Alumni Blog

Designing a Mentoring Program for Onboarding

Traditional onboarding programs can leave a lot to be desired. You’ve been there – the paperwork, the rushed office tour, the introductions. You may feel like nothing was done besides the tax forms. You may be right, because 58% of organizations report their onboarding program consists only of pro... More

3 Types of Mentoring Programs for the Workplace

Mentoring relationships are mutually beneficial, meaning they benefit both mentors and mentees. When both parties develop simultaneously, your entire organization benefits overall. Organizational benefits of mentoring can include increase employee retention, higher employee engagement, and even bett... More

Benefits of Cross-Generational Mentoring

Cross-generational mentoring is defined as pairing individuals from different generations with the goal of mutual learning and growth. Through mentoring relationship where multiple generations share experiences, skills, and knowledge, employees are able to create a bridge. This bridge will eliminat... More

3 Ways For Matching Mentors and Mentees

Successful mentorships in formal mentoring programs should always start with a strategized mentor matching process. This approach allows for strategic mentor matches to be made based on the qualifications of the mentors. There should always be a plan for matching mentors and mentees before the prog... More

Tips for Planning a Mentoring Program for Diversity

In today’s organizations, managers must respond to the needs of increasingly diverse employees. Many organizations have instituted diversity training programs. This has helped them understand and utilize the unique contributions of all employees by creating an inclusive work environment. However, o... More

How Mentoring Can Benefit Women in Leadership

Women have been making a name for themselves in organizations all over the world. They are taking their career goals to the next level and claiming positions they have worked very hard for. Despite this, many top positions within organizations are still held by men. Because of this, some women are ... More

How to Overcome Challenges as a Coach

Corporate coachingcan be a challenging experience for both parties involved, but these challenges don’t have to hinder the success of the relationship. Not everyone is meant to be a coach. Coaching takes time, skill, and careful planning in order for it to be successful. It also requires that the c... More

Facilitating Leadership Development Through Management Mentoring

Growing leadership expertise in a short period of time within an organization is a continuous challenge. The speed of projects and the increasing need for innovation has resulted in some quick promotions. These promotions can leave individuals in management positions with little to no experience or ... More

Team Mentoring in the Workplace

Mentoring has evolved to fit the needs of current corporate trends through the years. It goes further now than informal relationships between professions formed through networking. Mentoring is often positioned as a learning and development strategy used to further employee development and increase ... More

Common Problems in Mentoring Programs

Mentoring programs provide a malleable solution to any talent development problem. They can be used in any size organization with any number of participants. Mentoring also provides solutions to certain organizational problems such as how to retain employees and how to improve employee engagement. ... More

Criteria for Matching Mentors and Mentees for Career Development

Career development is no longer an optional benefit for you to offer. Your employees are demanding it, especially your millennials. In fact, 87% of millennials say career development opportunities are an important factor when choosing an organization. A great way to satisfy this need for career dev... More

Including Your Corporate Alumni in Employee Development

Corporate alumni networks mimic university alumni networks by retaining relationships with former employees. You may be wondering why an organization would do that? The answer is simple. Those former employees can still bring benefits, especially when they are included in employee development. The... More

Benefits of Corporate Mentoring for Your Organization

Doing successful business in today’s corporate world means finding low-cost, high-quality solutions for your organization’s needs. Your greatest asset for this is often your employees and their knowledge capital. That means a great employee development strategy will translate into profitable results... More

Best Practices for Creating a Career Development Program

Career development programs today are no longer optional. Employees want development, and they want it through their workplace. Providing a great career development program is a gateway for improving employee engagement, increasing employee retention, and creating good company culture. This makes a ... More

Measuring the Success of Mentoring Programs

Over the past decade, wehave seenanincrease in the number oforganizationsthat want toincorporatementoringinto their culture.This is because mentoring continuously proves to be effective as an employee engagement strategy. Mentoring also facilitated employee development and internal networking. With... More

Improving Mentor and Mentee Engagement

It’s true that starting a mentoring program requires a lot of investment. You’ve likely spent a lot of time preparing matches, creating objectives, and establishing a timeline. Sometimes all the planning can overlook important aspects, like how to improve employee engagement with the program. Your p... More

Pros and Cons of Virtual Mentoring for Your Organization

Knowledge transfer is a major way that organizations pass on proficiencies and skills from one individual to another. This prevents knowledge loss when an employee leaves, and it provides an excellent source of employee development through peers. Using mentoring in the workplace is a great way to en... More

Flash Mentoring for Your Organization

In the workplace, there are often daily opportunities for talent development. Individuals should be exposed to these opportunities as frequently as possible to increase employee retention and improve employee engagement. If you have implemented a mentoring program to complete your talent developm... More

4 Benefits of Speed Mentoring

Many people would say that speed mentoring is like speed dating, and they wouldn’t be completely wrong. Speed mentoring is a series of short, focused conversations about specific questions. These conversations involve a one-on-one interaction between a mentee and mentor. The mentee rotates to sev... More

Mentoring Programs for Leadership Development

Providing a mentor to high-potential employees can be one of the greatest resources available to them. Not only are you improving your succession pipeline, you are creating exceptional leaders that are going to stay within your organization. There are significant differences between leadership men... More

Tips for Being a Good Mentor

It’s a common misconception that mentoring programs are focused solely on the mentee. It is true that the mentee is essential in driving the mentoring relationship. However, the mentor leads the mentee down the path to success. Without that guidance no goals can be met. That makes the mentor a vita... More

5 Best Practices When Coaching Employees

Employees want corporate coaching. In fact, 72% say it boosts their performance and 68% say it improves their satisfaction at work. Simply implementing a coaching program isn't always enough though. It has to be effective and promote employee success. The Coaching conundrum, according to BlessingWhi... More

Qualifying and Matching the Right Mentors

Have you been around any single people in the last decade? If your answer is yes, you have likely been exposed to online dating. Online dating has become a popular way for people of all ages to find their "perfect match". These matches are found using an algorithm that qualifies participants based o... More

Benefits of Coaching for Your Organization

Coaching for talent development is not a new concept. Coaching programs are usually implemented so participants can improve skills they may lack and refine the ones they have. Because of this, corporate coaching is considered one of the first steps to improve an individual’s performance within an or... More

The Importance of Training Your Mentors

A great mentor is a priceless asset to an organization. They pass valuable skills, knowledge, and insights onto a mentee to aid them in career development. However, they don’t just wake up ready to be a mentor. Before your mentoring program starts, you need to be sure your mentors are ready to inve... More

Cross-Generational Mentoring for Your Organization

Traditional mentoring requires a senior-level employee mentoring a junior-level employee. The senior employee is expected to impart wisdom and knowledge on the junior, increasing employee engagement in the workplace. This type of mentoring is also used to increase employee retention rates and promo... More

The Benefits of Reverse Mentoring for Your Organization

Time and time again, traditional mentoring in the workplace has proven to be an effective way to develop employees. Organizations that have been willing to invest in traditional mentoring have seen undeniable benefits. Their workforce has grown, and mentors and mentees have become more engaged and p... More

Career Development Mentoring Benefits

The workforce is becoming more diverse every day. The increase in diversity means that the focus of a mentoring program should be well defined and fit the necessary objectives. Many individuals are demanding a mentoring program that isn’t just put in place, but is also very specific to their needs.... More

Steps for Marketing Your Mentoring Program

Launching a mentoring program involves a large investment from your organization. Your time, effort, and money need to see significant return. However, you will not prove the worth of the investment without marketing your mentoring program from the very beginning. But why is it so important? Like ... More

Career Development Challenges

The benefits of learning and career development in your workplace are obvious. Of course, this is not to say that it is easy to achieve. As you’re encouraging a career development culture, you must be aware of the preexisting challenges. These challenges may limit the way development occurs. It’s im... More

Tips for Measuring the Success of Mentorships

The basic goal for any talent development program, including mentoring, is success. You invest your time, effort, and money into your programs, and you expect to see some sort of result. But how do you know when a mentorship is successful? You’ll have to measure. For a lot of things, measuring succ... More

Using Mentoring as a Talent Development Strategy

When we say talent development, you might automatically think of training. While training is widely used and effective, it can also be expensive. There must be a more cost-efficient method for successful talent development, right? Our answer is mentoring. Mentoring as a talent development strategy i... More

Importance of Leadership Development

When developing effective leaders, many organizations tend to fall short. You may be thinking that a person can't be placed in a leadership role with no leadership development. Well, it happens. A lack of leadership development impacts your organization in many ways. It can result in high turnover,... More

Overcoming Barriers to Mentoring

Mentoring in the workplace is widely popular today. In fact, 71% of Fortune 500 companies have mentoring programs for their employees. Not only is it widely implemented, but the benefits of mentoring make it a solid and worthwhile investment. But just like becoming a Fortune 500 company, mentoring p... More

3 Reasons Employee Retention is Important

Your organization probably has an employee retention strategy in place. There's a good chance that it includes a number of talent development programs or awesome employee benefits. You may even use an employee engagement strategy to increase your retention rates. But do you know why employee retent... More

What is Company Culture?

"If you are lucky enough to be someone’s employer, then you have a moral obligation to make sure people do look forward to coming to work in the morning.”-John Mackey, CEO, Whole Foods Market Employee engagement and employee retention have become common subjects throughout human resource office... More

6 Challenges of Mentoring

If you’ve considered implementing a mentoring program for your organization, you are on the right track for creating a positive company culture. Mentoring programs can bring many benefits to an organization and its mentors and mentees but implementing a program may come with a few challenges. Fortu... More

Best Practices for Matching Mentors and Mentees

Implementing a mentoring program requires a lot of work, but the benefits of mentoring show that the effort is worth it. These benefits may be elusive, however, if you do not properly match your participants for the best outcome. Because of the importance of compatible matches, mentor matching shoul... More

Top Tips For Being a Good Mentee

When dealing with a mentorship, there are a few things that need to be taken into consideration. A good mentor is constantly aware of and improving their skills, so you must learn to continuously progress as a mentee. If you and your mentor fit together symbiotically, the mentorship will blossom int... More

Tips for Improving Employee Engagement

Can you believe that only 1 in 10 firms are happy with their current levels of employee engagement? This becomes a serious issue when you realize how much your organization could be losing due to low employee engagement levels. According to Gallup, actively disengaged employees cost organizations be... More

4 Employee Engagement Strategies

When you think of the term “employee engagement,” what comes to mind? Perhaps a workplace of highly productive, problem-solving individuals or teams that collaborate seamlessly and harmoniously. If so, then you would be right. To get a little more formal, employee engagement is the extent to which a... More

6 Benefits of Coaching

If you’ve ever been in a coaching relationship, you know that there are many benefits to being a part of the process. The personal benefits of coaching are wide-ranging and can positively impact an individual’s career if they are engaging with their coach. This process can help develop individuals ... More

Finding Return on Relationship in Corporate Alumni Networks

I’m sure you know what return on investment is and that it’s very important in business, but did you know that return on relationship, or ROR, is also important? We did a poll during our webinar Discovering the ROI of Corporate Alumni Networks and found out that 67% of the participants had never hea... More

Differences Between a Mentor and a Coach

When talking talent development, there are a few options to choose from. Some you may have heard of are mentoring and coaching. While very similar, mentoring and coaching are different things. If you have read about the differences between mentoring and coaching but are still confused, you may need ... More

19 Advantages of Mentoring in the Workplace

Mentoring has shown to be one of the most valuable and effective development opportunities an organization can offer employees, per the numbers. Having the guidance, encouragement, and support of a trusted and experienced mentor can provide a mentee with a broad range of personal and professional ... More

How Mentoring Software Can Increase Mentor Matching Success

We are living in a world dominated by algorithms. Think about it. How many times a day do you use an algorithm without even knowing it? Did you search for a new recipe on Google? Google used an algorithm to give you the best search result for that recipe. Did you get on Facebook and scroll throug... More

3 Ways Your Boomerang Employees Improve Organizational Productivity

There are numerous benefits of maintaining alumni relationships, including the presence of boomerang employees. A boomerang employee is an individual that left your organization but wants to return. It may seem strange that you would want a former employee to return to your organization, but there a... More

Reasons Your Corporate Alumni Need Alumni Software

Alumni networks have become a hot topic as individuals are no longer staying with an organization for life. Implementing an alumni network is giving organizations that opportunity to maintain lifelong relationships with these former employees and reap the many benefits associated with doing so. As a... More

Maintaining a Successful Coaching Relationship

Corporate coaching has historically been a way to kindly escort bad executives out of their positions. However corporate coaching has evolved into something much different. It is now offered to a broader variety of leaders within an organization, and its intent is to improve them in their roles rath... More

How Mentoring Can Improve Stress

If you experience stress in your life, you are not alone. 80% of Americans reported at least one symptom of stress in the last month. But this is not just an American problem. Stress is proving to be a global issue. In fact, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence reported that 13.7 mi... More

2 Tools for Your Role as a Mentor

As a mentor, you act as a friend, role model, and guide to your mentee. They are looking to better themselves through the relationship, and you should too. Why? Because as a mentor, you can receive just as many benefits as the mentee. The benefits of being a mentor include improving communication sk... More

Mentoring Women: Overcome Challenges in the Workplace

Working women own over 10 million businesses and make up almost 47% of the workforce. While women account for almost half of all workers, they only hold a small percentage of executive positions. In fact, some male-dominated industries often see no women in their executive positions. It is important... More

How to Increase Engagement of Your Alumni Network

Investing in a corporate alumni program brings many benefits to an organization. These benefits can include alumni acting as brand ambassadors, candidates for new and returning employment, and potential sales opportunities. To receive these benefits, your alumni network, participants must be engaged... More

5 Benefits of Implementing Leadership Coaching

It is known that leaders are at the core of organizations. However, shocking leadership development statistics show that 71% of companies do not feel their current leaders are able to carry their organization into the future. In order to combat these statistics, organizations are implementing a coac... More

Benefits of Maintaining Alumni Relationships

Why are corporate alumni relationships important if the alumni no longer work for your organization? Alumni can deliver assets to your organization long after they leave. Maintaining engaged alumni relationships gives both the organization and the alumni a chance to receive benefits. Here are 4 ben... More

Improving Productivity Through Mentoring

Did you know that the top 1% of productive individuals add about $5,000 in profits for an organization every year? This is because 38% of individuals with above-average productivity are engaged. Mentoring is a tool that many organizations find useful for increasing employee engagement and ultimately... More

Traditional Mentoring vs Modern Mentoring

When you hear the word “mentoring,” what comes to mind? Most people think of a one-on-one interaction with a senior level individual teaching a junior level individual without the use of technology. If this is the case, you’re thinking of traditional mentoring. As the workforce continues to become ... More

3 Signs Your Mentoring Relationship is Not Working

If you’ve been in a mentoring relationship that didn’t end well, then you can probably understand the consequences it has for participants and the organization. It’s important to recognize these signs early so the program doesn’t lose credibility and participants in every mentoring relationship stay... More

4 Ways to Effectively Combine Formal and Informal Mentoring

Do you know the difference between formal and informal mentoring? Formal mentoring is a well-structured, highly organized program. There is typically a set agenda, length, and mentoring match. Informal mentoring is much more lenient. Goals are unspecified, outcomes are unknown, and mentees normally... More

Women in Mentoring: The Mentee

Did you know that gender diversity on an executive level enhances an organization’s performance? When researching women in management, we found that women only hold 24% of senior roles across the globe, and that there is an abundance of global organizations that do not have women in any senior posit... More

Modern Mentoring: Where has this Evolution of Mentoring Led Us?

Traditional mentoring is evolving with the advancements in technology that are making their way into the workplace. These evolved types of mentoring have been termed modern mentoring. Modern mentoring has become a popular way for organizations to attract and retain younger generations of employees,... More

How to Increase Millennial Engagement Through Mentoring

It’s been said that Millennials are the least engaged generation in the workplace, and some studies are proving that to be true. In fact, it’s been found that only 29% of millennials are engaged at work. Why does that statistic matter? Because engaged millennials are 64% less likely to say they will... More

Do's and Don'ts of Mentoring Millennials

Did you know that 79%of Millennialsbelieve thatmentorship programs are crucialto theircareer success? That’s a large percentage and one that organizations should be paying attention to. But is it enough just to have a mentoring program for your millennial workforce? We don’t think so. Millennials d... More

Mentoring Programs: Creating a Positive Company Culture

According to a Deloittestudy, 94% of executives and 88% of employees believe a distinctcompanyculture is important to business success.Company culture is illustrated by employee attitudes toward the company, as well as overall values and work ethic. These executives and employees stress the import... More

Ways to Attract and Maintain Millennial Talent

53%of hiring managers say it’s difficult to find and retain millennials. With the quick growth rate of millennials entering the workforce, we find this challenge costing organizations billions of dollars every year. Luckily, we’ve found 5 ways to combat the challenge of attracting and retaining mil... More

Benefits of Knowledge Sharing Through Your Corporate Alumni Network

As you’ve read in previous articles, mentoring is a great knowledge sharing source for your employees, but so is your corporate alumni network. There are many benefits to keeping an actively connected alumni network, such as gaining access to more skilled workers and raising brand awareness. However... More

3 Types of Mentor Matching: The Pros and Cons

There are several methods that can be used in the mentor matching process. No matter which method your organization chooses, we recommend simplifying the process by using mentor matching software. When using this software to facilitate mentor-matching, you should also recognize your top priorities:... More

Benefits of Diversity Mentoring

You always hear about how diversity improves the workplace, but has your organization made the adjustment? Although your company may be doing well with the same demographic working throughout the office, a more diverse work-space can only improve productivity. You'd be surprised at what can be accom... More

Increasing Employee Engagement Through Coaching

Improving employee engagement can be one of the most critical aspects in the success of an organization. When an employee loves their company and is motivated to make a positive contribution, their hard work reflects this engagement. This is equally true when an employee is under performing and i... More

The Impact of Bad Mentor Matching in Your Organization

Engaged employees are the backbone of every successful organization. Implementing a mentoring program focuses on employees that are willing to learn and grow with the company. These employees become more engaged through their mentoring relationship and tend to have longer retention rates. It's been ... More

Attract Millennials to your Corporate Alumni Network

Millennials are the elusive generation that everyone seems to be chasing. They are shaping the workplaces of tomorrow and demanding more from the organizations that they join. Their values have made an extreme impact on company culture and looking deeper into the value that you can provide them. Wi... More

Different Ways to Develop Career Capital

When people hear the word capital, they usually think about money, but did you know that you can develop career capital? Career capital are the rare and valuable skills that you have that can be used as leverage in defining your career. To get that amazing career that you’vebeen dreaming of, you mu... More

5 Tips to Help Find Time for Mentoring

If I’m being honest, I’m not great at prioritizing, especially when I feel like I don’t have enough time. Exercising is one of those things that gets pushed to the bottom of my priority list. I know that I need to exercise, but it just seems like I never have the time. I’m sure there are a lot of pe... More

Using a Mentoring Program to Enhance Employee Engagement

Employee retention has become one of the biggest challenges facing organizations today. A key factor in increasing employee retention, is developing employee engagement. When individuals are truly engaged, they are less likely to seek opportunities elsewhere. Organizations are finding success in in... More

3 Types of Mentoring for Millennial Talent

It’s no surprise that millennials are taking over the workforce, especially since 50% of the world’s population is under the age of 30. In fact, it has been estimated that by 2025, 75% of the workforce will be millennials. With this information in hand, organizations are taking a hard look at what ... More

Retaining the Millennial Workforce with Career Development

There are hundreds of studies and statistics given about millennials in the workplace. Some people view millennials as lazy, impatient, job-hoppers, while others would say they are entrepreneurial individuals that strive to excel and cherish a work/life balance. No matter what your opinion is, it’s... More

Benefits of Hiring from Your Corporate Alumni Network

One of the great benefits of implementing an alumni network for your organization is the increased possibility of re-hiring employees. These re-hires, also called boomerang employees, may have left your organization, but because they chose to be part of your alumni network, they are usually still v... More

Benefits of Coaching Software

Coaching programs are beneficial to an organization when they are planned, implemented, and managed correctly. As we’ve said when talking about any of our career development programs, planning is always the first step and when making your plan, you should always consider what technology can do. Imp... More

Why Invest in Mentor and Mentee Training?

The mentoring relationship can sometimes seem like the easiest part of a mentoring program. Everyone talks a lot about the planning, processes, and execution that goes into a mentoring program, but we believe that sometimes they forget that the real success is dependent on whether these mentoring re... More

How Your Alumni Can Increase Brand Awareness

When thinking about an alumni network, some organizations can’t see the big picture. Sure, these individuals left, but that doesn’t mean they don’t still want to be associated with you and it definitely doesn’t mean you can’t still benefit from them. Some benefits that organizations are seeing from... More

How to Enable Knowledge Sharing Through Mentoring Programs

Knowledge sharing is defined as an activity through which knowledge is exchanged through people. This knowledge centers around information, skills, and even expertise. Many organizations are starting to realize that they can gain many benefits when they promote knowledge sharing. These benefits in... More

Importance of Offboarding for your Alumni Network

Organizations put a lot of time and money into hiring and training an employee, so when they leave, it is usually seen as a bad thing. Luckily, many organizations are starting to figure out how to continue to benefit from their previous employees through implementing an alumni network. We’ve mentio... More

Developing Future Leaders Through Mentoring

Providing a mentor to high potential employees can be one of the greatest resources available to them. Studies have shown that not only does having a mentor increase the expected tenure of your leaders, but it also promotes greater company loyalty. So, you are able to improve your succession pipeli... More

Benefits of Providing Mentoring to Your Alumni Network

Many times, we talk about mentoring and alumni networks as two separate programs for your organization, and most of the time they are. But have you ever considered the benefits of bringing these two amazing programs together? That’s right, we are talking about connecting your alumni with your curre... More

5 Tips for Implementing a Corporate Alumni Network

Organizations are looking for success with any program that they implement, but they often wonder how success can be captured for a program that is centered around individuals that are no longer a part of the organization. Well, that’s simple, don’t let them say goodbye. Here are 5 tips on how to i... More

Empowering Women Leaders With Mentoring

For some women, embarking on a leadership path in their career can seem like a difficult journey. This is because the climb up the corporate ladder is very different for men and women. Although women have made great strides in the workplace, inequality and double-standards still exist, and these ... More

5 Tips to Help Your Mentoring Relationship

A traditional mentoring relationship revolves around two parties- the mentor and the mentee. Each of these individuals has a specific “job description” associated with their role and each role must be fulfilled in to have a successful relationship. Mentoring program rely on these successful relatio... More

3 Challenges for Organizations When Recruiting Mentors

When implementing a mentoring program, a key element to success is the recruitment of willing and capable mentors. These mentors are expected to be volunteers that will make the mentoring relationship a priority and be fully engaged with their mentee. It may seem easy to find these people in your o... More

4 Tips for a Successful Corporate Alumni Program

It’s safe for us to assume that you aren’t just looking to implement a Corporate Alumni Program for your organization and hope that it does well. We know that simply having a program isn’t enough because what you really want is for it to be successful. Implementing a Corporate Alumni Program can b... More

Best Practices When Managing Your Corporate Alumni Network

Organizations today have an incredible opportunity to harness the power of their alumni to create brand ambassadors, develop their business, and enhance their culture. Lifelong relationships with alumni can open many new doors for organizations that were previously inaccessible to them, or that the... More

How a Mentoring Program Can Help Attract the Top Talent You Need

It’s really no secret that attracting top talent means that your organization needs to provide top opportunities. These opportunities aren’t just a nice office and a reasonable salary. Today’s workforce is looking for more than just the standard expectations. They are looking at your entire organiz... More

Tips to Keep Mentors and Mentees Engaged

Many individuals know the benefits of participating in a mentoring program, but there are times that the benefits may not be enough to keep them engaged. A lack of motivation, time, or energy lead to the disengagement of mentors and mentees who were ready and willing to put in the work needed to rea... More

How Reverse Mentoring Benefits Your Organization

Organizations around the world are embracing a wide variety of modern mentoring models, including reverse mentoring. Reverse mentoring is a program in which the traditional mentoring roles are reversed. Per Dr. David Clutterback, reverse mentoring is most significantly used to address the issue of ... More

5 Tips for the Right Reverse Mentoring Relationship

When people think about mentoring, they picture a senior level employee as the mentor and a junior level employee as the mentee. This traditional style of mentoring is what many organizations have become accustomed to, but are they falling behind the times? With the continued changes being made in ... More

3 Reasons to Implement a Modern Mentoring Program

Traditional, one-to-one mentoring has been around for centuries, but with the technological advancements being made in today’s organizations, modern mentoring is becoming more popular. Modern mentoring goes beyond the traditional mentoring model and embraces a wide variety of models that organizati... More

How to Attract Millennials Through Mentoring Programs

Over the past 5 years, millennials have become the majority in the workforce. This younger generation has perplexed many employers, but their skill and work ethic has made them valuable. Organizations are looking for new and exciting ways to attract the right millennial candidates and keep them aro... More

4 Reasons Your Organization Should Invest in an Alumni Network

Having a life-long job is becoming a thing of the past. People are becoming more conscious of their career development needs and moving to new organizations that they feel will help them move forward on their career path. While many organizations are seeing more employees leaving, it’s important th... More

6 Tips for Increasing Your Corporate Alumni Engagement

With the success of several well-known boomerangs, former employees that are rehired by an organization, and the use of social media networks like LinkedIn, corporate alumni programs are becoming more popular every year. But just because your organization has an alumni network doesn’t mean that it ... More

Launching Your Successful Mentoring Program in 12 Weeks

Mentoring programs can provide many benefits for an organization and the program’s individual participants. These benefits vary depending on the type of program implemented, but if you want to see any benefits at all there is always one thing that must happen. Your organization must have a plan to ... More

5 Steps for Maintaining a Successful Mentoring Program

Any organization can start a mentoring program, but simply starting a program does not guarantee that it will be successful. Your goal when developing any business strategy should be its continued success and mentoring is no different. To ensure that your mentoring program has a long and successful... More

Mentoring Programs - The Unique Approach to Employee Retention

According to Deloitte’s 2016 Millennial Survey, millennials now occupy the largest share in the labor market (32%). This makes the absence of millennial company loyalty, engagement, and retention pressing and important business concerns. Of millennials surveyed, Deloitte reports that almost 2/3 are ... More

What Is Coaching?

Coaching is considered one of the first steps to improve an employee’s performance within an organization. Throughout many organizations, coaching programs have been implemented to give employees the opportunity to focus on the skills they may be lacking and become more proficient when performing ... More

3 Reasons That Employees Leave

Employees leave companies every day, and as the millennials start taking over the work force, the employee retention rate is continuing to drop. These employees don’t have the sense of company loyalty and engagement that they need to make a long-term commitment to an organization. These are issues ... More

Creating a Successful Mentoring Program for Career Development

If you thinking of launching a mentoring program, you probably already know the great benefits it can bring to your organization and specifically to your employees. We have seen many companies design a mentoring program that enables career development to assist with employee retention and engagem... More

The Benefits of Mentoring Software

If you are considering of using software to manage your mentoring program, you need to be clear on the benefits first before taking the next step to search for a mentoring software provider. With any piece of software it will reduce time and make it more efficient, but you need to get a more spec... More

Successful Mentoring Relationships: 6 Tips for Mentees

Have you ever had a mentor? Was it a good or bad experience? It may have been a great experience, you both got on as friends, but did learning actually take place? Here are 6 tips to ensure learning takes place next time. Understand how mentoring relationship works - It’s not coaching. The bi... More

Mentoring New Hires in the Financial Services Sector

A key part of talent development is mentoring.[Tweet This]In addition to evaluating the initial talent of a new hire, companies in the Financial Services (FS) sector benefit greatly from pairing new talent with a seasoned veteran to help them acclimate to their environment and achieve their perform... More

Making the Most of Mentor Meetings

"The great dividing line between success and failure can be expressed in five words: 'I did not have time'." – Franklin Field Book the Time for Your Mentor Meeting Upfront How many times have you postponed a meeting, event, or activity because it wasn’t booked into your calendar… and someone e... More

Assessing Career Development Culture for Your Organization

This could be your employee moving toward clear career development goals. After the training and on-boarding conclude, when does your organization begin promoting its career development culture?[ Tweet This ]... More

How To Manage the Transitioning Workforce

You’re currently investing too much in employees to let that investment go every time an employee relocates, is promoted, or leaves the company entirely. So the question is, how can we handle talent shifting around? When it comes to people leaving the organization entirely, that’s a conversatio... More

Challenges of Large Alumni Programs

Alumni program challenges for any organization will differ depending on the size of the alumni program that is to be launched. It’s essential to firstly understand these challenges before the alumni program commences. In addition, adhering to the below solutions provided will result in positive fee... More

How to Build a Corporate Alumni Network

Building an alumni network from the ground up can be difficult. Luckily, we have plenty of experience helping a diverse range of organizations do this. Here are a few items you should consider when building acorporate alumni network. Decide on the population pool early: What kind of criteria... More

Brain Drain: The Importance of Staying Connected

Bhumi is an Indian citizen and has recently completed her medical studies. Although she is from Delhi, India, she has now accepted a job in London on the NHS (Nation Health Services). Bhumi, like many other Indian nationals, represents a type of brain drain for the country of India. Brain Drain ref... More

Mentoring Millennial Leaders in Your Organization

Millennials, often referred to as Generation Y, are the "hot topic" in the workforce. Using proper mentoring solutions, with acknowledging their needs, wants, and traits, an organization could have a drastic positive influence. But first it is necessary to understand these Millennials - with what... More

Mentoring and Training- How They Work Together

While training classes are widely available for any learning need, they can become costly. The time spent away from the office and various travel expenses, as well as the cost to take the course calls for an immense commitment of both time and money from your organization. In a poll taken during one... More

Effective Alumni Networking for a Job Search

Looking to change careers, but all you’ve got is an alumni contact list full of people in your current industry? If you’re going to look for a job within your corporate alumni network , it’s best to approach the right people . If you share an alumni at ABC incorporated, then you should target y... More

Top Mentoring Program FAQ

We’ve found that people involved with running mentoring programs at their organization tend to have a lot of the same frequently asked questions about mentoring. Take a look below: How can I qualify mentors? Firstly, let them self-assess out as necessary, by letting all your potential mentors kno... More

Tips for Thanking Your Mentor

Although January 19 is recognized as "Thank Your Mentor Day," you don't have to wait another year to reach out to your mentor! Whether you're new in the mentoring program, a mentor who's had a mentor, or a graduate of the mentoring program, giving thanks to an employee who's contributed to your pro... More

Overcoming Communication Barriers

There is a wealth of knowledge to be gained from all individuals, ages, and levels within the organization. Having multiple generations not only working together but listening, communicating, and working to develop each other is a boon in many areas, including creativity in problem solving. Man... More

The Difference Between Formal and Informal Mentoring

In our last poll that we ran in our webinar, 71% of respondents reported that they found a combination of formal and informal mentoring to be more effective than just formal mentoring or just informal mentoring. We’ve definitely found at Insala that informal mentoring enhances formal mentoring [C... More

5 Reasons to Volunteer as a Mentor

When recruiting mentor volunteers in your new mentoring program a question that comes up is: why should I volunteer? Below are 5 great reasons you should volunteer and the positive effects that deliver in the mentor-mentee relationship. The "Do Good" Effect In a mentor-mentee relation... More

How To Manage a Transitioning Workforce

You’re currently investing too much in employees to let that investment go every time an employee relocates, is promoted, or leaves the company entirely. So the question is, how can we handle talent shifting around? When it comes to people leaving the organization entirely, that’s a conv... More

Your Alumni as Brand Ambassadors

Corporations are the new alma maters: companies are retaining and managing their connections with ex-employees (corporate alumni) in a trend dubbed “corporate social networking” (CSN). Corporate branding has become more indicative of competitive market advantage than product branding. Alumni admira... More

How to Build Your Corporate Alumni Network

Building an alumni network from the ground up can be difficult. Luckily, we have plenty of experience helping a diverse range of organizations do this. Here are a few items you should consider when building acorporate alumni network. Decide on the population pool early: What kind of criteria wi... More

The Power of Alumni Networks

It’s unfair to believe that your employees will want to stay with you forever. Nobody plans to work in the same office for 30 years. It just sort of happens. Or it used to. [ Click to Tweet] It is currently estimated that Millennials will hold 12-15 jobs in their lifetime, which means that ... More

Reasons Diversity Important for the Workplace

We live in a world that is constantly changing - where minorities are becoming majorities - and from 1998 to 2008 a growth of 41 percent of employees were non-white . Aside from laws encouraging diversity in the workforce, the benefits of diversity alone would interest any organization seeking pro... More

Planning Your Mentoring Program

Failing toplan your mentoring program is planning for it to fail. In my experience, I’ve found that organizations that don't have a good, solid, strategic plan before they begin implementation simply aren't able to measure mentoring program effectiveness from an ROI-based standpoint. I've also ... More

How To Create a Women's Leadership Program

When it comes to leadership development, a focus on women is heavily trending. Women are quickly escalating into the leadership field as the times change; but how can organizations ensure that they will properly cultivated? From glass ceilings to work-life balance and office politics, female execu... More

Employees Moving Up the Career Ladder from Mentoring

From the time an employee is onboarded, they are constantly absorbing information and skills needed to progress their way through the ranks of the corporation. Most people are not inherently gifted with all the proficiency needed to fulfill every job responsibility expected of them. This truth h... More

Building an Employee Career Path With a Mentor

Employees usually feel more engaged when they believe that their employer is concerned about their growth and provide avenues to reach individual career goals while fulfilling the company’s mission. Building an employee's career path through mentoring provides employees with an ongoing mechanism t... More

Technology is Changing Mentoring in the Workplace

Advances in technology now allow mentoring programs to flourish more than ever before. With technology we have broken down the barriers of communication, reduced the workload, and even allowed a mentors to connect with a mentees from across the world. What key technological advantages does mentoring... More

Effective Mentoring Skills

There are a set of skills possessed by good mentors that make them sought out for their knowledge and ability to guide mentees. If you’re going to properly set up a mentoring program, your mentors will need to be prepared for the job. After all, they are equipping your organization’s next generati... More

How Mentoring Fits into Your Succession Planning Strategy

We all know mentoring helps with developing career paths and transferring knowledge from one employee to another, but how can it affect your succession pipeline? There is a process to evaluating the talent queued in your succession pipeline planning. Mentoring aids that process by selecting an indiv... More

Engaging Mentors and Mentees

You've led the horses to water, how can you get them to drink? This age old question points to engagement. How can you engage your mentors and mentees? And how you ensure the mentor and mentee relationship will be a success? Start with the basics The formal mentoring program is up and running. The ... More

When to Use Mentoring Software in Your Organization

Every organization has to leave the startup garage and blossom into something more lucrative at some point, success willing. There comes a point where you need to have everyone in your organization ready for growth and the leadership roles that naturally follow. How will you ensure a sound successi... More

Successful Mentoring Programs for Corporations

How can an organization facilitate knowledge transfer, develop leaders, and bring those who have been onboarded up to speed in a flash? Organizations large and small alike can benefit from launching a successful mentoring program. Who would most benefit from a formal mentoring program? In truth, ... More

How Mentoring Can Help Increase Retention in Millennials

The time is coming. There is a major shift happening in the workplace with the pending exit of the retiring baby boomer generation. Who will be there to grab the baton? A study published by Dupress shows millennials have recently become the largest force in labor. Millennials are not o... More

The Rise of Corporate Alumni Programs in Organizations

What do LinkedIn, YouTube, Yelp and Tesla have in common [ Tweet This]? These top ranking businesses are examples of innovation and massive financial success formed from an alumni network. All of them were founded by the alumni of a single company: PayPal. The "Paypal Mafia", as they have been ca... More

Creating Leaders Through Mentoring Programs

Today's global marketplace offers many opportunities for talented leaders. The challenge for organizations is retaining and developing said leaders within their current workforce. In the next five years, the top 500 companies in the world will lose their top executives to retirement,according to ... More

Successfully Mentoring in the Workplace

We all know having a mentor can achieve great things in our lives. Did you know how it can effect the workplace? According to Dr. Tammy Allen, studies show that 75% of the top fortune 500 companies that have a formal mentoring program, 75% of the executives in these companies say mentoring played a... More

Alumni Relations for the Financial Services Sector

The end of an employee’s tenure at a company doesn’t always mean the end of that firm’s relationship with said employee. Alumni programs make it possible to keep a mutually beneficial relationship going on after the cord has been cut. Due to the specific skills needed to thrive in the Financial S... More

Mentoring Circles - Collaborative Learning

Technology has changed the way we can connect with individuals within the workplace. We recently defined flash mentoring and how easy it now can be to find an employee to help you with a specific learning need within a couple of minutes through mentoring software. We asked Stephen Grindrod, Manag... More

How to Launch a Mentoring Program for Financial Professionals

At Insala, we have seen a recent trend of financial service organizations needing a mentoring solution that allows mentoring relationships to be made in different locations and provide the mentee a framework to pursue career development within their organization. We turned to Stephen Grindrod to e... More

How the Differences in Coaching and Mentoring Can Benefit Your Organization

At Insala, before we assist in setting up a mentoring program for our clients we make sure all stakeholders are clear of the definition of what mentoring really is, through our consulting workshop called “M.O.R.E.”. There can be many misperceptions and it can be sometimes confused with coaching. We ... More

Enhancing Career Development With Mentoring

There is a shift currently happening in our day and age; the shift in the work force. With 4 generations of people in the work force today; there is a very diverse way of approaching tasks. However, we are slowly losing our strong footing; the baby boomers. In 2016, a myriad of baby boomers are at r... More

What Happens in a Bad Mentor Match?

After being matched with a mentor, the mentee has more than likely invested a good amount of time getting to know their mentor and already started to work on their developmental needs. However, sometimes the mentee may feel the match isn’t quite what they’d hoped it would be. What would be the smart... More

Once You're Matched With a Mentor, What's Next?

As a mentoring program administrator, you have probably already invested a lot of time in matching mentors, now how do you keep the relationship alive, and make sure the mentee receives the learning that they need? We interviewed Stephen Grindrod, Managing Director of Car... More

Companies with Successful Diversity Programs

Diversity is one of the core growth principals of successful organizations with the concept of ROI-Based Diversity following a simple proposition: the more audiences you market your services or products to, the more opportunities you create to generate revenue. Accordingly, the more diverse potentia... More

Recruiting Mentors to Your Mentoring Program

The major challenges and misconceptions in recruiting mentors The greatest challenge in recruiting and retaining mentors is largely due to a lack of understanding about what the role of mentor requires. This is normally based on two most likely misconceptions. The first regards the amount and length... More

The Role of Women Mentors: Closing the Gender Leadership Gap

CEOs who understand the impact that gender equality has on their business, know it is critically important to address this issue; that it is the smart thing to do for financial reasons as well as ethical ones. However, gender equality goals cannot be met without solid strategies for how to address t... More

Guide to starting a mentoring program - Part 4

An important step that is often overlooked in the process of launching a mentoring program is training the managers of mentees / mentors to enable and facilitate mentoring relationships. While managers are not directly involved in the mentoring process as are the mentees and mentors, they play an im... More

Encouraging Workplace Diversity Through Mentoring Programs

Employers are routinely employing policies that foster diversity in the workplace. Diversity is often tied to the age, gender, and ethnicity of employees. These elements are part of workplace diversity, but organizations may also need to be concerned with professional diversity: creating a workforce... More

Improving Business Development Through Alumni Relationships

One of the main benefits of establishing a strong alumni program is the potential of new revenue derived from referrals by alumni to new business. Previous employees are in an ideal position to refer you to new clients, especially if they move on to employment in an industry that uses solutions offe... More

Guide to Starting a Mentoring Program - Part 2

Once a business case for a mentoring program has been agreed on, you will need to consider how you will qualify and train your mentees. A well-trained mentee stands to gain much more from a mentoring program than one who is unsure about their role or how they will be expected to contribute. There ar... More

Guide to Starting a Mentoring Program - Part 1

The first step to success for any mentoring program is positioning it as a vital component of organizational growth. Many proponents of mentoring struggle during this early step: company leaders are often skeptical about the need for a mentoring program and how exactly it will benefit the organizati... More

Alumni Relations: A Cultural Magnet for High-Potentials

The current generation of high potential employees doesn't expect to stay at a position forever. When evaluating a prospective role or employer, workers are already thinking about how the skills and experience they will gain there will help them later in their careers. The most desirable corporate c... More

Corporate Alumni Management Best Practices

Many companies that understand the benefits of alumni programs are past the planning and implementation phase: they are focusing on developing their program to engage with their alumni. To achieve high levels of engagement with corporate alumni, it is necessary to integrate the alumni management sol... More

Corporate Mentoring and Global Sales Effectiveness

Building a global sales team presents many obstacles to efficient onboarding, training and motivation of new talent resulting in very high costs of training and a sub-par succession pipeline. The Challenge of Global Sales Effectiveness New hires on a global sales team can take much longer to get up ... More

5-Step Process for a Successful Corporate Mentoring Program

Like any other business initiative, corporate mentoring programs must be planned and monitored with ROI in mind. Too many companies today aren't sure what they really want to accomplish with their mentoring programs, making them hard to measure and justify with decision makers. Mentor program manage... More

Internal Mobility: Need and Purpose within Your Organization

Career development opportunities are at the top of your employees “must-have” list. Not addressing this need is starting to take a toll on organizations that have fallen behind. In a 2013 survey of more than 100 companies by consultancy Towers Watson, the lack of internal mobility opportunities was ... More

When High Potential (Hi-Po) Employees Leave

By Phillip Roark, CEO of Insala High Potential Employees Don't Stop Being High Potential When They Leave When a high potential employee decides to leave your firm, they don’t stop being high potential. Increasingly, leading firms are recognizing that an employee leaving an organization shouldn’t ne... More

Mentoring Program Success in Your Organization

How to Create a Successful Mentoring Program You may be considering implementing a mentoring program in your organization or re-vamping an old one that didn’t work out as well as you had hoped. In any case, be sure you realize that a successful mentoring program is not something that can just be thr... More

Building Brand, Engagement, and Career Development Culture

Not Another Employee Engagement Article “Employee engagement” has been a buzzword for so long that we're all collectively wondering if it hasn't lost all meaning. It’s a similar story with “company culture”. While that begs the question, "Why are we all still talking about it?", the answer is clear... More

Reasons Women Leaders Must Mentor Other Women

Women Leaders and Mentoring - and Why We Don't See More of It While I often stress in my mentoring planning workshops that it’s not advisable to require your most senior level people to become mentors, the fact remains that sometimes the senior levels really do need to be involved as mentors. Nowhe... More

What a Corporate Alumni Program Has to Do With Employee Engagement

Employee Engagement and Alumni Engagement Ultimately, the success of any organization comes down to one thing: the engagement of its people. For most companies, “people” primarily means “employees.” That’s why “employee engagement” is such a big buzzword in the training and development space, and w... More

Corporate Alumni and the ROI of Outplacement

The problem with outplacement is that you receive little or no return on investment. It almost seems like a win-lose situation: your former employees receive help moving on from your organization, and you lose both your employee and your investment in outplacement. It’s time to reconceptualize outp... More

How to Increase Your ROI by Maintaining Alumni Relationships

While corporate alumni programs are still a relatively new concept for organizational strategies, they carry the potential for significant ROI from increased business development opportunities, strengthened company and employer brand, and reduced recruitment expenses. Corporate alumni programs ar... More

Deliver Effective Services with Online Outplacement Solution

Are you looking to improve your present outplacement process? Are you an outplacement firm looking to cut costs and increase efficiency in your service delivery? Christine De Cock, Director of Career Solutions at Insala with over 20 years of experience in outplacement and career management, shares s... More

Enabling Career Development through Internal Mobility Initiatives

“Internal talent mobility” and “career development”: both are critical concepts for HR and business leaders aiming to create high-performing organizations. But concepts aside – how do talent mobility and employee career development really tie together practically? Phillip Roark, CEO at Insala, with ... More

3 Best Practices for Managing Mentoring Programs within Large Organizations

The majority of large organizations see the benefits of mentoring and invest in it as a talent strategy. According to the Institute for Corporate Productivity, 64 percent of businesses with over 10,000 employees and 50 percent of those with 5,000-9,999 employees have mentoring programs in place. H... More

6 Ways to Deliver Outplacement Services

Is your organization considering implementing outplacement services for exiting staff or are you looking to improve your present outplacement process? Are you an outplacement firm looking to cut costs and increase efficiency in your service delivery? Christine De Cock, Director of Career Solutions a... More

Helping Leaders and Managers Grow and Develop Through Mentoring

Speed vs. Effectiveness Growing leadership expertise in a short period of time within an organization is a continual challenge. The speed of projects and the need for innovation have increased to a point that organizations are moving people into positions of management and leadership at an ever-inc... More

U.S. Companies Can Learn from U.K. Policies

Growing concerns about climate change, rapid industrialization, consumer product safety, data privacy, pension sustainability, and the impact of outsourcing and offshoring have heightened awareness of “corporate responsibility.” This focus, along with recent legislation, has prompted companies acros... More

The New and Improved Internet Explorer 7.0: Visible Enhancements for Better User Experience - Part 1

The world of Information Technology is constantly changing with new versions of most applications popping up before we've learned to navigate the ones we have. While some boast of better features and greater functionality, Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) newest browser application, IE 7.0, introd... More

The New and Improved Internet Explorer 7.0 - Part 2

In the ever-changing world of Information Technology, we must expect to change with it and hopefully realize the benefits the latest and greatest has to offer. Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) 7.0 browser application is the newest program to introduce significant changes that transform the user ex... More

Insala Demonstrates Technology at The Conference Board Strategic E-HR Conference

Insala career management platform technology was presented at The Conference Board Strategic E-HR Conference in Marina del Rey, California, March 2-3, 2005. The topic, Using Technology to Add Value Throughout the Organization, included a demonstration of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institu... More