Posted by jmeyer on October 25, 2022
The heart and soul of an effective mentoring program are the staff who run the program. They are the unsung heroes and engines that host and support everyone involved in a mentoring relationship, from the youth participants to their parents to their mentors
The heart and soul of an effective mentoring program are the staff who run the program. They are the unsung heroes and engines that host and support everyone involved in a mentoring relationship, from the youth participants to their parents to their mentors. Despite the importance of recruiting and retaining high-quality staff, in a recent survey of 62 program staff working in 52 mentoring programs, 19% reported that they received no job training when they were hired. In addition, little has been written about the training and professional development needs of mentoring staff persons.
Research and years of the iterative development of mentoring best practices tell us that mentees have more desirable outcomes when their mentors receive pre-match and ongoing training. One might assume that if mentors need training to be optimally effective, then the staff supporting their mentoring relationship does too. Unfortunately, this question of how, when, why, and what to provide to support effective mentoring and professional development of staff has not been rigorously researched to date, but one can conclude that staff would benefit from receiving, at a minimum, the same training that their mentoring program offers to their mentors. That way, staff can use the same vocabulary and understand the same definitions for key terms to be able to communicate effectively with mentors. In addition, the advice and support that staff provide, and the policies and practices that they implement, will be consistent with mentors’ knowledge and expectations. If not, the mentors can get confused and frustrated if their training is inconsistent or even at odds with their practices. Consistency is key!
When the leadership of a mentoring program is thinking about how to run a mentoring program, it is critical to realize that the program staff need to receive advanced, cutting-edge professional development in addition to the relatively more basic training received by mentors. Staff need even more knowledge, skills, and abilities to be able to guide, shape, monitor, and support the creation and maintenance of effective matches. Not only do staff need to work with mentors, but they also need to talk with mentees and their parents on a regular basis to gain information about the mentees, mentors, and the mentoring relationship.
Given that most mentoring programs provide job training to new staff members, one might wonder what staff need to know and what topics are they commonly taught when being onboarded. Mentoring program staff members should be trained so that they understand what mentoring looks like in the real world, using real-world examples. They should have the opportunity to practice problem-solving the commonly experienced challenges that arise during the mentoring relationship. That way, they will be better prepared to help matches navigate through any treacherous or tricky situations that could end in problems for the mentoring relationship, the mentor, or the mentee.
In the same survey of 62 staff persons from programs across the United States, they reported on the topics covered in their job training. Each one of these topics is likely fundamental to program success, which translates into mentoring relationships that last for the agreed-upon length of time and that result in successful outcomes for youth. Interestingly, there was no topic that was universally included in new staff training, with the most commonly taught topic being training about program requirements, policies, and practices, which was reported by 72% of the sample. Notably, a topic crucial to match success is how to provide ongoing support to mentors, mentees, and their caregivers, and this topic was the next most reported topic, endorsed by 60% of the sample. Another cornerstone topic for training in the youth mentoring field is ethics training for working with mentored youth; however, it was only included in training for 50% of the sample. Other topics related to program operations were included in training for approximately half of the sample, including training in documentation and monitoring of matches (50%), training in how to make effective matches (48%), training in how to recruit mentors and mentees (47%), and training in how to assess match quality (42%). The least commonly taught topics were somewhat surprising given their importance in designing program goals and methods, with only 38% of staff receiving cultural sensitivity training and only 33% learning about current research in the field of mentoring.
Thus, many key topics are not commonly included in the onboarding of new staff members and need to be integrated into training curricula designed for program success.
One way of learning a new job is through formal training efforts; however, other pedagogical methods or strategies may be used to facilitate a successful transition to a new job. Given that staff have reported that formal training on many key topics are lacking, the survey also included questions about whether there were training opportunities or support resources that were available to them. About 6% of the sample reported that there were no materials, resources, or technical assistance available to provide them with training or with job coaching. The most commonly reported response from staff is that they had access to limited materials, resources, and/or TA to directly support their training or provide them job coaching. About 45% of the sample had access to materials, resources, and/or TA that were adequate or better.
In addition, some programs might ask staff to learn “on-the-job” and provide them with professional development opportunities periodically after they have begun their work. In fact, 61% of the sample reported that they received training periodically. Taken together, the results from this survey suggest that there is a paucity of resources and trainings available that directly benefit and support staff members in their jobs.
Mentoring Central has begun to develop and evaluate tools and resources that can support the onboarding, training, and professional development of mentoring program staff members.
Training the entire staff, mentor volunteers, mentees, and even parents can seem a daunting task for any mentoring program looking to create change in their community. However, best practices must be followed to have an effective impact, and Mentoring Central can help mentoring programs develop, train, and implement the services they want.
Interactive, online, and asynchronous courses have been developed by Mentoring Central using decades of research on mentoring. Everyone in mentoring programs can easily access these trainings from the comfort of their home or supplemented with in-person training. We offer nine different courses that span teaching best practices, from e-mentoring to ethics and safety, mentoring children who have been affected by substance misuse, and more.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBS) piloted the online mentor training program, Preparing for Mentoring, a three-course series developed by Mentoring Central, with 252 staff members at BBBS agencies around the U.S. One staff member wrote about the benefits of taking the training, saying that it “Gave a great overview of what a volunteer will be learning — I got a glimpse from his/her perspective. As a new staff member, I found it very helpful and informative.”
In addition, in the survey of 62 staff working at youth mentoring programs, a total of 27 were also asked to complete the Preparing for Mentoring series of three courses. After completing the online training, they were asked if the program helped them in their professional development. The response was a resounding, “Yes!” with 96% of participants reporting that the training was helpful to them.
Learn more about the online training developed by Mentoring Central to promote the professionalization of the staff in your mentoring program. When your staff is well-prepared and efficacious in their work, your mentoring program can impact the youth you want to support in your community.