Creating Mentoring Programs

Select the buttons to learn about the types of mentoring programs.

A system administrator is given three options of mentoring programs to choose from when creating a new mentoring program.

1. Supervised: This gives the administrator high structure and control over the program, timelines, and matching experience. This type of program requires more interaction and management from the administrator.
2. Unsupervised: This gives the administrator more flexibility while maintaining some structure around the matching process. The mentoring wizards for this type work similarly to those for the supervised type, but they do not require as much oversight.
3. Open Enrollment: This is the most flexible type of program for all. This program type allows the administrator to provide some broad parameters around the program and then step out of the matching process. Open Enrollment gives mentors and mentees the freedom to match and participate more fluidly.

Depending on the desired program and audience, the organization may choose to use one or all of the types at one point or another.

To create a mentoring program, use action search to navigate to Manage Mentoring Programs.

First, the type of mentoring program must be selected. The administrator can designate whether program-matching is supervised or unsupervised by selecting the Supervised or Unsupervised Mentoring Program. Supervised matching means that the administrator kicks off the matching and makes any desired changes. Unsupervised matching means mentees must choose preferred mentors when signing up. Mentors approve/decline match requests from mentees.

Follow the wizard and start filling out the necessary information such as the following:

• Program name

• Program description

• Program owner: Program owners can administer mentoring programs but cannot create them.

You can also brand your program and upload an image if you'd like.

Administrators can define a maximum number of mentees per mentor, and a maximum number of mentors per mentee.

After the program is created and in progress, admins and program-owners can still change the limits in program overview pages. In addition, when mentors sign up for a mentoring program, they can also adjust the number of mentees they wish to be paired with, up to the limit you have defined for the program.

It means that a particular mentee, in a specific mentoring program, can have more than one mentor. Similarly, a particular mentor, in a specific mentoring program, can have more than one mentee.

There is also an option which allows participants to end the mentoring relationship if needed. The organization can decide if they want the participants to be able to end the relationship or if the administrator/owners should have control of the mentoring relationship.

When a Mentoring Program Administrator defines the parameters within Manage Mentoring Programs, a maximum threshold of mentors and mentees determines the number of mentors per mentee or mentees per mentor allowed. These guidelines create a hard stop to the number of mentors or mentees a participant can have within this program. If allow participants to end the mentoring relationship is enabled, the system will not include mentoring relationships that have ended when calculating thresholds.

If you wish to allow Mentors to manage a mentee's Development Goals, you'll need to select the box "Allow participants to manage development goals" and then select the development goal plan template to which they'll have access. XML Field Permissions of read or write also need to be granted for the MT role, at the least to the goal name field.

The key dates for the program need to be entered, and all date fields are mandatory.

• For unsupervised mentoring programs, the system will automatically trigger the next step or status on the dates you specify. You also have the option of manually pushing the program through each step.
• For supervised mentoring programs, you need to manually push the program through each step.

At the bottom of each page, there is a Next button to move to the next step in setting up the Mentoring program. You can also choose Save to save the program and return to the setup process later.

Adding mentors and mentees can be accomplished one at a time or by Dynamic Group. To add a mentor just begin typing the name of the employee in the search field.

Dynamic Groups can be created for use across several mentoring programs (and other areas of SAP SuccessFactors). These groups can also be shared with multiple administrators. Static groups can also be created by CSV upload.

To create a central Dynamic Group, use Action Search to locate Manage Employee Groups. Once the group is created simply begin typing the name of the Dynamic Group to select it.

When managing the participation of mentors within a program, filter options in the Mentors tab allows administrators to review all pending requests by status and approve requests conveniently from this area. The filters give the administrator the ability to see the status of the following:

• Pending
• Declined
• Accepted
  • Available
  • Unavailable

For each mentoring program that you create, you also design the Signup Form. The Signup Form is where an administrator defines questions presented to the mentor or mentee when registering for a program. The answers to these questions can then be used to match the mentors and mentees.

The first option in the matching rules is the Question Category. The Question Category can be a Free Text question. You can select from the list of standard picklists, or you can configure custom picklists. Both standard and custom picklists can be used more than once.

If Pick List is selected for the Answer Type, then choose a category from the Selection Value list. The following fields are supported:

• Attribute/Competency
• Location
• Country/Region
• Department
• Division
• Gender
• Job Family
• Job Role
• Job Code
• Job Level
• Job Title
• Skill (Job Profile Builder is required)

To add a custom picklist for Mentoring, back on the main Manage Mentoring Programs page, there is a link to access the Settings on the top right-hand side. There will be an option Custom Picklist Configuration to be used for the Mentoring Signup Form.

First the picklist needs to be added in Picklist Center. Then the picklist can be selected in Mentoring and given a custom label that is used when adding matching questions.

Free text answers are supported but not included in matching criteria. They’re a great option for mentors and mentees to learn more about each other and to help in the selection process for unsupervised and open enrollment programs.

Once you’ve selected your Question Category, you’ll need to define a matching rule for each question.

Select the buttons to learn more about Matching Rules.

Matching is based on the criteria defined below:

• Preferences: You define questions both for mentors and mentees. They are matched based on the answers to the questions.
• Mentee's Preference: You define questions for mentees only. Mentors and mentees are matched based on mentees’ answers and mentors’ employee profiles.
• Mentor’s Preference: You define questions for mentors only. Mentors and mentees are matched based on mentors’ answers and mentees’ employee profiles.
• Profiles: You don’t define questions for mentors and mentees. They are matched based on employee profiles.

If your matching is based on Free Text or Preferences, you’ll need to define questions for the mentors and mentees. Your questions can be the same or different between the mentors and mentees.

Key questions may also be set up in the SignUp Form of the wizard. Enabling key questions is as simple as a checkbox. Yet, this functionality plays an important role in the matching process. If mentors and mentees do not satisfy the matching rule of the key question, they will not be matched. To ensure that mentors are recommended to mentees, you cannot define all questions as key questions.

Administrators may also decide on the matching type. Most matching is accomplished when answers match between mentors and mentees. But occasionally you may want to have mentors and mentees "match" when their answers do NOT match. For example, if you do not want mentors and mentees to be in the same department, you would use a matching type of Not Matched with a Question Category of Department and use the employee’s Profiles.

Weighting questions allows the administrators to give higher or lower emphasis based on importance. You cannot give weights for key questions or the questions that are answered with free text. If you want to apply different weights and do not want a specific question to be included for matching, leave the weight field of the question empty. Make sure that the weights of all weighted questions add up to 100%.

When you have two or more questions, you can change the order of the questions using the arrows at the end of the question line.

As the system starts matching, it finds the best fit between mentors and mentees based on those matching rules.

Using action search, navigate to Manage Mentoring Programs→Create New Mentoring Program. Select the Open Enrollment option and complete the wizard.

Many of the options available for Open Enrollment programs are the same as the Supervised and Unsupervised programs, such as details, description, and branding. However, other choices, such as Mentor Approval Method and Target Participants allow the administrator to set the flexibility and audience of the program.

With Open Enrollment programs, administrators can require a mentor to get approval from the mentoring program administrator/owner or their manager before they can participate in the program.

• If approval is by manager, then managers receive an e-mail and To Do notification on their home page whenever one of their employees signs up as a mentor. If the manager declines the mentor's request to participate, the mentor receives a notification, and they’re removed from the program. Their mentoring preferences and other information are not saved. The user can, if they choose to, sign up for the same program again.
• If the approval is by admin or owner, then mentors are required to upload supporting documents with their requests. The admin or owner can filter mentors by their participation status and approve the participation requests one by one.

When creating an open enrollment program, the default behavior is to invite all employees to participate. With the Target Participants field, you can limit participation to the mentoring program by selecting specific dynamic groups.

After making selections, the wizard offers the opportunity to define the matching questions as in the supervised and unsupervised programs.

Deep links enable administrators to share open enrollment programs conveniently with potential participants. You may include a deep link to the specific mentoring program in the communication to be used in an e-mail, an intranet page, even an LMS item, or any other medium. Selecting this deep link takes the user directly to the sign-up page for a mentoring program. Links can be generated for mentee and mentor sign-up pages as well. However, the links will not be seen in this area until after the program has moved to the in-progress state.

Once all details and questions are completed for your mentoring program, the Summary form appears with all of the program information. Be sure to verify the information before launching the program. Once the program is launched, it is difficult to edit or modify the program.

Once launched, the mentoring program is now active and available for reference in the Administrator view of the Manage Mentoring Programs section. If there is no approval process selected, the program will automatically move to the IN-PROGRESS status.

After the program is launched, the mentee sees the program details and decides whether or not to participate. If the mentoring program is an Open Enrollment program, it will not have a start date or end date and the notice states this.

When joining the program, the mentee gives preferences to the questions and potential mentors.

The mentee can select from the recommended mentors, or search for someone specifically.

Once the steps are finalized, the mentee receives a message in the system and awaits the mentor’s confirmation or decline.

Simultaneously, the mentor receives a notice of the mentee request. Based on the configuration of the program, a mentor may have multiple mentee requests or only one.

At this point, it is up to the mentor to accept or decline the mentee request. The system provides additional information, such as how many openings are left for mentees and their preferences. This assists the mentor in making a more informed decision, which is captured electronically in the system.

If the mentor accepts the request from the mentee, the mentoring relationship is fully acknowledged in the system and activities may be added for the mentee. These activities may include weekly or monthly meetings, special assignments, and simple task tracking. Up to 200 mentoring activities can be created, either by the mentor or mentee. The Activity Plan also includes a link to access Continuous Performance to create a 1:1 channel for ongoing meetings and activities. To access activities as a mentor, navigate to View Mentoring Details from the Mentee card action menu.

Select Create Activity to add activities. This allows communication of actions necessary to create and track a productive mentor relationship. It also provides an avenue to end the relationship if the relationship becomes unhelpful, which can happen due to a variety of reasons, such as time constraints, lack of follow-through on actions, or one member of the relationship leaving the organization.

For mentees, activities are available when the mentoring program is opened as a mentee. The mentoring preferences entered while joining the program, and the list of activities, are available through the tabs under the program name. The activities list will allow a mentee to edit or delete any activities that the mentee added; any activities added by the mentor can be viewed with the eye icon; and the mentor with whom the activity is scheduled is shown so all activities are in one list.