Staff Mentorship Program.
OVERVIEW
The School of Public Health Staff Mentorship Program aims to provide all staff with opportunities to thrive and succeed at BU SPH. The Program offers opportunities for staff to hone in on developmental priorities and to acquire additional skills, facilitating professional and personal growth.
Centrally, the program aims to promote the mentee’s development in areas specific to both their role and personal goals as well as the mission and vision of SPH. This will ensure that all staff at BU SPH have opportunities to realize their full potential.
The deadline to apply for this round of the mentorship program is May 30, 2025. Mentors must have been at SPH for 5+ years and mentees for 1+ year. A letter of support from your supervisor is required as part of either application. Please also submit either a link to your LinkedIn profile or an updated resume.
Mentor Application | Mentee Application
Mentor and mentee information packets and review forms can be found on the Forms and Resources page.
The SPH Mentorship Program will accomplish the following:
- Develop productive working relationships between and among staff in departmental units so all staff are empowered to be successful as professionals and community members. This includes, among other things:
- Attaining high performance while remaining adaptable;
- Enhancing competency development;
- Cultivating the right type of performance and conduct;
- Inspiring, motivating, and guiding others;
- Demonstrating honesty, integrity, trust, openness and respect.
- Elevate and encourage the perception that mentorship and service are to be valued as career development and lifelong learning experiences;
- Demonstrate commitment from leadership and management to establishing and maintaining learning and development programs for staff.
Additionally, in order to achieve success, the Program will:
- Reflect the School’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and justice by including mentoring options that represent the SPH’s demographics and diversity;
- Ensure management support, thereby increasing employee participation and program success;
- Establish and follow guidance and procedures aimed at ensuring effectiveness and efficiency in Program activities with the goal of organizational integration;
- Continue to serve the needs of the community by incorporating modifications based on program evaluation data collected during annual surveys of program participants.
Guidance and Objectives
The two key goals of this mission-driven, formal mentorship program are:
- To align mentoring as a lifelong learning tool;
- To ensure the benefits of the program are understood across the School of Public Health.
The “Think. Teach. Do” mission of the School of Public Health is best accomplished through a workforce equipped to utilize institutional knowledge toward specific leadership areas. Toward that goal, the Mentorship Program is aimed at fostering protégé development and knowledge transfer. Mentorship will accelerate the culture of high performance in all staff positions. Specifically, this mentorship program will also be aligned with:
- Onboarding – Support new hires and trainees in understanding SPH’s values, vision, mission, and goals.
- Skills Enhancement – Allow for sharing of knowledge and expertise by pairing experienced and highly competent staff with newer, eager to learn mentees, allowing the former to pass on their expertise to those who seek to acquire additional, specialized skills.
- Organizational Development and adaptability to change – Help communicate SPH’s values, vision, mission and organizational structure. Often, a one-on-one collegial relationship not only helps employees understand the organizational structure, but also encourages them to adapt and adjust accordingly, making changes toward business and career success.
- Professional Identity – As professionals closely collaborate together there is an ongoing dialogue of what it means to be a professional in the workplace. Staff who serve as mentors embody the values of their profession, take initiative and remain adaptable to organizational needs and change.
- Career Development – Help employees plan, develop, grow and manage their careers. Mentorship further helps employees become resilient in times of change, more self-reliant in their careers and responsible learners.
- Leadership and Management Development – Encourage ongoing development of leadership competencies which are more easily gained through guided application and practice rather than solely through education and training.
- Educational Support – Help bridge the gap between theory and practice. Formal on-the-job education and training are complemented by the knowledge and hands-on experience of a high-caliber practitioner.
- Staff retention – Through ongoing coaching, teaching, role-modeling and continuous positive collegial interactions facilitate progression and upward mobility within SPH. Enhance employee retention by helping establish an organizational culture that attracts top talent while nurturing opportunities for growth.
- Employee Engagement – Demonstrate to staff that they are highly valued at SPH and that the School’s future includes them.
- Successful knowledge transfer – Allow for an exchange of information and knowledge between staff members of different units or the same unit in a cohesive and consistent manner.
Program Administration
The SPH Mentorship Program will be overseen by the Associate Dean for Administration and Finance who will partner with the Administrative Council and Staff Senate to implement the mentor/mentee partnerships and associated programmatic activity. Supervisors of mentors and mentees are involved and kept apprised of activities and progress of their team members who participate in this program.
| ROLE |
RESPONSIBILITY |
| Associate Dean for Administration and Finance (ADA) |
- Authority for the SPH Mentorship Program. Oversee program’s execution.
- Assign program responsibility to members of the Admin Council and Staff Senate
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| Administrative Council & Staff Senate Mentorship Program Steering Committee |
- Oversee development, implementation and evaluation of the SPH mentorship program.
- Define the goals and objectives for the mentoring program that tie directly to the school’s leadership.
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| Director of People Services who also serves as Program Coordinator for the Mentorship Program |
- Train, coach, direct and mentor participants serving as mentors.
- Review and make thorough and consistent evaluations of the participants’ progress.
- Provide support to guide and direct efforts of mentors and mentees to ensure successful program completion.
- Facilitate planning and managing participants’ assessments, tracking and scheduling activities, documentation of reporting requirements.
- Continuously review and evaluate program assignments and activities throughout program cycles, ensuring instructions are cohesive, organized and tracked through relevant forms and checklists.
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Roles, Responsibilities and Benefits of a Mentoring Relationship
Participation in the mentorship program is aimed at fostering a collegial partnership between two employees (mentor and mentee) whereby both commit to the mentoring process. This involves jointly setting common goals and realistic expectations and exhibiting mutual trust and respect while focusing on accomplishing said goals. Further, activities that allow for the transfer of knowledge and skills from one employee to another/others occur in the framework of mentorship.
Professional growth during the mentorship process is an outcome for which both the mentor and mentee strive. While the mentee is able to gain valuable knowledge and skills from the mentor’s expertise, thus strengthening competencies and learning from past mistakes, the mentor also enhances their own skills, fostering a valuable transfer of knowledge that establishes the mentor as a subject matter expert in one or more competency areas of their role.
In order to render this endeavor a success, it is key that roles and expectations during the mentoring process are clearly defined and that the participants are aware of, and eager to experience, the benefits of the program. As potential participants consider the benefits of mentorship, here are a few key points:
Benefits for the Mentor:
- Renews enthusiasm for the role of expert
- Obtains a greater understanding of the barriers experienced at lower levels of SPH
- Enhances skills in coaching, counseling, listening, and modeling conduct/high performance levels
- Develops and practices a more personal style of leadership
- Demonstrates expertise and shares knowledge
Benefits for the Mentee:
- Gains sharper focus on what is needed to grow professionally
- Furthers development as a professional towards a lateral or higher position
- Gains capacity to translate values and strategies into productive actions
- Complements ongoing formal study and/or training and development activities
- Gains career development opportunities
- Gets assistance with ideas and receives honest feedback
- Demonstrates strengths and explores potential
- Increases career networks and receives greater agency exposure
- Improves ability to express expectations, goals, and concerns
- Enhances knowledge of organizational culture
It is thus important to consider eligibility in the mentorship program not solely from a perspective of eagerness to enhance existing skills, but also a potential participant’s fitness for the program. The success a mentee can achieve does depend on the mentee’s strengths, weaknesses, and career aspirations. But more important is their spirit of collaboration. The same is valid for the mentor. Responsibilities for each role are thus important and highlighted below.
Mentor Responsibilities:
- Regularly meet with mentee, jointly establishing and following through on activities.
- Share own experience and professional success at the SPH.
- Explain how the SPH is structured.
- Support SPH’s mission, vision, and goals.
- Look for experiences that will stretch the mentee (i.e., shadowing during meetings, triaging/handling/solving an issue, suggested readings, etc.).
- Remain accessible, committed, and engaged throughout the length of the program.
- Be a good listener.
- Provide open and candid feedback.
- Offer encouragement through genuine positive reinforcement.
- Be a positive role model.
- Share “lessons learned” from own experiences.
- Serve as a resource and a sounding board.
- Always maintain confidentiality.
- Advise the ADA as soon as possible if you are having a problem connecting with your mentee.
Mentee Responsibilities:
- Regularly meet with mentor, jointly establishing and following through on activities.
- Proactively reach out to your mentor and schedule meetings.
- Commit to self-development.
- Establish what skills and knowledge you’d like to improve or acquire.
- Work with mentor in establishing an individual development plan (IDP).
- Remain honest about goals, expectations, challenges, and concerns so mentorship is helpful.
- Come prepared for meetings with an agenda.
- Listen and ask questions, soliciting advice, opinion, feedback, and direction from the mentor.
- Be open and receptive to constructive criticism/feedback.
- Preserve confidentiality of your conversations.
- Exhibit respect for the mentor’s time and resources.
- Remain accessible, committed, and engaged throughout the length of the program.
- Provide candid feedback to the mentor on what is working or what isn’t.
- Advise the ADA as soon as possible if you are having a problem with your mentor.
It is highly recommended that both mentor and mentee dedicate a minimum of five hours a month during the 9 month academic year toward mentorship program activities so as to maximize the outcome of this experience. This will help to ensure that both participants derive value from the time they dedicate to this endeavor.