Thanks to the proven benefits of mentoring programs in the workplace, more and more organisations have become interested in mentoring software. Adding to that is the fact that 98% of the top 50 US Fortune 500 companies have implemented mentoring programs and reported over two times higher median profits. Mentorships have also become one of the primary focus areas for L&D professionals. For these reasons, finding mentoring software makes sense. But what are Brancher’s best features that other users have enjoyed?
Running a mentoring program is a great idea but it can be deceptively time-consuming, difficult to report on and prone to bias. When we started Brancher, we interviewed over 100 people and found that all of them struggled to run a mentoring program. That’s why our mentoring software exists to streamline and scale mentoring programs, making it easier for HR teams and program administrators to maintain successful programs.
In this article, we’ll talk about Brancher’s best features that can help you decide whether this is the right mentoring software for your organisation.
How to Choose Mentoring Software for Your Organisation
Here are some of the things you need to consider when choosing mentoring software:
Assess your organisation’s needs
What features do you need from mentoring software? Do you need one with automated matching or manual matching options? How about one that offers tools for communication, goal setting, and tracking? Will you need a platform that offers learning resources too or is this something you’ll provide yourself?
Some of the best features of mentoring software include:
- Matching Algorithm: Gives program administrators the option to choose between user-driven and admin-driven matching.
- Communication Tools: The platform provides in-app scheduling, note taking and integrated video and voice calls for virtual meetings.
- User Profiles: Program participants can create a user profile with customisable fields that can be used to filter them when matching for a potential match.
- Goal Setting and Tracking: The program administrator has a way of keeping track of SMART goals and the mentoring progress of paired participants.
- Reporting and Analysis: This allows admins to check the frequency and quality of interactions between mentors and mentees and make progress reports to present to the stakeholders. Through this feature, they can determine whether the program is working or not.
- Learning Resources: Some platforms offer a content library complete with articles, videos, and other resources they can use during mentoring sessions. At the same time, it would be good for mentoring software to allow custom content to be uploaded for in-house training.
- Feedback and Surveys: The platform provides a way for administrators to get feedback in the form of surveys to gauge the satisfaction, skill and knowledge development of the participants.
- Security and Compliance: Most platforms now adhere to relevant regulations that protect privacy and data. Choose one that is GDPR compliant with regular penetration testing.
- Gamification: You can encourage engagement with your participants by awarding top participants in the program via leaderboards and points.
Who will receive mentoring?
Who are the recipients of your mentoring program? Will you be running a program for large organisations or students? Do you plan to cater to small mentors looking for a platform to utilise?
It’s important to know that some mentoring software was created to support certain programs. Brancher, on the other hand, supports membership-based industry associations, large companies/enterprises, government agencies and Universities. Brancher’s software is customised for every client, ensuring the matching, training, and success measures are all custom and tailored appropriately.
How do you want participants to be matched?
Most platforms today offer matching algorithms to automatically match potential participants. Unfortunately, many platforms do not do a very good job with this automated matching. It’s often based on an outdated skills list or via AI (using LinkedIn data). However, the best mentee-mentor matches are those that consider personality and values, in addition to skills, goals and background. Brancher is currently the only mentoring software worldwide that matches based on personality and values.
If you choose to match manually (because you know everyone), you can do this, however, beware that your matches will be prone to bias and unhelpful assumptions. When this happens, the mentee and mentor may be mismatched and will have an unproductive relationship. This is one of the common reasons why mentoring programs fail. You will have to decide whether you want to take this risk or not.
In previous cases, our customers have shared that it took them a full week to conduct mentee-mentor pairing with six senior staff members reviewing and approving matches. This can cost your organisation a lot of money and time since you’ll have to work several hours trying to make the right matches.
With Brancher, you get three mentor-matching options to choose from:
- Admin-Driven: Allows administrators to match users based on suggestions from our unique science-based AI algorithm.
- User-Driven: Allows users to select a mentor by presenting them with their recommended mentors (and highlighting the top 3). The recommendations are fuelled by the science-based AI algorithm.
- Hybrid: Users are allowed to self-match for a set period of time. The administrator then steps in and ensures that everyone is matched by a certain date.
RELATED: How to Match Mentors and Mentees Using Matching Software
What are your pain points?
Without mentoring software, program admins often do not have visibility over how many people are in active relationships, how they are all tracking and who is satisfied/dissatisfied or any organisational results. Admins without software have to work through tons of spreadsheets and emails, which will take up their time and energy. In the process, it also costs organisations money.
The pain points that many admins share include:
- Admin Burden: Matching mentees and mentors is time-consuming and prone to bias. Mentors are often not trained or supported and get frustrated that mentees are not driving the relationship.
- Reporting: Reporting on program success is also almost impossible. You have to wait until the end of a program to do a survey to find out whether the relationship is successful.
- Scaling: You can’t scale your mentoring program. You might be able to manage it manually for 20 people. But why should mentoring be reserved for your top 20 people? What about everyone else? Doesn’t everyone deserve to be matched with their ideal mentor?
Through Brancher, the menial and repetitive tasks can be removed. You no longer have to do things on your own since the software helps automate tasks and solves these pain points:
✅ We reduce the admin burden by over 80% with our smart matching algorithm, online training, and personalised reminders.
✅ Seamless reporting with our all-in-one dashboard with information on meeting frequency, meeting satisfaction, number of meetings created, goals completed, and many more.
✅ Ability to scale by matching large groups in seconds
You also have access to easy-to-use Excel and CSV user reports and pair reports where you can take a look at how well they are doing. Admins are able to be proactive rather than reactive.
Does it fit into your budget?
Most mentoring software companies will charge per user. Looking for software that will scale with your program is important (i.e. pricing should become more cost efficient, the more users you have). Ensure you ask about any additional costs and what is included at each price point.
Brancher has competitive pricing and includes strong implementation and ongoing customer success support with a dedicated account manager.
It’s also worth noting that not having mentoring software in place can cost your organisation a lot of money. We have a Time and Dollar Saving Calculator that allows you to measure the time and financial savings you get when using Brancher.
RELATED: Brancher's ROI: Understanding the ROI of Mentoring
What Are Brancher’s Best Features as Mentoring Software?
If you're thinking about implementing mentoring software for your organisation, it's crucial to assess your needs and explore various software options. Use the key factors mentioned above as a guide to selecting the best software for your organisation. Be sure to involve key stakeholders in the decision-making process and test different software options before choosing. Call us today to schedule a demo of Brancher’s mentoring software in action.
Source:
1. Cook, Sam. (2024, February 2). mentorcliQ. 40+ Definitive Mentorship Statistics and Research for 2024. https://www.mentorcliq.com/blog/mentoring-stats
2. LinkedIn Learning. (2024). Workplace Learning Report 2024. https://learning.linkedin.com/resources/workplace-learning-report