Other Voices: 6 Tips for Establishing a Supply Chain Mentorship Program

Editors note: I first met Rodney Apple in 2015, when I moderated a round table on challenges in the supply chain work force at the APICS conference in Las Vegas. At the time, recruiting, training and retaining supply chain talent was one of the most talked about topics at supply chain conferences. Since then, I think it’s safe to say the issue has only gained in importance. This is the first of ten columns by Apple that we’ll publish on SCMR.com over the next three weeks. As always, you can feel free to email me with your thoughts at [email protected]. Bob Trebilcock, editorial director, Supply Chain Management Review.

Establishing a supply chain mentorship program is a proven and cost-effective way to attract, develop and retain talent. There are many benefits that are gained for both the mentor and mentee, and just as many that can be gained for supply chain organizations as well, such as:

● Maintain High Level of Employee Engagement
● Improve Employee Retention Rate
● Transfer Supply Chain Knowledge and Skills
● Improve Succession Planning throughout the Supply Chain Organization
● Develop a Learning Culture that Promotes Professional Growth
● Transform Culture to a Desired State
● Develop and Enhance Leadership and Coaching Skills in Managers
● Improve Motivation, Morale and Overall Performance
● Develop, Advance and Retain High Potential Employees
● Promote Collaboration throughout the Workforce
● Improve Diversity in the Workforce
● Accelerate Innovation throughout the Enterprise
● Teach Tenured Employees New Skills (Reverse Mentoring)

While setting up a mentorship program is fairly easy and cost effective, there is no such thing as a “one size fits all” model. We’ve compiled a simple step-by-step outline below that will help you with developing and implementing a mentorship program for your supply chain organization.

Establish Program Objectives and Guidelines
Like getting started with any project, it’s important to establish the main goals of your mentorship program so you can structure the program around the organization’s most important objectives. For example, a program focused on employee retention will look different that one centered around training your leaders. Ask yourself the following questions: What is the desired outcome? Who will participate? How long will the mentorships last?

Designate a Mentorship Program Coordinator
An effective mentorship program has one dedicated individual who will be in charge of implementing and managing the program. You should consider creating a cross-functional committee to assist this individual with the program to include members from the supply chain leadership team and leaders within the field e.g. manufacturing and distribution facilities.

In addition, involvement from the top down can help ensure the success of the mentorship program so it’s recommended that the senior-most leader e.g. Chief Supply Chain Officer serve as the program’s sponsor. This helps to signify the importance of mentorship to the supply chain organization and can help drive participation throughout the organization, from corporate to each manufacturing or distribution facility within your supply chain footprint.

Pair Mentor/ Mentee
Mentoring can exist in a group setting, but the most common model is one-to-one. There are many software systems you can evaluate that use algorithms to help pair mentors and mentees, track meetings, establish goals, measure results, and much more. If you’re a smaller organization, you can get by with a manual process using basic Microsoft Office applications e.g. create basic forms to collect pertinent information for the mentor and mentee to aid with mentorship pairing.

Be sure to do conduct research on what is the best fit for your organization and consider running a few mentorship pilots before expanding the program throughout the organization.

Manage Expectations
It’s important to communicate what the mentee and mentor should expect from the program as well as what not to expect, such as special treatment for promotions, for example. Both should have a clear understanding of the time commitment and program guidelines as well.

A strong mentor-mentee relationship can help new employees learn the ropes from a veteran employee and find a source for supply chain management career advice, while also helping the more seasoned worker see solutions and approaches to company initiatives from a fresh perspective.

Develop the Framework
Mentor pairs may structure their time and meeting agendas differently depending on the goals and objectives of each mentorship. However, it’s very important to put a solid framework in place that enables success throughout the lifespan of the mentorship.

The framework should include basic communication templates, meeting agendas, action plans and progress reports. You’ll also want to establish an exit plan that successfully ends the mentorship and collects feedback on what went well, what didn’t go so well, etc. This is valuable information that can be used for coaching and developing both mentors and mentees so they make improvements for the next mentorship that they enter into.

Measure Results
While it’s critical to ensure that your supply chain mentorship program is helping both the mentors and mentees reach their goals, it’s equally important to measure the overall success of the program to ensure it’s driving the right results based on the program’s goals and objectives.

If your main goal is to improve retention, track your attrition rate to ensure you’re seeing steady improvements. If your goal is to improve employee engagement, you should be conducting pulse surveys, one-on-ones, exit interviews and the like to ensure that employee engagement is improving throughout your supply chain organization.

Through supply chain mentorship programs, your employees can become more engaged, empowered and productive.

Rodney L. Apple is the managing partner of SCM Talent Group, a supply chain recruiting agency. He can be reached at [email protected].