ABSTRACT
The challenge with a maternity or parental leave pilot is that it could be very lengthy if the intention is to see a complete series of mentoring cycles through before launching the programme to the wider business. In practice, many organisations choose to start off with a small number of mentoring partnerships, testing out their processes for matching, mentor and mentee preparation, and evaluating learning on an ongoing basis. Where mentoring programmes operate across different countries, for example, pan-European or international businesses, the programme owner is unlikely to have personal knowledge of every participant. With over 51,000 members and a knowledge business that spans the globe, the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is the UK's professional body for chemical scientists, supporting and representing members and bringing together chemical scientists from all over the world. Here training and OD manager Sue Hughes shares thoughts on mentor selection and matching from her experience of adding maternity mentoring to the RSC development portfolio.
