I currently work within a large voluntary sector organisation. The majority of staff within the Northern Region work at small locally based projects, but are managed through the Regional Office. I have been looking in to the possibility of using mentors or buddys as part of the induction of new staff within the region and wondered if anyone had any ideas as to how this might work with staff being so far apart. If anyone has any ideas please could they help?
Thanks
Jess
Jessica Ball
4 Responses
Someone Who Can Help
Hi Jessica,
I have a colleague who may be able to give you some great advice on mentoring programmes. Her names is Alessandra Alonso and her e-mail is a.alonso@shinepeopleandplaces.co.uk and her telephone number is 0208 3718540. She runs a mentoring organisation and I’m sure will be happy to point you in the right direction.
best wishes
Annie Lawler
Breathing Space for Business
Perhaps I can help?
Jessica
Perhaps I could help you with an informal system that I’ve been involved with myself in one CIPD region (as a mentor) and have since also put in place successfuly elsewhere.
philipobrien@usa.net
Try Ann at Amethyst
Ann Holloway at Amethyst is the best person I know to advise you on mentoring. You can email her at ann@amethyst-learning.co.uk.
Hope this helps
Jane
Buddy coaching
Hello
I have been involved in setting up internal buddy coaching/mentoring and it can work even if buddies are not working in the same offices. If they are in an induction programme can I assume that buddies would meet each other initially as part of the induction process. If not then having an initial meeting face to face would bring alot of benefits in building rapport and trust between the buddies.
Those who take on the coach/mentor role do need to have some training in coaching skills and a book I would recommend to help with this is Nancy Kline’s ‘Time to Think’. The principles in the book are easy to apply and can be practiced in workshops – Nancy’s approach helps pairs coach/mentor each other by giving each other the space to talk through an issue or concern – this can be done as easily over the phone as it can face to face(often phone coaching/mentoring can be more focused and time efficient).
I hope this has given you some food for thought. If you would like to know more please don’t hesitate to be in contact.
Anna
(anna@elancoaching.co.uk)