The Added Value Of An Online Mentoring Platform

Have you been considering looking into sourcing an online mentoring platform or mentoring software to help manage your mentoring programme, but don’t know if it’s worthwhile investing the time or money?

Often, there is a key reason why customers come to sfG MentorNet looking for a mentoring platform – this may be that they have had enough of working from spreadsheets, new programme expansion or that they are struggling with laborious matchmaking processes.

A good online mentoring platform or software will allow programme coordinators and administrators to easily manage the entire mentoring scheme and allow them to see, at a glance, whether or not mentoring programme goals are being met.

The following blog article will take a deeper dive into the added value of using an online mentoring platform when it comes to managing, and streamlining your mentoring programme.

 

Ability To Mentor From Anywhere 

As we discussed recently in our hybrid mentoring blog post – the structure of the working world has changed massively over the last few years, particularly with the impact of the COVID pandemic.

Today, with a large number of workplaces and educational setting offering fully remote or hybrid attendance opportunities – it can be a little more difficult for people to feel connected.

With a mentoring platform such as sfG MentorNet – the ability for mentors and mentees to log on to the system from their desktop device wherever they are, makes it’s that much more flexible to suit the style of modern day mentoring.

Not only can mentoring resources be accessed remotely from home, but those wishing to communicate while on the go can access the sfG MentorNet mobile phone app, available on both iOS and Android platforms.

Person using a mobile phone application to communicate

Collect Feedback and Insights with sfG MentorNet

A mentoring platform will allow you to collect feedback quickly, and hassle free.

How does this work?

Well, in the case of sfG MentorNet – programme coordinators can create evaluation forms that are fully customisable, with the ability to request both qualitative and quantitative data from mentoring programme participants.

Evaluation forms can be sent out whenever you like – with many of our current customers choosing to send them out at the beginning of a programme, midway and then at the end of the scheme.

Evaluation forms not only allow you to measure how a particular mentoring relationship is going, but give an overview of the mentoring scheme’s achievements and impact.

The added benefit of a mentoring platform here, is that all this data can be collected through the system and doesn’t need to be done manually or then collated onto spreadsheets.

With sfG MentorNet – data collected can be turned into reports and charts, and can also be downloaded to Microsoft Excel at the click of a button.

Build A Valuable Online Mentoring Resource Hub

sfG MentorNet is much more than just a platform for matching mentors and students.

Programme administrators can create an online community by utilising features such as forums to create a platform for discussion among mentor groups.

Forums can be split into topics relevant to the mentoring programme, and are a great way to encourage engagement and communication between groups of students.

Furthermore, sfG MentorNet allows you to upload resources, such as website links, documents and PDFs into our resource library area, which can then be accessed by your chosen groups of mentees.

These types of features add value by allowing for important collaboration and the exchange of information and additional reading resources that may not be as easily shared via email communications or kept in an easy-to-navigate format.

Best Practice Advice

At sfG MentorNet we are not ones to ‘toot our own horn’ – but we have been in business for a long time now, and over this period of time we have worked with customers from all over the world, covering a whole variety of industries within education, third sector and business organisations.

We feel incredibly lucky to have such a diverse client base.

Our mentoring platform has been built in-house, by our profession development team. The features within the platform its-self have been created and developed over the years, continuously evolving in response to the mentoring world and the needs of our mentoring customers.

Our customers benefit from our knowledge of practice within mentoring and can rely on us for support and advice when it comes to best practice for their own mentoring programmes, whether it’s how to encourage participation or how best to manage communications such as newsletters.

We pride ourselves on our communication with customers and once you sign up to using our platform, you won’t just be forgotten about or seen as another cog in the wheel.

Save Time With An Online Mentoring Platform

It takes time to develop and maintain a mentoring programme. If the programme is successful and expands, this may necessitate even more time!

Overall, by making full use of the feature that an online mentoring platform such as sfG MentorNet has – you can expect to save time by streamlining the processes from start to finish, rather than spending hours on manual mentoring programme management such as matchmaking and spreadsheet data management.

Final Thoughts On Online Mentoring Platforms

As you can see from the above blog – taking the time to source and implement a well-rounded mentoring platform can add value to your mentoring schemes in many ways.

If you want to learn even more about the benefits of a mentoring platform you can have a read through our previous blog post.

If you’re ready to learn more about how sfG MentorNet can aid you in your mentor programme delivery, reach out to the team today for a free demonstration!