Noblis Launches Mentorship Program Across the Organization

New mentorship program gives opportunities for professional and capability development for Noblis employees

This June, Noblis launched a company-wide mentorship program, available to employees of all career levels, at all offices across the country. The program was created in response to feedback from employees.

While reviewing the responses to employee engagement surveys as we do each year, we saw that mentorship was a high-interest topic,” Organization Development Strategist Jay Liwanag said. “After that, we conducted studies and examined best practices for programs like this. There were internal focus groups with both managers and early career professionals to make sure we created a program that suited the needs of our employees.”

The main idea for this program is to facilitate employee connections within the organization to help foster professional and career development growth. Through the matching of mentors and mentees, employees are able to share experiences and learn from others while building on their strengths, skills and competencies.

“One of the first mentors I had taught me the importance of failing and having others help you,” Liwanag said. “Throughout the span of our relationship, he connected me with so many people that brought many opportunities my way. This is what we are striving to give our employees through the mentorship program.”

The program matches online employee profiles using a database of employee capabilities and desired development areas. Employees are given the choice to enroll as a mentor, mentee, or both. Any Noblis employee can log on to the program online and be matched with a mentor or mentee, regardless of physical location.

Not all of the mentors and mentees matched will necessarily have met before, so this program will bridge the gap and create new connections within the company,” Noblis Organization Development Professional Jo Trombadore said.

The relationships created from this program are meant to last a year so that employees can form strong, lasting relationships.

“Your network is almost as important as your knowledge and experience,” Noblis Intelligence and Analytics Vice President Ellen McCarthy said. These [mentoring programs] make for a better product and support for our customers at Noblis.”

Additionally, Noblis launched a smaller version of the program specifically for summer interns so that they too could benefit from mentorship during the 10-week program. This program was kicked off by a “speed mentoring” event where interns sat across a table from employees and discussed various topics in four to five-minute increments, then moved down the line of seating so that all the interns involved could meet all the mentors from the company.

“This was an opportunity to expose interns to some of the programs available at Noblis,” Liwanag said. “Interns were able to meet multiple people within the company in a comfortable environment where they could learn.”

“Mentoring isn’t singular, and you can definitely be mentored by more than one person,” Trombadore said. “This event was meant to get interns familiar with employees and to encourage them to reach out and connect with those who they can learn from.

The mentorship program at Noblis is just one of many ways that employees are encouraged to engage in the community of the organization. This and other programs are intended to foster important professional connections and development that help facilitate Noblis employees continued growth and success. Working together, Noblis presents positive and creative solutions using innovative ideas to benefit the public.