“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”
– Albert Einstein
What is a Mentorship Platform?
Mentorship platforms and services enable organizations such as companies, businesses, non-profits, and churches to build, manage, and scale their mentorship program seamlessly.
In this day and age, employee retention and growth is one of the game changers for successful organizations.
To keep employee retention high and continue to grow their skill set, partnering people to share knowledge and develop together has been proven to be a difference maker.
A Case Study: Does Mentoring Matter?
In this academic paper published by the National Institutes of Health, the authors studied and compared individuals' results when mentored and not mentored.
Throughout the article, the authors analyze specific mentoring contexts with the youth in an academic and workplace setting. Across the board, the results were conclusive that a solid mentoring relationship in the workplace correlated with the ideal behaviors of employees: career and work attitudes, as well as positive outcomes.
The results of this study and many others have been proven in the real world as you look across top companies that pride themselves in employee retention and engagement.
Why Do I Need a Mentorship Platform?
While it is possible to create and scale a mentorship program the old-fashioned way through pen & paper, excel spreadsheets, and staffing employees to manage your mentorship program, there’s a much easier way!
Scaling a manual mentorship program is complex and often needs more ability to seamlessly spread across your organization and get the proper engagement from your employees & members.
Mentorship platforms and services enable you to seamlessly build and scale a mentorship program across your organization utilizing technology.
The utilization of technology allows the sponsoring group to get out of the day-to-day management of the program and focus on the high-level goals and outcomes of the program itself.
What is Important to Consider When Choosing a Mentorship Platform?
Now that you understand the purpose of a mentorship platform and how it could benefit your organization, here are the key aspects to look for in your mentorship platform of choice:
1. Exclusivity & Program Customization
You don’t want to share your mentorship platform with other organizations.
Having a safe and secure mentorship platform that can create a walled garden for your employees and members is critical.
Whether you have your mentorship program or need one, the platform should support either.
2. Registration
The key to a successful mentorship program is gathering accurate information so that your employees & members are matched based on the criteria you elect to be optimal for mentor and mentee relationships.
During the registration process, your mentorship platform should be flexible to gather the information that you find critical such as role, department, age, longevity, and so on.
3. Pairing
A mentorship platform should free up day-to-day management as you scale your mentorship program.
When choosing a platform, they must be able to match your employees and members based on the information collected during registration.
4. Scheduling
Your employees and members won’t do it if it's not easy.
Simple and seamless scheduling between employees and members must be built into the platform.
5. Reporting & Feedback
If you can’t measure it, why do it?
You need to understand and measure the key performance indicators of your program and allow your employees and members to share feedback in real time.
What Mentorship Platform Should I Choose?
Now that you’re ready to pick a mentorship program, the next step requires research, as there are many mentorship platforms and services.
Here is a review of the top 5 mentorship platforms that we have found. We will break them down based on the criteria above. The top 5 mentorship platforms are as follows:
- 10 Thousand Coffees
- MentorLoop
- MentorcliQ
- Qooper
- InstantMentor
1. 10 Thousand Coffees
10 Thousand Coffees tops our list as one of the best mentorship platforms.
Many large corporations such as EY, IBM, and RBC have elected to partner with them for their top-notch solution.
While they have many talent experience solutions such as DEI, onboarding, and early talent development, we will focus on their mentorship solution.
Exclusivity & Program Customization
10 Thousand Coffees provides a web-based solution for setting up, configuring, and managing your mentorship program.
This portal is secure, and in a walled garden, so you do not have to worry about any additional noise from other companies getting in the way.
They also offer guided curriculums off the shelf, allowing you to create your program from scratch using their recommendations.
Registration
The platform allows you to email blast all your employees (based on email domain) to register for the program.
Pairing
10 Thousand Coffees has its own “smart-match algorithm,” which they claim “removes bias and allows you to create relevant matches at scale.”
Scheduling
There is no built-in scheduling capability in the program. Employees and Members must exchange times over email to create a meeting.
The platform does integrate into Teams, Slack, etc., to send helpful reminders.
Reporting & Feedback
Employees and members can see an individual “score-card” showing their progress in each mentorship relationship. They can see where they are in terms of the program and the next steps, all in one place.
Administrators of the program can measure the overall health of their mentorship program with critical metrics such as engagement, the total count of participants, stages of mentorship, and can even tell you individual relationship progress between a mentor and mentee.
Areas of Improvement
10 Thousand Coffees is one of the most notable employee engagement and mentorship platforms today. While they integrate into your existing ecosystem software, such as Microsoft Outlook & Teams, as well as slack, an area of improvement is to make the scheduling process more accessible by bringing those integrations directly into the dashboard itself.
Expecting employees & members to exchange emails to find a time, then scheduling each session on their own will result in low participation since there is friction in finding availability on busy calendars.
2. Mentorloop
Mentorloop is a female-founded mentorship platform that started in 2016 and has some impressive brand recognition (showing partnerships with Virgin Media, Hilton, Xero, iHeartRadio, and more).
Their differentiator from other solutions is their simplicity and pricing model. They claim to “never limit the mentoring potential of an individual by billing by the number of ‘loops’ within a program.”
Exclusivity & Program Customization
Like other solutions, Mentorloop has an all-inclusive web-based dashboard to access, configure, and manage your programs.
They have several off-the-shelf programs to get you started, or you can build one from scratch with their program builder.
Registration
Registration is all done over email. Organizations can start small with their roll-out or go big by uploading all their email addresses.
After receiving the email, the participant can fill out the requested information and move on to pairing.
Pairing
Mentorloop also boasts of its “smart-match” algorithm, which automatically pairs individuals.
They also allow for manual pairing if you need a more custom touch.
Scheduling
Regarding scheduling, Mentorloop has a robust suite of integrations to make it easy to integrate into your existing ecosystem.
Zoom, Teams, Slack, Outlook, and Google calendar are all options for meeting and scheduling.
Reporting & Feedback
Mentorloop prides itself on a data-driven approach to scaling your mentorship program.
They have a trademarked “Sentiment” tool which reportedly gives real-time feedback, measures your program with a “Mentorloop Quality Score (MQS)”, and also gives you the ability to download a PDF to show your organization's progress at any time.
Mentors and Mentees can provide their sentiments via a real-time, post-meeting, or mid-program check-in.
Mentorloop’s data-driven approach is unique, and their sentiment analysis tool is a differentiator for them – allowing for honest time feedback to make program adjustments to boost engagement and satisfaction.
They combine the qualitative data from the participants with their quantitative data, such as meetings attended, prep completed, etc., to give an overall score for your organization and individual mentorship.
Areas of Improvement
We were impressed by the overall statements and structure of the Mentorloop platform. However, after reading many reviews on the platform, the integration and seamlessness of the program could use some improvement.
We saw negative comments about challenges uploading resumés and integrating into the ecosystem software such as Zoom and Teams.
3. MentorcliQ
MentorcliQ is a more “enterprise” solution for a mentorship platform.
They partner with some of the largest organizations, such as Huntington, Accertify, Cigna Health, the FDA, and more.
Starting in 2012, they have received many notable “Brandon Hall” awards and have grown significantly over the COVID period.
Exclusivity & Program Customization
Since MentorcliQ is an enterprise solution, they have a large team that partners with organizations to customize their mentorship program and platform indefinitely.
They offer a large array of mentorship materials and programs and a flexible platform to allow multiple programs to run simultaneously.
Registration
Similar to other solutions, MentorcliQ allows you to easily onboard employees and members through email registration and collect the necessary details to run your programs effectively.
Pairing
When it comes to pairing/matching, MetorcliQ’s software comes into play and “allows for precision matching” without all the spreadsheet overhead.
They allow you to choose from multiple matching options per program, such as auto-matching, admin matching, and more.
Scheduling
Regarding scheduling, MentorcliQ integrates directly into many of the top software ecosystems, such as Microsoft Outlook & Teams, Skype, Google, Zoom, etc.
They also have an app that allows participants to check in real-time if they cannot easily get into the web program.
Reporting & Feedback
MentorcliQ boasts of their “Award Winning Dashboard”, which allows viewing total participant numbers, engagement, activity, and overall satisfaction.
You can also see individual learning reports on each mentor or mentee and the overall health of their relationship.
Areas of Improvement
Since MentorcliQ is an enterprise solution, it was difficult to see all of their solutions without being a paying customer. However, their business development program is doing a great job in finding top-tier clients.
The more we explored their solution, the more impressed we were with the companies they were connected to.
With any enterprise solution, we suspect that the most significant drawback would be cost, and companies who may just be getting started in their mentorship program wouldn’t need the complexity of this solution.
The MentorcliQ solution is overkill for small-to-medium-sized organizations.
We also explored their mobile app. While it has a few good reviews, it is outdated and not exclusive to any company.
4. Qooper
Qooper started as a software development company in 2016 and transitioned into the mentorship business in 2018 after one of its founders recognized a need to bring technology into the mentorship business.
They have been growing since and have some strong brand partners such as Google, the U.S. Air Force, Subaru, Temple Health, and more.
Exclusivity & Program Customization
Similar to the previous options above, Qooper gives you a web dashboard to which the administrators and participants have access.
They provide many off-the-shelf programs and the ability to run multiple programs simultaneously, but it is unclear if you can bring your program to their platform.
Registration
Qooper provides email templates, promotional landing pages, and more to allow you to contact all of your participants to register with an email invitation.
Pairing
Qooper also has a branded “Qooper Smart Mentor Matching Algorithm” that fuels automatic suggestions. However, they also allow for manual matching, self-matching, and a “customizable algorithm”, which we believe is a weighted score mechanic for specific profile attributes.
Scheduling
Regarding scheduling, Qooper has an “Integrated Meeting Scheduler”, which connects to top platforms such as Google, Microsoft Outlook & Teams, Zoom, Slack, and Webex – allowing participants to find an available time that fits both schedules.
Reporting & Feedback
Regarding reporting & feedback, Qooper allows administrators to track and view progress and feedback from their dashboard for each mentorship participant and program.
They also have a dashboard to view their programs' overall progress and health, measure progress at the individual level, and even integrate directly with an HRIS or calculate an ROI of the program itself.
Areas of Improvement
While Qooper's overall web platform seems strong and well-received by its partners, their mobile platform leaves much to be desired. They have work to do to make their mobile experience acceptable for their users.
Also, after reading many reviews on Qooper’s platform, the integration seems not as smooth as they claim.
There are negative feedback showcasing issues with their calendar integrations and software ecosystems, making it challenging for their participants to interact seamlessly.
We also noticed that the off-the-shelf programs got a lot of negative feedback.
5. InstantMentor
Last but not least, we want to give a review of our mentorship platform, InstantMentor!
InstantMentor is a new company formed in 2021 after its Founders, Lance and Mikal, noticed a substantial need for a mentorship platform that would Instantly Connect & Equip the Next Generation through Intentional Mentorship.
Everyone needs mentorship, no matter your stage in life. With that vision, Lance and Mikal focused 2022 on building an open mentorship platform that anyone could use for free to form life-changing, mutually beneficial relationships between mentor and mentee.
While building this open platform that is available to anyone in the world and leaning on Mikal’s 10+ years of working in Fortune 100 & 500 workplaces, they noticed that there was also a gap in organizations trying to form successful mentorship programs in the workplace.
The mentorship platforms that Mikal and Lance experienced throughout their careers were very disappointing.
The technology could have been better, making it easier to engage.
Lack of guidance led to fizzled-out mentorship relationships, and overall, mentorship was not impacting their lives.
They developed InstantMentor to make a difference in the world and build a platform for anyone, alongside revolutionizing mentorship in the workplace.
InstantMentor’s differentiator plays on two sides: since there is both an open platform and a customized solution tailored to individual organizations, benefits are shared both ways.
InstantMentor’s matching algorithms are helping individuals worldwide through learning and training every day. Their programs are being developed based on many data points that capture the evolution of mentorship.
Using InstantMentor means that your organization will be on the best technological platform.
You will receive the latest and most significant mentorship technology evolutions and programs.
Exclusivity & Program Customization
InstantMentor partners with organizations to build a custom mentorship platform that fits your specific needs and aligns with your mentorship goals.
They believe that you should have an exclusive ecosystem to work in.
Your participants will have a branded mentorship app exclusive to your organization. You will also have an exclusive custom dashboard where your data will be safely stored and secured.
Whether you need an off-the-shelf mentorship program refined by individuals around the globe on the open platform or have your own, the InstantMentor platform can scale it across your organization.
Registration
Registration is made easy with email invitations and direct app downloads by searching for your organization on the app store.
Your employees and members can enter their organization's assigned email and be off to the races!
In the dashboard, you can outline essential information to create the best matches between participants – all this information is collected during registration.
Pairing
InstantMentor also has a proprietary matching algorithm that creates unbiased matches based on the information you provided when setting up the program.
Unlike other platform algorithms, this one is trained by the InstantMentor open platform and is improving daily.
Scheduling
Scheduling is a breeze with calendar and software ecosystem integrations configured upon setting up the initial platform.
Through your organization's white-labeled mentorship app, your participants will have all the information they need right in their pockets at any time.
Reporting & Feedback
InstantMentor requests feedback in real-time from participants to measure their progress and the health of their mentor & mentee relationship. This feedback is given with a button tap, making it simple and easy for the participant.
Program administrators can review a real-time dashboard to measure the program's overall health and individual mentorship health between participants.
They can also make real-time changes to optimize the program based on their observation. This ability to make real-time changes allows for flexibility and customization, leading to higher engagement, retention, and overall satisfaction.
Areas of Improvement
While InstantMentor provides an unparalleled experience for your organization and participants, there are some drawbacks.
First and foremost, InstantMentor is a new company and platform, so as with any technology, there will be some bumps along the way.
Also, their number of partnerships is currently small, so they will need to work closely with organizations to ensure their solution is integrated and scales appropriately.
That being said, the ability to gain insights, create programs, and iterate on their technology with their open platform is a game changer that sets them apart from the competition.
Partner with InstantMentor & Make Mentorship Your Competitive Advantage
We have just walked through many of the top mentorship platforms and services out there today!
If InstantMentor stood out and you would like to learn more, we would recommend reading the following articles:
- What Does InstantMentor Cost to Partner?
- What is the Process for an Organization to Partner with InstantMentor?
- A Review of InstantMentor - Pros & Cons
Visit our InstantMentor partnership page and request a free demo with our founders.
Make mentorship your competitive advantage by launching your organization on the InstantMentor platform.
Mikal Wessel
Co-Founder & CTO
