Mentors for HR Practitioners

[Red]

As we find ourselves continually faced with the challenge of keeping ourselves and in turn our managers/clients up to date on legislative change through developing strategies to implement such change, now is the time for HR practitioners in a business to show their real value. Whether you are a generalist or a specialist, there are areas of HRM we can manage on our heads, and there are other areas where from time to time we may refer back to our own manual and/or perhaps seek guidance from a mentor. I am interested to hear if anyone knows of a good HRM mentor they would recommend, preferably someone in the Brisbane market would be ideal, but not essential.

[IvanaC]

Hi Red

I understand that AHRI have a mentoring program in place for $100 a year. It might be worthwhile to contact them regarding the program, I was also thinking of finding a mentor for next year. You will have to apply/register for the program and I believe that there is a closing date. Good luck...

[HRIMHO]

Yeah, AHRI's might be a good place to start. Other than that, if you're an alumni of a uni, they might have a program in place.

Common thinking in regards to mentoring though is that you can't just pick anyone, there needs to be a level of connection and understanding between parties - for this reason, it might be difficult to find a mentor on "generic" recommendation.

[Red]

Originally Posted by IvanaC

Hi Red

I understand that AHRI have a mentoring program in place for $100 a year. It might be worthwhile to contact them regarding the program, I was also thinking of finding a mentor for next year. You will have to apply/register for the program and I believe that there is a closing date. Good luck...

Thanks for your reply. I do intend to investigate the AHRI program for 2010 and I've made contact with them. They are meant to be sending me some information on registering shortly.

[Red]

Originally Posted by HRIMHO

Yeah, AHRI's might be a good place to start. Other than that, if you're an alumni of a uni, they might have a program in place.

Common thinking in regards to mentoring though is that you can't just pick anyone, there needs to be a level of connection and understanding between parties - for this reason, it might be difficult to find a mentor on "generic" recommendation.

I totally agree with your comments and I do plan to pursue AHRI's mentoring program for 2010. In the meantime though, it would be great just to speak to someone to get a second opinion on a project I am working on for one of my clients. The project is on Enterprise Agreements.

[kevinh]

Originally Posted by HRIMHO

Common thinking in regards to mentoring though is that you can't just pick anyone, there needs to be a level of connection and understanding between parties - ...

This doesn't necessarily mean it won't work though. It depends on the willingness of the individuals to engage and commit sufficient time to the task. My wife has mentored numerous new teaching staff at the school where she works. Sometimes it's for very experienced, more senior staff, other times it's for people coming in from industry who are new to teaching. Other than the fact that they both work for the same organisation they have no previous level of connection or understanding.

This has got me thinking about the definition of "mentoring". How does it differ from "coaching" ?

[HRIMHO]

Interestingly enough, I was giving feedback on a mentoring programme just last night in regards to how people are matched. This programme did the matching for you, so you didn't actually know your mentee/mentor beforehand and it worked very well - but this was because there was a lot of effort put in by the administrators in ensuring the matching was suitable. Despite hard work, there are relationships that just don't work and I've heard some "horror" stories about these.

It's nearly impossible to talk about mentoring without coaching talk coming into it! In my organisation, we make the following deliniations between mentoring and coaching:

Coaching is more often a role performed by managers and supervisors assisting employees with task based skills. It is usually short-term and deals with the exchange of factual information. A coach usually provides the solutions.

Mentors are generally more experienced role models in the organisation and interested in developing others and assist and guide the professional development of a less experienced individual.

Mentees (or Protégés) are individuals interested in seeking professional guidance in reaching goals with a chosen professional partner.

[kevinh]

Originally Posted by HRIMHO

Coaching is more often a role performed by managers and supervisors assisting employees with task based skills. It is usually short-term and deals with the exchange of factual information. A coach usually provides the solutions.

Mentors are generally more experienced role models in the organisation and interested in developing others and assist and guide the professional development of a less experienced individual.

Mentees (or Protégés) are individuals interested in seeking professional guidance in reaching goals with a chosen professional partner.

I know someone who would beg to differ. He's a senior manager with an investment bank and he has an external "executive coach" who he has been seeing for a couple of years now. It's paid for by his employer and the goal is for him to become an executive director.

To my mind, mentors and coaches do very similar things, if not the same things, but a coach is usually external and a mentor internal (to the organisation).

[HRIMHO]

Originally Posted by kevinh

I know someone who would beg to differ.

No need to beg to differ, he is completely free to differ without approval as most things in HR are opinion vs. opinion