Welcome to Guardian One

Mentor Program

Mentor Program

Mentoring is a time-proven strategy that can help young people of all circumstances achieve their potential. Mentors are caring individuals who, under the guidance of the Senior Vice President, provide young people with support, counsel, friendship, reinforcement and a constructive example. But mentoring is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. Every young person who would benefit from a mentoring relationship has individual needs.

The mentoring program is introduced at Gulf Pinnacle Transport with an aim to improve employee satisfaction and retention, enrich and ensure effective implementation of best practices and technological measures. Unlike similar learning incentives like training programs or offering to pay for courses, mentoring utilizes the resources that our company already has.

Objective

The objectives of Mentor program are to welcome newcomers, teach them the best practices implemented, get them accustomed to technological measures and build loyalty towards the company.

Duration

We at G1 understand that the relationships and a sense of bonding occur over time between mentors and mentees, the duration and consistency of each mentoring relationship is very important. At a minimum, mentors and mentees will meet regularly on all non-activity days for at least one full term. During this spell, the mentors share the existing practice followed in the school and follow up with the mentees to ensure effective implementation.

Successful Mentoring Relationship

We at G1, emphasize that the mentor program can yield positive mentoring results only if the mentors and mentees share a close, trusting relationship. We understand that such relationships do not just happen. They need ongoing support and monitoring, particularly during the early stages, to ensure that the relationships do not terminate prematurely. The mentor program at G1 ensures that everyone proceeds with care. The four program practices that are essential for strong and effective mentoring relationships are as follows:

  • Conducting reasonable intensive screening of potential mentors
  • Making matches based on interests that both the mentor and the mentee share; Providing more than six hours of training for mentors
  • Offering post-match training and support

These four practices can help ensure successful mentoring relationships that endure over time. By contrast, the following four practices will make mentoring less effective:

  • The mentors do not meet regularly with the mentee;
  • Mentors adopting an authoritative tone
  • Put more emphasis on changing the mentee’s behavior than on developing a warm relationship based on trust and respect
  • Try to transform the mentee by imposing a set of values inconsistent with the mentee’s life circumstances.

Types of Mentoring

The type of mentoring program is chosen based on the nature of operation and objective set for the mentoring program and at G1, the form of traditional one-to-one mentoring is followed:

Traditional One-to-One Mentoring

One-to-one mentoring places one experienced old staff in a relationship with new staff. At a minimum, the mentor and mentee should meet regularly at least two hours per day for at least twice a week in the first term of academic year. There are exceptions—such as in school-based mentoring, which coincides with the school year—and other types of special mentoring initiatives. In such special circumstances, mentees need to know from the outset how long they can expect the relationship to last so they can adjust their expectations accordingly.

The mentoring is workplace-based mentoring which takes place at the workplace. The Senior Vice President, Manager – HR & Administration or Coordinator supervises the program. This program offers the new staff the chance to develop a relationship with one or more old employees who become friends, role models and advocates for them. This, typically takes place at the workplace, either during or after school hours.

General Guidelines

The following general guidelines are followed during the Mentor Program:

Select the Management Team. The size of the staff will depend on the size and scope of your program. At the very least, you will need a program coordinator. (Larger programs may need more than one coordinator. Choose someone with strong leadership abilities and management skills who can manage a wide range of responsibilities, including:

  • Managing the overall program
  • Developing consistent procedures for recruiting and referring young people
  • Overseeing development and implementation of all promotional and educational efforts
  • Cultivating and maintaining all necessary external contacts and relationships for implementing and maintaining the mentor program (e.g., with partner organizations)
  • Recruiting, screening, training and supervising mentors
  • Matching mentor pairs
  • Developing and maintaining all records, policies and procedures
  • Coordinating mentoring activities
  • Checking in regularly with mentors and offering ongoing support
  • Developing a plan to recognize program participants
  • Developing a plan to evaluate the program, including soliciting participant feedback
  • Tracking program statistics, including budgetary costs, hours and so forth
  • Documenting development of the mentor program.

Policies and Procedures

Establishing Policies and Procedures is the next key step which contributes to the success of the Mentor Program. The policies and procedures should reflect our program decisions and practices that everyone will follow. Policies and procedures should be established in the following areas:

  • Where and when mentoring takes place
  • How mentors are screened, oriented and trained
  • How mentors and mentees are matched
  • Who supervises mentoring pairs and how often that individual is in contact with each mentor and mentee?
  • Whom a mentor or a mentee should contact when problems arise
  • How to handle complaints
  • How to resolve problems in relationships or bring relationships to closure
  • How to evaluate your success.

Our overarching goal with traditional mentoring is to achieve a close bond between a new employee and an experienced staff. Thus, socialization and friendship are our primary objectives clearly define and reinforce ground rules. Because one-to-one relationships are intense, we need to ensure that mentors and mentees understand boundaries in terms of what is allowed and what is not. Ongoing supervision of the program should be provided. Processes for ongoing monitoring and supervision enhance oversight of mentors and mentees.