How can cross-company mentorship support women to grow professionally?
On November 8 at the WEC Women’s Leadership Roundtable, women leaders from 13 multinational companies from five countries, exchanged diverse views and shared their insights on the value and challenges of cross-company mentorship to help empower women in the workplace. The WEC initiated the discussion to explore how a cross-company mentorship program can help to advance gender equity in the workplace.
Based on the conversations, the positive aspects to cross company mentorship included:
Increased exposure with an external mentor/mentee and expand network (learning opportunity for men and women)
Greater comfort to share sensitive matters which may be related to own company
Gain ‘outside’ and fresh perspectives and higher confidence with support from an external executive
Allows separation of work and life (share more personal issues with external mentor without fear)
Can complement and support mentor programs at own company
Tap and deepen new knowledge and skill, e.g. technology, and bring back to own company
However, some possible challenges and barriers to setting up a cross-company mentorship were also discussed:
Needs to be differentiated from existing internal or chamber mentor programs
May compete with company mentor programs offered at various levels and areas
Must have clear mandate for mentor and mentee and structure (selection of mentee and quality of mentor) to ensure value to participants
ROI not clear for a company so need to develop key success metrics to secure participants
Important to have clear incentives for mentors to participate in a cross-company mentorship
From the sharing, participants collectively contributed to shaping the roadmap as the WEC explores piloting a cross-company mentorship program in 2024.
For more information on WEC’s initiatives and upcoming events, stay tuned to our communications channels!