Mentorship program

Everybody in this world needs a mentor in their life. Yes, we believe so. But finding one can be a real struggle.

Questions like, ‘Who would like to mentor me?’ ‘Who can I ask?’ and ‘Where do I find mentors?’ often arise. If any of these thoughts have popped up, you’re not alone.

These questions are the reason why we started our mentorship program pilot this August, where we connected 12 mentors with 12 mentees. Our aim was to foster relationships that would inspire and engage both parties. The mentees could gain inspiration and concrete tips on how to advance in their own career journey, regardless of where they are in that journey at the moment. For mentors, this was a chance to learn something new about themselves. We believe in the power of giving, and that there’s nothing better than helping someone else out.

During our Mentor Kickoff meeting, we talked about how teaching something is often the best way to learn it. We weren’t looking for educators as our mentors necessarily, but people who could listen, be open-minded, share information, and reflect on their experiences as immigrants or as women in the industry. We were looking for genuinely nice people, not to forget powerhouses in their careers as well.

For anyone who’s interested, let us introduce The Herizon way of building a mentorship program:

1. Setting the program goal: Our goal is to empower our community members to gain confidence in themselves and their skills through mentorship.
2. Seeking advice on best practices: We received valuable insights from friends, such as people from Wolt, who shared how their mentorship programs are structured, from onboarding mentors to meeting structures. We’re grateful for these tips!
3. Finding mentors: We contacted our networks to find suitable mentors and pitched the idea to them. The conversion rate was 100%, and we’re thrilled that everyone said an unequivocal yes.
4. Focusing on match-making: We spread the word about the program to our community members and gathered information from both mentors and mentees on what drives them, their strengths, and weaknesses.
5. Kick-off meeting for our mentors: We gathered mentoring tips from mentor to mentor using Mentimeter (love that tool!) and allowed mentors to network with each other. We matched mentees with mentors and provided both parties with information on why we wanted to match them specifically.
6. Mentorship program started: Mentors are meeting their mentees at least four times on a biweekly schedule, and we’ve already heard that many pairs have decided to meet more often, which is amazing!

We’ll gather feedback from both parties in this process to continually improve. If you’re interested in becoming a mentor for our community members, feel free to send an email to merikaisla@herizon.io.

You’ll hear more about our amazing mentors in our next posts, and we’re grateful to have them around. ❤️