What R&D professionals should know before scaling a mentoring program
You’re running a mentoring program that’s showing promise. Engagement’s solid, feedback’s encouraging, and now people from other teams are asking to join. That’s your sign: it might be time to scale a mentoring program across your organisation.
But before you hit the ‘go big’ button, there’s a stack of things you need to get right — otherwise, you’ll scale chaos instead of impact.
You’d think with all the online courses, AI tools, and learning platforms available, mentoring would be on its way out. But here’s the reality: mentoring is one of the few development strategies that actually sticks.
People don’t grow from content alone — they grow through relationships, accountability, and context. And that’s where mentoring shines.
Here’s what mentoring actually delivers:
Mentored employees are 5x more likely to be promoted, according to a Gartner study. And companies with mentoring programs see higher engagement, stronger culture, and better retention — especially in early-career and underrepresented talent pools.
Still think it’s optional?
Now the real question: can you scale those results without burning out your mentors or drowning in admin?
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: most mentoring programs are too small, too manual, and too leader-dependent to drive real impact.
So how do you know when it’s time to scale your mentoring program?
Check yourself on these:
If any of these hit home, it’s not just time to scale — it’s past time.
Scaling doesn’t mean bloating your program. It means getting serious about structure, systems, and sustainability. Think beyond 1:1s. Think group mentoring, reverse mentoring, flash mentoring. Think digital tools that do the heavy lifting — so your team can focus on outcomes, not admin.
Before you roll out a shiny new platform or blast out invites to 500 people, slow down. Scaling mentoring the wrong way is worse than not scaling at all.
Here’s what smart L&D leaders get right:
You can’t scale what you can’t define. What’s your mentoring program actually driving?
Tie the program goals directly to business outcomes. If execs can’t see the ROI, they won’t back the scale-up.
Not all R&D folks want the same thing. A junior chemist fresh out of uni has different needs than a senior systems engineer with 20 years’ experience.
Map out:
Then, segment your approach — don’t roll out a one-size-fits-none program.
Before scaling, run a quick health check:
Fix what’s broken now. Scaling won’t solve problems, it’ll amplify them.
Scaling mentoring doesn’t have to mean scaling headcount. If you do it right, you don’t need to hire a program manager, run endless training sessions, or cobble together engagement campaigns.
That’s where Brancher comes in.
✅ No need for extra admin — the platform handles onboarding, matching, scheduling, and reminders.
✅ No need for external training — Brancher includes built-in, on-demand learning for mentors and mentees.
✅ No need for a full comms plan — our platform nudges and engages users automatically.
💡 Most clients reduce internal admin by 80% — and in many cases, eliminate the need for a program coordinator altogether.
Even better? You can prove ROI from day one:
Tight budget? That’s exactly why investing in mentoring software pays off. You don’t need a team to run it — just the right platform.
If your CFO thinks mentoring runs itself, show them:
📉 When budgets are tight, this is one line item that pays for itself.
Manual matching won’t cut it beyond 20 people. You need a platform that uses data — not guesswork — to align people based on goals, skills, and even personality types.
Good matching = better outcomes + less drop-off.
Being a brilliant researcher doesn’t make someone a great mentor. You’ve got to give them the tools:
And don’t forget to celebrate them. Recognition goes a long way.
RELATED: The Role of Mentoring in Improving Employee Wellbeing
Scale requires a clear structure — but not a bureaucratic one. Define:
Leave enough flexibility for people to make it work on their terms.
If you’re not measuring, you’re guessing. Track both qualitative and quantitative data:
Present this data regularly to leadership. It’s your best argument for continued investment.
Mentoring should feel like part of how your organisation works — not a side project. That means:
I won’t bore you with another vague success story. Instead, here’s a real example of how we helped Queensland’s Natural Resource Management (NRM) sector scale mentoring across 11 regional organisations — each with different priorities, spread across thousands of kilometres, and zero interest in fluff.
They needed more than good intentions. They needed a system that worked.
So we delivered:
The result?
🔹 90% satisfaction with matches
🔹 Strong, sustained engagement
🔹 A structure now being picked up by other industries
We designed it to scale from day one — and it’s still growing.
👉 [Read the full case study to see exactly how we did it.]
If your mentoring program’s getting traction, don’t wait for it to stall. Scale it — with purpose, not panic. That means knowing exactly why it exists, backing it with real resources, and building a structure that doesn’t collapse the moment 50 more people want in.
This isn’t just a box-ticking exercise. Done right, mentoring is one of the most powerful ways to build capability, retain top talent, and strengthen culture — especially when everything else feels in flux.
If you’re ready to scale your mentoring program with a partner that actually gets it, we’re ready to help. Brancher is a mentoring provider built in Australia, made for scale, and focused on outcomes — not busywork.
👉 Let’s talk. Book a demo today.