Indy-based company launches women-focused leadership mentoring network
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
An Indianapolis mentorship firm is expanding its reach to support and uplift women into more leadership positions.
Indianapolis-based Engage Mentoring on Tuesday launched the Mentoring Women’s Network Program, a support system organizations can deploy to equip female employees with skills to become effective leaders.
After years of assisting companies through mentoring, Engage Mentoring founder and Managing Director Alison Martin said they are continuing to see a gap of women in leadership positions. Therefore, the program seeks to specialize its existing skill-focused programming to provide participants with needed mentorship and development opportunities.
“The vision is to build the largest and most effective mentoring program for women in the country,” Martin said. “We’re doing that by engaging with companies who recognize the need and who are wanting to be intentional in not just approaching leadership development as a one-size-fits-all.”
The program is described as “tech-enabled” since its platform allows for manager-employee feedback and mentors to be selected from a database to focus on soft skills needed in executive leadership. From there, Martin said the program will aid in supplemental learning using an apprenticeship approach.
Companies using the new program can expect peer exchange group sessions, mentoring training and certification, one-on-one leadership mentoring, personalized skill development plans, capacity-building tools and a comprehensive dashboard with reporting.
“This is a way for companies to be intentional about their leadership development efforts as it relates to women,” Martin said.
Engage says its mission is to develop and mentor business’ and organization’s employees “affordably, efficiently and at scale.” The company works with companies locally, nationally and globally; the same reach is intended for its new program.
Targeting male-dominated industries
The new program will be targeted toward male-dominated fields where women may struggle to see themselves represented as leaders. Specific industries Martin mentioned include financial services, manufacturing, construction and tech.
“The first thing that women do when they come into an organization is they look up,” Martin said. “If they don’t see shining examples of women in leadership within an organization, it’s going to cause them to question whether they see a path.”
Martin speaks about the importance of development opportunities for women.
At this stage, Martin said the company is taking a grassroots approach by connecting with executives who already have a passion for bolstering women’s presence in leadership. Some of the most eager companies are those with a lack of such leadership, she said.
Companies tend to perpetuate the makeup of themselves, Martin said. So by implementing a formal infrastructure intended to mentor and sponsor future leaders, she said there is more equity in where managers can find talent to promote as well as receive feedback from an external source. For companies making such a priority, she said the new program is an easy entry point.
The first step is an assessment of the company, Martin said. Employees can go to an informational session where they can hear about goals and express their expectations and topics for development. From that, data is generated to show a company what skills their employees want to develop.
The cost of the program is based on the number of participants. Engage requires a 10-person minimum but has no maximum. Companies are billed each month based on per-person volume.
As the program grows, data collection will be critical, Martin said, and they look forward to reviewing retention and stability metrics. The goal is that the program helps move the needle for women, she said.
“It’s not an overnight solution, but it certainly is investing in a demographic that’s going to ultimately be impactful to the bottom line and a company’s ability to be successful,” Martin said. “It’s speaking to what employees today are really looking for, and ultimately, demanding.”
Interested companies and organizations can visit Engage’s website.