Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Coaching and mentoringHR strategyLearning & developmentThe HR profession

How I made a difference: mentoring programmes

by Personnel Today 19 Feb 2009
by Personnel Today 19 Feb 2009

Abbey has recently joined forces with Alliance & Leicester, and we have taken over the retail side of the Bradford and Bingley group. I look after the top 110 people here and, having a PhD in coaching, have always been interested in mentoring, particularly in bringing the public and private sectors together.

I’ve been at Abbey for two years now, and having looked at what we were going through as an organisation, I decided it would be really nice if we could help develop our senior people’s mentoring and coaching skills by mixing them with people from a public sector organisation.

Age Concern and Help the Aged are going through a merger, and I put the idea of a mentoring programme to a contact there. We started out with four of Abbey’s senior executives who were going to work with and mentor four senior executives from Age Concern.

The primary objective was to share best practice during times of change â€“ the charity is facing increasing pressure from the private sector, while both organisations are going through integration. We selected four individuals who we thought would benefit and grow, and then Age Concern picked four. We brought them together for a training day, and created an iBook, with photos from the day and details of what they had agreed to do.

The programme is now up and running, and the participants are meeting. They have coaching sessions, provided by an external company, and the people from Age Concern also have coaching sessions, outside the programme, to monitor their progress. The benefits are that it’s great for us in terms of our corporate social responsibility (we feel we’re giving something back). Our executives are developing their own mentoring capabilities and their professional network â€“ and they now have an increased commercial awareness, particularly in terms of how things operate in the charity sector.

For Age Concern, there are benefits, too. They value the relationship with us â€“ they see it as pioneering, and as providing them with a level of excellence. They’re hoping to cascade the model through the organisation â€“ as are we. And while age is one of our key diversity issues, we may also look for other organisations to work with.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Why it worked

  • We looked outside our sector
  • We chose participants with care
  • We provided a structure.


Caroline Curtis, head of talent management, Abbey

Personnel Today

previous post
£13m cash injection to boost take-up of ‘fit for work’ pilot schemes
next post
Pensions Regulator warns firms over cutting pension contributions

You may also like

University of Salford launches Better Working Lives cluster

14 May 2025

Investing in skills when budgets are tight

12 May 2025

Why HR burnout is a strategic issue

12 May 2025

CIPD appoints expert in AI to boost support...

8 May 2025

Stress for HR specialists greater at larger organisations

2 May 2025

CIPD: Employment Rights Bill timetable needs clarity

25 Apr 2025

Leading with honest feedback: A responsibility in recruitment

24 Apr 2025

Succession planning now ‘more of a priority than...

24 Apr 2025

High-level apprenticeship spend doubles in five years

16 Apr 2025

Movers and shakers in HR: Stagecoach, Sodexo UK,...

11 Apr 2025

  • 2025 Employee Communications Report PROMOTED | HR and leadership...Read more
  • The Majority of Employees Have Their Eyes on Their Next Move PROMOTED | A staggering 65%...Read more
  • Prioritising performance management: Strategies for success (webinar) WEBINAR | In today’s fast-paced...Read more
  • Self-Leadership: The Key to Successful Organisations PROMOTED | Eletive is helping businesses...Read more
  • Retaining Female Talent: Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Drop Out PROMOTED | International Women’s Day...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+