Designing a mentoring scheme
A mentoring scheme defines who participates, how pairs are matched, what support they receive and how their commitment begins and ends.
Participation and matching
Formal mentoring programmes are run by a third party, such as a company or professional organisation, often with guidelines; participants may find partners through a self-service portal or be matched by administrators. Professional societies periodically call for mentors, match mentees’ needs with mentors’ expertise, provide a framework and check progress regularly.
Participation should be voluntary, goals understood by both parties and mentors committed to the role. Not every personality suits a scheme, including people who are excessively bureaucratic, egoistic or independent, while the coaching skills mentors need can be learned and developed.
Historically, informal mentorships have been noted as more successful than formal schemes, but changing career patterns and individual priorities may make formal schemes more beneficial. Clear design can establish compatibility rather than relying on chemistry, define roles and expectations, make success evaluable and prevent inter-gender obstacles through transparency. Defining duration at the start can prevent overdependence by mentees and exploitation by mentors, and defining the time investment allows project involvement to be planned. Associations can learn from mentoring consultants’ rules and guidance, although trained consultants may be more helpful than the materials alone.
Goals, meetings and boundaries
Best practices should be developed before a programme begins to define responsibilities and make it beneficial; mentoring objectives should be based on mentees’ needs before the first meeting. Regular meetings should be scheduled and both participants should commit to attending.
In 2012, Amgen’s medical-writing programme aimed to help writers excel in their responsibilities and build positive relationships in a fast-paced environment. Its guidelines were:
- Trust and confidentiality are key elements.
- Discussion content does not affect performance reviews or workload distribution.
- Mentors and mentees should not report to the same manager or work on the same product teams.
- Twelve weekly sessions of 30 minutes are recommended.
- Mentees should shape session agendas.
- The programme leader facilitates a kick-off meeting with each pair to review expectations.
- Mentors meet the mentee’s manager before the first session to discuss strengths and development areas, and after the sixth to discuss engagement.
Amgen participants could modify the number and duration of meetings to suit their needs and workloads at any time.
Mentoring can be offered for a fee or informally through goodwill. In 2012, the consultancy Management Mentors provided formal corporate programmes incorporating e-mentoring software.
Bounded commitments
In 2010, AMWA proposed exploring an informal career-mentoring programme focused on short-term arrangements with specific goals; in early 2011 its executive committee planned a formal exploration of those options with the chapters and membership committee.
AMWA’s Conference Coach Connection offered a commitment limited to helping a first-time attendee navigate the annual conference; any mentoring beyond the event was a bonus. Coaches helped newcomers gain confidence, break the ice and feel welcome.
In 2009, the American Society of Journalists and Authors had run a year-round programme for more than ten years, based on its conference mentoring format. About 60 member-volunteers offered expertise in particular areas, with fee-based 30-minute telephone sessions open to members and nonmembers. Mentees were encouraged to identify specific information needs in advance, and the association tried to find a suitable match. Mentors volunteered to give back to the community that had nurtured their careers.
Cross-functional pairing and programme tools
LEO Pharma’s pilot began in October 2020 for Medical Sciences and Global Clinical Operations staff, with a consulting firm belonging to the European Mentoring and Coaching Council. It aimed to develop both participants through a learning partnership integrating knowledge and experience across disciplines.
Organisers used functional area, length of employment, experience, expectations and wishes to match pairs, seeking diversity in department, position and experience alongside compatible personalities and expectations. A matching questionnaire and colleagues’ personal knowledge of applicants informed the matches. The kick-off included 25 people in Denmark and a handful in the US, UK and Germany, with plenary and breakout discussions culminating in pairing.
The pilot was intended to last 8–10 months, with meetings every 3–6 weeks and a workbook supporting a cycle of 8–12 meetings. The workbook covered expectations, ground rules, learning goals, meeting preparation, records of actions and experiences, and progress evaluation, together with situational mentor roles, SCORE (symptoms, causes, outcomes, resources and effects), SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) and SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) goals. A mid-programme workshop was planned to support the partnerships, and each pair was to evaluate its learning and relationship at the end and decide whether to end or redefine it. Early feedback was positive, with wider rollout dependent on final pilot evaluation.
Mentoring combined with training and community
Elemed developed its Mentoring Academy after discussions in spring 2020 with candidates and hiring companies identified gaps in business acumen, emotional intelligence, business curiosity, influencing and project management, alongside plentiful technical training but insufficient soft-skills training.
In 2021, Elemed’s entirely virtual Mentoring Academy served regulatory, quality and clinical professionals in medtech, in vitro diagnostics and pharmaceuticals through three components.
- Mentoring: pairs were hand-selected to match mentees’ requests and challenges with mentors’ expertise.
- Training: invited experts delivered at least one soft-skills session each month, recorded for those unable to attend live.
- Community: support hubs and regular roundtables allowed both mentors and mentees to share challenges, celebrate successes and support one another.
Volunteer mentors supported the programme, and an online platform provided goal-setting tips, a first-meeting checklist, recommended reading and new material between individual mentoring and group training. A partnership with RAPS supplied speakers, and mentees, mentors and speakers could earn regulatory-affairs-certification recertification credits. Most mentees valued the community component, including its contact with peers during COVID-19 isolation. A clinical-evaluation-report writer also valued the regular peer exchange and accompanying webinars, while finding informal self-organised mentorship fruitful too.
After seven months, Elemed reported personal and professional growth among all mentees, greater self-awareness of strengths and weaknesses, greater confidence in professional and technical abilities, and more willingness to try new leadership and communication approaches. Its reported outcomes included promotions, leadership of significant projects, career changes and new roles for mentees affected by redundancy, as well as managers welcoming constructive ideas from dissatisfied mentees.
Writing assignments and tailored learning
Azur’s mentoring programme combined practical writing tasks with training in healthcare, drug development and writing roles. Mentees submitted work for written comments, discussed the feedback and revised for final submission rather than receiving a marked assessment; the programme’s mentor found this approach built more confidence than a score with little improvement advice. The scope extended beyond regulatory writing to medical writing more broadly.
By 2021, the programme had developed from two ad hoc mentees into self-paced online learning with regular catch-ups, retained review and feedback sessions and job-search support after the main assignment. The provider reported that every mentee who completed the programme had found employed or freelance industry work in medical communications, regulatory writing or related fields such as regulatory affairs.
For a mentee considering leaving academia, an initial questionnaire and call shaped the programme around his goals. Because he leaned towards medical and science communication rather than regulatory writing, his assignment transformed a clinical study report into a 3,000-word article for a specific audience. He found that it taught regulatory rigour and knowledge extraction that subsequently helped in a medical-communications job.
Programme types and participant choice
Three company programme types meet different needs:
- New-hire mentoring develops knowledge, skills and understanding of processes and workflows specific to the job, unlike onboarding’s core information for all new employees. Mentors review well-written examples with trainees and can guide work on small parts of their projects, helping new hires become self-sufficient sooner.
- Project mentoring develops current employees’ knowledge and skills for more challenging roles. Line managers or team leads usually assign participants, and mentors guide specific document preparation and give performance feedback.
- Role shadowing is requested by mentees seeking new responsibilities or positions. It exposes them to roles, projects and complex processes through observing meetings and interactions or performing small tasks reviewed by a mentor.
A doctoral programme offered PhD students and postdocs a year of monthly mentoring meetings and workshops on career planning and conflict management. At Aarhus University, a coordinator presented a postdoc with three matched candidates’ profiles and let her choose her mentor.
In 2021, the Medical Writing Organisation, created by Cheeky Scientist, used moderators to help aspiring medical writers create transition plans and strategies. The Australasian Medical Writers Association’s programme ran for about three months, with nine experienced writers and editors volunteering general writing, editing and career advice to prospective medical writers and freelancers.