Introduction
One-time mentoring, also know as flash mentoring, is a format that allows mentors and mentees to schedule meetings on a one-off basis. Typically, this format is used for a short-term engagement that is narrowly focused on a specific topic or skill. It enables mentees to request a meeting based on a current, "just in time" need, as well as to expand their network by accessing a broader range of mentors than a more traditional, longer term mentorship format offers.
Why it matters: Employees crave the professional growth mentoring can provide, but sometimes busy schedules conflict with a reoccurring time commitment. With so many things competing for employee attention in the modern workplace, flash mentoring provides a focused opportunity for employees to engage and contribute.
It is a great way for organizations to support employees who want to learn a variety of skills and knowledge from a range of experts within the organization, creating more engaged, responsive, and satisfied employees with little time commitment.
With one-time mentoring, participants gain multiple contacts in less time commitment that can help them:
Learn job-related skills from colleagues for swifter career progression.
Gain cross-departmental knowledge from across the organization; providing diverse business exposure, breaking down silos, and creating an environment for collaboration.
Build internal networks and explore internal career paths.
Flash Mentoring Use Cases
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Following are a few examples of how flash mentoring can provide terrific opportunities to meet the needs of both the participants and the organization.
Onboarding and New Hire Engagement
Flash mentoring programs can be used to augment formal onboarding programs, pairing an experienced employee with a new employee to help answer additional, informal questions that may arise regarding the organization, team or office culture.
In addition, it aids in more quickly ramping up the new hire's sense of connection by providing a network of contacts they can reach out to as needed; which can also accelerate productivity.
Examples:
Buddy Connections: Peer-to-peer connections to welcome new hires to the organization, team, or business unit.
Coffee Chats: Connections with experienced employees of an organization and employees of a newly acquired or merged organization.
New Manager Connection: A new manager being paired with a more experienced manager to understand management philosophy/best practices.
Career Development
Flash mentoring can help bridge the gap between the need for mentoring and the limited time and attention a person has to engage, especially as it pertains to the time commitment of Senior Leaders.
Mentors may be reluctant to engage in traditional mentoring programs due to the longer-term time commitment, while a single meeting requiring them simply to be present with no follow-up needed, provides the opportunity to spread crucial company career knowledge and expertise when otherwise, it may not be possible.
Examples:
Set up job shadowing for a desired role.
Learn about cross-functional opportunities or possibilities for lateral movement.
Gain advice from multiple people in more senior positions on personal growth career planning.
Learn best practices from others within similar job roles or functions.
Get an "outsider" perspective for overcoming challenges.
Get support and advice on developing and practicing a new career skill.
Give the flash mentors who are hiring managers and leaders, exposure to emerging talent they may not otherwise have.
Upskilling
Commonly deployed as coaching opportunities, upskilling programs enable participants to freely connect with available peer coaches and experts to help them develop and apply a new skill. These engagements are focused on specific and direct outcomes that a one-time, short-term engagement can provide.
Examples:
Coaching: Providing connection to a network of experts for people desiring to grow in a specific area of need.
Peer Review: Connecting peers to help troubleshoot problems, tackle a tough project.
Skill Building: Connecting users based on specific skillsets.
Leadership Development & Succession Planning
As with the other applications for flash mentoring, these use cases provide minimal time investment for a maximum result. Utilize one-time meetings to share crucial institutional knowledge and leadership skills, as well as make crucial connections among leadership, for new and emerging leaders.
Examples:
Reverse Mentoring: More experienced leaders connect with more junior employees to gain crucial generational insights and skills from the younger generation, helping them to be better leaders. In addition, these connections provide the less experienced colleague with access to leadership that keeps them connected and motivated to continue their career with the company.
Chemistry Check: Prior to committing to a long term development connection, a one-time connection can be to ensure the right fit for a longer, leadership development journey.
Succession Insurance: Capture crucial domain knowledge before it leaves the building due to career transitions or retirement.
One-Time Mentoring Settings
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Enabling One-Time Mentoring
Navigate to your Matching Settings by following this navigation path:
Manage > Matching > Matching Settings
In the Mentoring Mode section, tick the 'One-time Mentoring box and click the 'Save' button at the bottom right of the page.
You can offer both Ongoing Mentoring and One-time Mentoring modes within the same program by ticking both boxes. If you do so, a new checkbox will appear for selection, labeled, 'Can mentors choose their mentoring modes?'. If you tick this box, mentors will have the option to select their preferred mentoring mode within their profiles.
Be sure to consult with your Customer Experience team when enabling both modes and discuss best practices to ensure that:
Your participants clearly understand their options.
You can easily track the number mentors and selected modes to meet mentee needs.
One-Time Mentoring Settings
On your Matching Settings page, scroll down to One-time Mentoring Settings.
Navigation: Manage > Matching > Matching Settings
How does matching happen? By default, mentees will send meeting requests to mentors. This option cannot be toggled off.
Meeting preference options for mentors: Their are two options to select from:
Allow mentors to configure availability slots: This option enables mentors to pick recurring days and time slots for the mentee to select from when requesting a meeting. As long as a mentee has those times available as well, this is the most direct scheduling approach as the options are easily selected when the mentee sends the meeting request.
Allow mentors to describe general availability instead of configuring specific slots: This option enables mentors to provide text on their general availability to guide the mentee when scheduling.
Slot time in minutes: Select the recommended default meeting time slot for your program, e.g., 30 minutes, 1 hour, etc.
Allow mentors to create meetings: Yes/No options. Determines whether mentors can request/create meetings with mentees. Typically, in mentee development programs, the mentee is responsible for requesting the meeting. However, you may have a use case for allowing mentors to drive the scheduling in a program where mentors take a proactive lead; such as mentors who are mentoring much younger students or athletes in an academic or athletic setting.
Meeting Request Settings
Mentees must request meeting at least* [input number] Hours in advance: Provides a reasonable timeframe for the mentor to accept a meeting. Depending on the nature of your program and the participants involved, this could be a shorter or longer period.
Remind the receiver if meeting requests are pending: Selecting 'Yes' will enable you to then select the number of days after the meeting request has been sent, to send an email reminder to the recipient.
Close requests if pending more than [input number] days: Automatically closes meeting requests if the recipient hasn't responded to the request after the number of pending days you have selected.
Meeting Limits
Maximum number of meetings for a mentee [input number] per calendar month or year: Use this setting to set recommendations/limits to the number of meetings that align to your program and business expectations as well as mentor and mentee time investment.
Maximum pending requests allowable from a mentee: This will limit the number of pending requests a mentee can have at one time. Considering that some mentors may not be able to respond quickly, allowing for several pending requests would provide more momentum and quicker engagement.
End User Workflow
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Overview
Mentee Actions
View Mentors
Request Meeting
Schedule Meeting
Via Mentor-configured time slots
Via Mentor general availability
Complete Meeting Survey
Mentor Actions
Set Meeting Availability
Review Pending Requests
Respond to Requests
Complete Meeting Survey
Mentee Workflow
View Mentors
Mentees can view and access mentors several ways:
Top recommended mentors presented on their Home page.
The 'View all mentors' link under their top recommendations.
Clicking on Mentors on the left navigation.
Request Meeting
Mentees request meetings by clicking on the 'Request Meeting' button on the mentor card shown above.
A pop-up will appear requiring them to enter their topic and description for the request email:
After they complete the form, mentees click on the 'Proceed to Select Times' button shown above.
If the mentor has been enabled to configure times, those times will appear for selection by the mentee:
If none of the configured times work for the mentee, they can click to 'Propose other times' at the bottom of the pop-up show above.
If the mentor has provided general availability in their text box, then the mentee can use this as a guideline for scheduling. To schedule a time, the mentee clicks on the pencil icon in the 'Propose Times' section:
This opens the date selection area. If their calendars are connected, the mentee has the added convenience of available slots for both participants:
After selecting date, time, meeting mode, and clicking 'Save', a final confirmation pop-up will provide the button to 'Request Meeting' and the request will be sent.
The mentee will be emailed when the mentor responds. The meeting will be placed on both of their calendars and on the platform for joining, rescheduling or deleting as needed.
Mentor Workflow
Note: Mentors cannot initiate meeting requests. One-time mentoring is a mentee-driven program.
Setting Meeting Availability
Mentors have two options for setting meeting availability to allow for efficient scheduling and minimizing any back and forth communication in determining day and time.
Configuring Availability Slots
Mentors can select the option to add specific days and times by going to Edit Profile from their profile icon on the upper right, and selecting 'Edit Profile'. On the settings tab they can make this selection and provide days and times:
Adding specific dates and times by using the date picker:
Adding specific dates and times by using the Calendar:
Providing General Availability
Mentors also have the option to provide a description of their availability in a text box:
Review Pending Requests
Mentors can access requests on their Home page as shown below:
Or from the connections icon next to their profile image on the top right corner of the page:
When mentors receive a meeting request, they are notified both by email and on the platform. Requests can also be accessed:
Under Meetings on the left navigation
On connections icon in the top right corner of the page.
The connections icon will allow them to view all pending requests to include requester, topic, description, meeting dates and times.
From here, they can select from these options for each request:
Accept the proposed time
Accept and propose a different time
Decline the request to meet
System pop-up - Accepted proposed time:
System pop-up - Accepted and proposing a new time:
System pop-up - Declining a request to meet
If a mentor is not able to meet with the mentee, they should be encouraged to provide a reason as to why they're declining the request along with a brief, warm message providing a bit more context for the mentee.
Meeting Surveys
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Based on the date the meeting was scheduled, a survey will be triggered by the system and appear at the top of the Home page on a tile titled, 'Provide Feedback On Past Meetings'.
Both the mentor and the mentee will receive a survey a couple of hours after their scheduled meeting takes place. If a user doesn't fill out their survey, they will receive a reminder email the following day, and another reminder email five days after the meeting took place.
The completion of the survey, or at the very least, the completion of the first question, "Did this meeting take place?" is necessary for the system to report that a meeting has been completed.
Note that the questions in the survey will change slightly if the meeting is canceled. The mentor and mentee surveys are customizable by administrators.