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Attracting mentors to participate in a mentoring program is always challenging. That’s because people who qualify to be mentors are some of the busiest people in the world. They are senior employees, highly skilled at their jobs, often in leadership roles, and always trusted with more responsibilities as compared to their peers. So, when you ask someone like that to participate in your mentoring program, they simply do not have the bandwidth to do so.
Yet, many of our partners run highly successful mentoring programs that continue to attract new mentors year after year. So, we took some of our own knowledge about how to recruit mentors, combined that with what we learned from our partners, and compiled 17 tactics that will help you attract and engage mentors throughout your mentoring program. Use these tactics to overcome all obstacles and attract highly skilled mentors to your next program.
1. Create personas
One of the best ways to recruit mentors is to understand them deeply. To do this, you need to build personas.
Personas are fictional characters— created based on your research— to represent the types of people you want as mentors.
Creating personas helps you understand mentor needs, goals & motivations.
Use this information to craft segmented recruitment campaigns that resonate with potential mentors at a personal level.
2. Conduct a root cause analysis for low recruitment
Before launching mentor recruitment efforts, identify the issues that may cause low engagement and signups. Don’t just assume that lack of interest would be your biggest hurdle—dig deeper. Sometimes, issues like time constraints, unclear benefits of signing up for the program, and misaligned skills can cause low recruitment.
With the help of a root cause analysis, you will identify issues that potential mentors face and come up with strategies to address specific challenges. For example, if you find that time constraints are a big issue for potential mentors, you can offer flexible mentoring schedules from the start. Similarly, you can better communicate the value and impact of mentoring to increase mentor interest, and make sure they are matched with mentees whose needs align with their expertise.
Root cause analysis ensures you’re solving the right problem, not just treating symptoms.To conduct a root cause analysis before launching your recruitment efforts, you should:
- Survey potential mentors – Ask questions about their availability, motivations, and perceived barriers to participation.
- Conduct focus groups – Gather insights from small groups to understand deeper concerns and hesitations.
- Analyze past data – Review data from previous recruitment efforts to identify patterns in mentor drop-offs or low participation.
- Engage stakeholders – Talk to current mentors and program leaders to get their perspectives on challenges.
3. Use alternate channels of communication
The way people communicate is changing. Email communications are becoming less effective, and younger generations are migrating to channels like Slack, Teams, WeChat, Text, and more.
Some corporations even have a podcast or an internal social media platform that can help you reach a broader audience.
If creating communications for multiple channels seems overwhelming, get help from your communications department, employee resource groups, or current participants.
This can be a good way for mentees who are working on marketing and communication skills to practice. If your company uses gigs, create one and elicit volunteers to help you.
4. Build champion networks
Champions are people who repeatedly show up because they believe in the power of mentoring.
Let’s face it, repeated emails coming from a generic email box or even from a senior leader will have diminishing effectiveness.
Leveraging mentoring champions helps potential mentors understand the benefits from a personal perspective. Personal experiences resonate on an emotional level, giving social proof to the benefits of your program.
Champions also have their own networks that they influence, amplifying your message for you and helping you in promoting your program and recruiting mentors for future events.
5. Match mentor/mentee skills and needs
Match mentors with mentees based on aligned skills and needs. When mentors can directly apply their expertise to help their mentees, the relationship becomes more effective and rewarding. It also boosts mentor satisfaction, as they see the tangible impact of their guidance. This way, skill matching increases the likelihood that mentors will stay engaged and committed to the program.
Use mentor matching software like Together that have pairing algorithms for skill matching. Together’s algorithm analyzes both mentor and mentee profiles. It uses factors like skills, interests, and goals to create ideal pairs. This smart matching process increases the chances of successful and fulfilling mentorships, as both parties are aligned in what they can offer and what they need.
6. Partner up
Think about the people and communities who influence your ideal mentors. This will tell you how to ask a mentor to be a mentor.
Identify who they trust and where they already engage. Consider ERGs, corporate events, corporate sports leagues, clubs, or volunteer activities.
Partnering up with the leaders of those communities benefits them, your program, and community members.
7. Anchor mentoring to other development programs
Ask yourself: are there existing programs that could benefit from incorporating mentoring to solidify learning and drive accountability?
People don’t have time to participate in every program, so anchoring mentoring to other development activities gives employees the maximum benefit.
For example, could mentoring be part of your New Leader Development Program? Maybe a prerequisite to the program is building informal leadership skills as a mentor in your program.
When looking for opportunities, don’t forget to look for department-specific programs that might be less publicized. Get creative about building mutually beneficial partnerships to build awareness, knowledge, and skills.
8. Create a nomination process
Being nominated can give people a sense of pride.
It also shows them that someone in the organization recognizes and believes in them.
This can help attract people to your program who might be interested but don’t believe or realize they have a lot to offer.
9. Host panel discussions
Showcase your mentors and mentees by asking them to share their mentoring experiences, provide insights, and answer audience questions in panel discussions.
This is great exposure for your participants as it demonstrates their value and commitment to the organization while getting them in front of a larger network than they probably have.
It’s also one of the best ways to personalize mentoring for large groups in your company.
10. Build in gamification
Gamification is a strong motivator, and a little healthy competition can be great!
Seeing their name on a leaderboard or collecting tokens gives a mentor goals and keeps them coming back for more.
For example, Cooley LLP, an American international law firm, created a competitive ‘mentoring madness’ challenge. Attorneys had three weeks to ‘compete’ to be the best mentoring duo by completing weekly challenges such as:
- “Talk to your mentor about your personal brand.”
- “Give your mentee advice on internal networking.”
- “Arrange a shadowing opportunity for your mentee.”
- “Share your thoughts on what work /life balance means to you.”
The competition was a fun way to strengthen existing mentoring relationships and increase participation.
For your program, consider ways to gamify the experience. For instance,
- Set milestones for mentors and mentees that are easy to track and measure.
- Create email badges that mentors and mentees can earn. The badges can display a link to more information about your program. It’s a subtle way to create competition and generate interest.
11. Build training
Training is critical for participants to feel prepared and supported, especially for first-time mentors.
If you aren’t sure what participants need, get feedback through surveys or focus groups to create customer mentor training programs.
Look at the program’s inbox and review the frequently asked questions. Then create sustainable training solutions to build participant and program confidence and save you time!
12. Use external social media
In addition to internal channels, leveraging external channels to promote your program and celebrate success sends the message that mentoring is important to the company and can motivate employees to participate.
Publicly promoting mentoring can also help you attract top talent to your organization.
13. Celebrate January’s National Mentoring Month
Celebrating January’s National Mentoring Month helps bring awareness to mentoring. When planning activities, think about your company’s culture and choose activities people will participate in.
Here are a few suggestions:
- Have mentees write a note of gratitude as thanks for their mentor’s support and guidance. ProTip: Provide an official program e-card for mentees to personalize and send.
- If employees are working in person, suggest that mentees treat mentors to coffee.
- If employees are working remotely or from multiple locations, host a video conference where participants can share what mentoring means to them and any special stories about their experience.
- Schedule days when mentees can shadow mentors on the job and gain knowledge about different roles or fields.
- Have your CEO and Senior Leadership record a video thanking mentors and sharing what mentorship means to them.
The possibilities are endless, so get a group together and brainstorm. Have fun with it!
14. Host a speed mentoring event
Speed mentoring is a great way to recruit mentors because it quickly shows the power of mentoring and expands their reach in the organization, helping them build confidence and motivation to become a formal mentor.
15. Plan regular check-ins for sustained engagement
Keeping mentors engaged after the initial match will help you turn them into champions for future mentoring programs. Regular check-ins, ongoing support, and recognition will keep mentors motivated and involved. By maintaining an active connection with mentors, you reinforce their value to the program, making them more likely to stay committed. Sustained engagement ensures long-term success and deepens the mentor-mentee relationship, which will lead to more meaningful outcomes.
Here’s what you should do to keep mentors engaged throughout the program:
- Regular check-ins: Schedule consistent follow-ups to offer support, gather feedback, and address any challenges mentors might face.
- Ongoing training and development: Provide opportunities for mentors to enhance their skills through workshops, webinars, or additional resources.
- Recognition and appreciation: Acknowledge mentors’ contributions through public recognition, certificates, or small tokens of appreciation, reinforcing their value to the program.
16. Celebrate mentors in meaningful ways
A simple, personalized thank-you from the mentoring team, their mentor, or sponsors can go a long way to help mentors feel appreciated. Public recognition is always motivating for mentors.
Reward 5-Star mentors with mentee testimonials posted on your site or create Mentor(s) of the Month feature articles. If you have a program where colleagues can nominate one another for rewards or give shoutouts, encourage mentees to use it (with appropriate guidance.)
You can also create opportunities for public recognition from mentees to their mentors, such as hosting a monthly webinar with a mentoring pair and publishing their stories on popular channels within your organization.
Offer badges and certificates to recognize and reward participants in mentoring programs. These digital accolades help acknowledge achievements, motivate continued engagement, and provide a tangible way to celebrate contributions.
17. Revisit your design
Your program design may be hindering mentor participation. Revisit program timing, mentee needs, and structure to look for areas of opportunity.
Timing
Be sure to consider business needs, time zones, and culture. For example:
- Accountants in the US won’t be able to mentor during their busy season.
- If annual enrollment is during Chinese New Year, when many employees in China have a holiday, they won’t be likely to enroll in time and participate.
Mentee Needs
If mentee development needs are shifting, you may have to revise your mentor requirements and adjust who you are recruiting.
Structure
Consider alternate structures like group, peer or virtual mentoring to maximize your mentor pool. You may not need to change the whole program, but this strategy can be useful where you have pockets of mentor deficit.
Recruit mentors with Events
Together’s Events tool helps in recruiting mentors by organizing and promoting events such as informational sessions, webinars, or networking events specifically aimed at attracting potential mentors. By integrating these events with participants' calendars, the tool makes sure that potential mentors are well-informed and engaged, increasing the likelihood of their involvement in the mentoring program. Additionally, these events can serve as platforms to highlight the benefits of becoming a mentor.
Together's Events tool simplifies the planning and management of all mentoring-related events. Sign up for a demo and see it in action today.
