Mentoring programs play a crucial role in professional development, personal growth, and knowledge sharing within organisations. Although many factors play into the results of these programs, Program Coordinators are instrumental in leading them to success.

There are many ways you can measure the effectiveness of your mentoring program using Mentorloop, however, your north star metric is the Mentoring Quality Score (MQS). A high MQS indicates that the mentoring program is achieving its goals and delivering value to both mentors and mentees. In this article, we will explore strategies and resources to help you improve your program's MQS and ultimately make a bigger and better impact with your program.

Understanding Mentoring Quality Score (MQS)

Before we dive into the strategies, let's first understand what MQS is and why it matters.

MQS is a quantifiable measure that evaluates the overall quality and impact of a mentoring program. It is measured by asking participants at key trigger points in their mentoring journey how satisfied they are with their experience and in their matches. participants can provide a score, as well as comments, giving you real-time insight into real people. This empowers you to support people more efficiently and effectively. 

Find out more about the what and when of Mentorloop's participant surveys.

Strategies for improving MQS

As a Program Coordinator (PC), it is your responsibility to monitor how participants are getting on, supporting them along their journeys. Mentorloop helps you do this with ease and efficiency. Not only does it provide you with the necessary data points to track this, but it presents it to you in a way that is easy to understand and helps you prioritise action effectively. 

We encourage our PCs to aim for an MQS of at least 4/5. This means that your people are happy and things are going well in your program. 

Although we expect most of your participants to submit scores of 4 or above, it's not completely unusual to see a lower score from time to time. If this happens, don't be disheartened. This is not a reflection on you as a PC, and there are things you can do to help these individuals. 

And while it's important to help people on an individual basis, try not to get too hung up on individual scores. Instead, focus on the average that appears on your PC dashboard. This gives a far more accurate representation of how your entire cohort is getting on. 

Now, let's take a look at ways you can improve your MQS.

Understand the scores

If you receive a low score, or your MQS drops, it's important to first understand why, by checking:

1. Has your match rate dipped recently? If so, you may find that individuals are closing their loops as a result of being dissatisfied with their match. You can view your average Post meeting survey score from the dashboard, or find out more detail by navigating to the Sentiment page > filter for Close loop survey > sort by Rating and read the comments to see why people have closed their loops.
   
   
2. Comments from low scorers. As part of your regular program check ins, we recommend checking in on your Sentiment page to review comments from participants and identify anyone in need of support. This becomes even more important when your MQS drops. You can quickly sort the list of people in your Sentiment page to narrow the list down to see those who have submitted a low score using the filters at the top of the list. With this highly targeted view, you can start to get a better understanding of what's going on - Who's submitted a low score? Why have they done so? What are the common trends/themes that others may also need support with?

Find out more about Sentiment filtering here.

Reach out to those in need of support

Once you've identified who is not completely satisfied in their match, it's time to address the concerns. It's really helpful to look at the scores and comments as a whole, to identify common themes. It is best practice to then use this insight to inform your regular messaging and provide support to the wider cohort.

It is equally, if not more important, to provide those who are struggling with individualised support as soon as an issue is identified. 

You can message people one by one from the participants page. However, if you have have more than one person experiencing similar challenges, you can save time by using the Bulk message feature to contact them all at once. They will all receive the message individually via their 1:1 loop with you, so that individual line of communication and support is clear and open to them. Read more about messaging people on Mentorloop.

The Help Hub and Academy have plenty of resources that can help you provide your participants with the best support. For more guidance on how to address feedback from mentors and mentees, check out this article here.

Effective matching

It should come as no surprise that effective matching is a cornerstone of successful mentoring programs, as it significantly impacts the quality and success of mentor-mentee relationships. Mentorloop's approach to matching underscores the importance of connecting individuals based on their unique goals, needs, and preferences. This process begins with a comprehensive assessment of both mentors' and mentees' objectives via your program's bespoke signup form, which helps ensure that matches are made with a deep understanding of what each person hopes to achieve - no matter your matching style!

With that said, it's impossible to expect 100% good matches 100% of the time. At the end of the day, mentoring is a human:human experience, which means not everything can be accounted for or predicted. But there are a few things you can do to improve the efficacy of matching on your program:

1.  Boost your match rate percentage. The more people matched on your program, the more data you have on how effective your matching process is.
   • Encourage self match by bulk messaging those without a match, reminding them to find a match using the Self match tools.
   • Increase your match rate percentage manually by creating loops from the Loops page, using the filters and handy match tools to find suitable matches for your mentors/mentees.
     
     
2. If you have more mentees than mentors, don't panic! This isn't an uncommon challenge, but there are things you can do to overcome it, such as explore peer or group mentoring, recruiting more mentors, or enabling participants to be 'Either'. 
   
   
3. Leverage data and technology to find the most amount of equitable matches using Mentorloop's bespoke matching algorithm. It identifies commonalities and complementary attributes between mentors and mentees, based on your unique set of criteria, increasing the likelihood of great pairings. Moreover, Mentorloop recognises the value of diversity in mentoring relationships and offers flexibility in their matching process, accommodating various formats like one-on-one, group mentoring, or reverse mentoring. By incorporating these insights and practices, you can create a more efficient and tailored matching process, ultimately leading to higher MQS and more successful mentoring outcomes.
   

This feature is available on the Mentorloop Enterprise package only.

The following strategies will also increase efficacy of matching.

Stay in touch with your participants

As mentioned above, it's vital that anyone in need of support is contacted as soon as possible, and receives individualised support. What's also key is keeping in touch with your participants on the whole, at a regular cadence. This is not only important for maintaining mentoring momentum amongst healthy matches, but is also useful for those who aren't completely satisfied, as it opens up a clear line of support for them with you and guides them through potential challenges. 

Here are some tips for making your messages meaningful and to help boost your MQS:

1. Set and communicate clear program objectives from the start. This is critical for helping your participants get clear on what it is they are aiming to get out of the mentoring relationships and know with confidence that it's on track (or not!)
   
   
2. Share your best practice tips. The Mentorloop Academy for mentors and mentees will be really helpful for inspiration around. There are plenty of resources in there you may wish to share, such as this one on being a great mentee.
   
   
3. Encourage feedback. Of course, the more feedback you have, the more information you have, and the better you run the program and help participants. Remind them of the importance of sharing feedback and staying active in their relationships, as it will help them get the most from the program. 

Empower yourself and your participants through education

Mentorloop guides your participants through their mentoring journey and provides them with relevant training to set them up for success. With that said, it is still best practice for you, as Program Coordinator, to practice and encourage continuous education and training, both for yourself and your mentors/mentees.

Stay up to date with the latest Help Hub and Academy articles, as well as the Mentorloop blog for tools and tips on being a great Program Coordinator. We also run regular Bite-sized Training Webinars for PCs, which are designed to help you save time, up-skill in managing your program and better support your people. Make sure you're subscribed to the PC newsletter and have joined the Mentorloop Community on LinkedIn for the latest and greatest Mentorloop content!

Beyond developing your own skills, we recommend promoting the same for your participants, whether that be in using Mentorloop or being a great mentor/mentee. Here are some ideas:

• Remind them of key features that make their experience more seamless, such as how to connect their calendars, how to find a match, or use Recommended Reading.
• Send them advice on how to structure their mentoring meetings, such as the mentoring agreement or 20 great ideas for mentoring activities.
• Suggest ways of getting the most out of the program, including the power of goal setting and how to effectively document your mentoring journey.

Better yet, why not host an event for participants and potential new recruits to learn more about the program, hear from your Mentoring Champions about their experiences with mentoring and develop as mentors/mentees. 

And there you have it - our top tips for improving your MQS! Hopefully by now you feel inspired to take action to ensure your participants are satisfied and your program continues to make a positive impact. 

If you need any more help or would like to speak to an expert about how you can drive your program towards success, please contact support@mentorloop.com