The future of your association relies heavily on your ability to continually attract and retain members as they plan their career advancement in your industry.
Let’s dig into why mentoring is key to member career planning – and to your association’s membership recruitment and retention strategies.
Here’s why: Community Brands research shows that most members (76 percent) join a professional organization early in their career journeys. Many of those early in their careers typically fall into the Millennial or Generation Z cohorts (those aged 24-39 and 8-23, respectively, as defined by Pew Research Center). And, like most members of professional organizations, job and career development opportunities are among the top member benefits they value most. Appealing to these young professionals through your membership recruitment and retention strategies with the benefits they seek helps ensure a steady stream of new, long-term members.
The Power of Online Mentoring
Mentoring fosters personal and professional growth and development between mentors and protégés involved in your profession or industry. By bringing together mentors and mentees, you solidify your organization’s role as a resource dedicated to promoting professional development and enhancing the industry you serve. Providing an online mentoring platform makes connecting even easier and more flexible for your members.
Students and new graduates often seek a mentor to help them grow professionally as they enter the workforce. Just think how powerful it would be if you could support the next generation of members by connecting them with members who are experienced professionals and want to help those early in their careers. Especially in a time of great movement within the workforce, giving your members access to mentors who can guide them to the next step in their career path is an invaluable member benefit.
Benefits for mentors:
- Get the personal satisfaction that comes with making an impact
- Shape the future with an expanded network of professional colleagues
- Affirm professional competence
- Create a legacy
- Recognize and meet certain certification and accreditation requirements
Benefits for protégés:
- Improve perspective about the workplace
- Expand industry knowledge
- Refine interpersonal skills
- Increase self-esteem and confidence in professional situations
- Gain advice about work-life balance
- Obtain networking experience
- Attain guidance and access to a professional role model
- Identify growth opportunities
Connecting these members online through a “mentor board” is an ideal approach in today’s fast-paced mobile-driven environment – especially with today’s added challenge of social distancing. Offering a mentor board supplements your association’s career resources, including your job board, career fairs, networking events, and continuing education offerings. Adding this tool to your membership recruitment and retention strategies turns your association into the one-stop go-to resource for career development in your industry.
YM Careers MentorBoard
YM Careers MentorBoard is designed to help you facilitate mentorships with early career professionals through online mentoring. It gives your student and new graduate members the ability to set up their own accounts and profiles with all of the information needed to qualify them as a “mentee”. They can then search user profiles and initiate contact with a potential mentor. Later in the member journey, those same young professionals can then share their experience by becoming a mentor. This keeps both new and renewing members engaged and active with your association – everyone wins.
MentorBoard can help your association:
- Create networking opportunities for your members. Mentors and proteges can create searchable, anonymous profiles to help them find and connect with one another. Users can add links to external sites, such as blogs or publications, to provide more details about their areas of expertise or interest.
- Become the go-to resource for career development. Transfer business knowledge and experience among your members & strengthen the future of your industry.
- Create custom messages and resources. Customize your MentorBoard’s content and resources to facilitate more productive professional relationships.
MentorBoard can provide your association with:
- Detailed reporting that allows you to track MentorBoard activity.
- Easy account and profile setup. Allow users to create their own accounts and profiles with all information needed to qualify them as a mentor or mentee.
- Private search that allows mentors and mentees to search user profiles and initiate contact with each other. Email addresses are kept confidential from both users until contact is accepted.
Give your members an online mentoring resource
With the right career center technology and approaches, you can deliver member experiences that attract and retain students, new graduates, and young professionals – the future of your association. YM Careers offers job board software and career center solutions to help you optimize your membership recruitment and retention strategies year-round.
