Mentorship and informal employee interactions have looked dramatically different since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Zoom or Teams sessions have taken the place of most meetings, lunch-and-learns, and informal connections around the office. This has left HR pros and team leaders scrambling to find meaningful and consistent ways to connect and develop their scattered remote, hybrid and in-person teams.

Fear not, though, because there are multiple solutions that make employee development and connectivity possible through mentorship platforms and programs. Below, we’ve looked at five online mentorship platforms and evaluated their different features so you can pick the one that fits best your organization’s needs.
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‍Ten Thousand Coffees

Ten Thousand Coffees (of course we’re listing ourselves first!) is an enterprise-level solution that allows HR leaders and program administrators to easily run their corporate mentorship programs. Customized and out of the box mentorship programming connects employees through the platform’s Office Hours and Introductions features. The platform allows administrators to set up and track their mentorship programs to drive virtual networking, career development, and onboarding initiatives, to name a few.

Our platform also removes the tedious manual time required to match mentors and mentees on spreadsheets. Our machine-learning, Smart Match algorithm ensures a 95% match quality score to ensure your programs are free of unconscious bias, and creates the most meaningful matches among employees based on their interests and goals. The main components of the mentorship platform include:

• Development Programs – Structured and guided modules where employees get access to 1:1 mentorship. The programs provide discussion guides, toolkits and competency building resources to make the most out of their matches.
• Introductions – Simple introductory emails kick off the employee matching process to mentors and mentees. It’s an easy way to connect with other employees in the mentorship program who have complimentary goals and interests.
• Community Hubs & Directories – An interactive organizational directory that allows employees to look for colleagues they would like to connect with.
• Office Hours – A way to amplify the mentorship experience in virtual and remote environments. This feature can be used to host group sessions by company leaders and subject matter experts with many employees.

Another benefit of our platform is that key components of the experience are pushed to the employee’s email inbox, as well as Slack, with no extra login needed for employees to regularly engage in your mentorship programs. Ten Thousand Coffees is also compatible with most HRIS systems and uses SSO (single sign on), which reduces the administrative burden on your IT team.

Data and reporting tools: Ten Thousand Coffees offers a comprehensive data dashboard that lets HR leaders and program managers know how employees are engaging with their mentorship programs in real-time. It breaks down what percentage of people from different career levels (interns, full-time, etc.) are seeking advice or offering help. You can also track the specific connections that have been made, how the employees rated their experience and the specific KPIs that you’ve built into the program.

Price: Contact the 10KC team for a customized quote.

Clients: EY, IBM, and RBC

Reviews (posted on Capterra):

• "This software is a great way for people to connect with each other. I like the office hours option and it's been great during COVID for our constituents to connect with one another with relative ease."
• "Robust and thoughtful mentor program set up seamlessly within hours. Engagement was high and people actually like using this product."
• “Love the automated smart matching and overall automation which saves our early career team time and resources in running a summer intern networking program. Also it is a very user-friendly product with smart nudges and reminders.”

MentorcliQ

MentorcliQ is a mentorship-centric software that is designed with engagement and retention in mind. The company positions itself as a “business mentoring software” where mentorship initiatives can be scaled and tracked. The software is available via a web browser or as a mobile app, making it easy for employees to access the platform from anywhere. Their software uses an algorithm that matches appropriate mentors with mentees, and then your organization establishes how people connect. It also allows you to initiate larger, company-wide programs.

Data and reporting tools: The software collects data on the number of participants, engagement, and satisfaction on a dashboard in addition to individual learning reports and the ROI of the program as a whole.

Price: No price is listed.

Clients: Huntington, Goodyear, and LinkedIn.

Reviews (posted on Capterra):  

• "MentorcliQ is the great enabler that allows us to do this efficiently. It provides the environment for people to think about and do something about career and personal development."
• "The software was a great tool that was used when creating the partnership. The questions that were asked really did a wonderful job on pairing me with the perfect mentee."
• "The only con I have experienced is that there is no spell check on the program administrator side. No one wants to send out mass emails with spelling mistakes or typos."

Together

Together is a program-developing and mentorship-pairing tool. It helps bolster employee growth, engagement, and culture building. The software has two key components. One component allows companies to create their own mentorship curriculum through online modules, and the other automatically pairs mentors with mentees and allows employees to reach out to potential mentors on their company’s platform.

Data and reporting tools: Together measures who meets and how often they’re meeting in feedback surveys. It also lets participants see how their skills have improved throughout the mentorship process.

Price: The software costs $5,000 per year for the starter package. Contact Together for pricing for companies with 500 or more employees.

Clients: New York Life, Randstad, and Heineken

Reviews (posted on Capterra):  

• "They also are continually making updates to the system and the reporting features are tremendously helpful for leadership."
• "This is super impactful to HR/business leaders as it speaks to retention and providing new opportunities for employees."
• "Hard to find my way around initially and still get lost sometimes."

Chronus

Chronus is a mentorship-driven software that focuses on creating excellent pairings and offers a pathway through the mentor/mentee relationship. It uses its proprietary MatchIQ® Technology to forge strong partnerships while also allowing self-matches or matches created by company leaders. Their software also provides step-by-step guidance to keep mentees progressing on the mentorship journey. It’s accessible on desktop or through their app.

Data and reporting tools: Chronus collects user surveys and allows organizations to create a customizable dashboard with metrics that are most important to them.

Price: No price is listed.

Clients: McGraw Hill, MetLife, and Uber

Reviews (posted on Capterra):  

• "I was always impressed with their consistency and follow through. The product has made a great impact in the development of our employees."
• "Great place to start your corporate mentoring program."
• "Another limitation we have found is that currently users are not able to switch between mentee and mentor roles on their own; it has to be done by the administrator."

MentorCity

MentorCity is a cloud-based mentoring software focused on personal development. It is geared to nonprofits and the education sector, with some business clients. Users build a profile, and then interested mentees can search for mentors based on the skills they are looking to develop. MentorCity includes a compatibility rating to indicate to users how successful their match will likely be. Once the relationship is established, you can send a message, book a meeting, and review goals. Group mentoring is also an available feature.

Data and reporting tools: MentorCity allows you to create a customizable report that shows the overall success of the mentorship program and looks at individual engagement levels.

Price: No price is listed.

Clients: Odyssey Mentoring and Leadership, Urban Living Futures, and The University of British Columbia

Reviews (posted on Capterra):  

• “In the past we managed the mentoring program with spreadsheets, survey software, and email. This is so much easier and having all the information about our program contained in one "bucket" helps to manage the organization's program without missing items."
• “In addition, having a professional on-line mentoring program has helped our association gain traction with not just our members, but our industry partners and government agencies.”
• “Wish it had a private chat room to invite mentees to meet at a specific time (not Skype). It would be great to be able to "chat" in a space and set up that type of mentoring meeting without being in a public chat room."

Bottom Line? Mentoring Is An Important Part of Career Development and Employee Engagement

All of these enterprise mentorship platforms have a key quality in common: they provide valuable opportunities for employees and professionals to create connections through mentoring. With an online mentorship platform in place, HR leaders and program administrators can promote cross-functional learning and growth across seniority levels to their younger employees, underrepresented groups or siloed departments within their companies.

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