Retail Group, 3 in 10 Mentoring Participants Moved Into a New Role

At a glance

• Segment: Large enterprise, a group of distinct consumer and retail business units
• Industry: Consumer goods and retail
• Location: Multiple countries in the Americas
• Programs: Cross-business mentoring for leadership and career development, in recurring cohorts

The Challenge

The group is made up of several distinct business units, and its employees had too few chances to learn from colleagues outside their own. Mentoring across units could open those doors for leadership and career development, but a cross-business program is hard to run: it depends on every unit, every cycle.

Each cycle, the talent team has to recruit mentors, collect mentee nominations and confirmations from the business units, and review possible matches with talent and development colleagues. Participant information, learning priorities and the mentoring journey all have to line up before the first relationship begins.

Preparation was a second hurdle. Participants work in more than one language, so materials had to be easy to follow. Mentors and mentees also take on different jobs in the relationship, so one course for everyone would not prepare either side well.

Why Chronus

The group runs the program in Chronus, cycle after cycle, because it holds every step of a cross-business cohort in one place while leaving matching decisions with the people who know the participants.

• The talent team keeps the final say on matches. It reviews each proposed match and adds what it knows about participants to the platform's workflow.
• One place for the whole cycle. Participant profiles, the step-by-step plan each pair follows, learning content and reporting sit together.
• Reporting that shows what happens after matching. Meetings, messages, completed tasks and feedback sit next to what participants say, and the team uses both to prepare the next cohort.

I know our executives were very happy with the program, and that's why we continue with Chronus and keep driving it.

Mentoring program coordinator

The Solution

A cycle every business unit can follow

Each cohort follows the same path: mentor recruitment, a mentee registration window of about two weeks, under three weeks of matching, and a final check with each business unit before launch. Before each cohort opens, administrators also review participant communications, profile fields and how returning participants enroll again.

Preparation built for each role

Short courses sit inside the mentoring journey. Mentors take one on preparing for the role. Mentees take two: setting effective goals, and growing through discomfort. Both sides share two more, on how mentoring differs from coaching and sponsorship and on starting a mentoring relationship well. Before publishing, the team decided who sees each course and where it fits in the journey.

A step-by-step plan for each pair

Once matched, each pair works through a plan of concrete activities tied to the program's development goals, and schedules its meetings in the platform.

The Impact

Participants move into new roles, and stay

• 3 in 10 participants in the previous year's cohort moved into a new role, by promotion or lateral move
• Every participant in the previous cycle was still with the group when that cycle was reviewed

Satisfaction that keeps the program going

• 96% satisfaction among survey respondents in the current round
• All 50+ mentors and mentees who answered the recommendation question would recommend the program
• More than 85 mentors and mentees who completed a mentoring connection described the experience as positive

Preparation people use, and pairs that stay active

• More than 300 hours spent in the preparation courses
• 91% of mentoring connections recorded activity over the previous year
• More than 140 mentoring connections under way in the current round
• More than 400 meetings scheduled and more than 1,700 plan tasks completed across the program