Identifying the need for a mentoring program is the easy part. Picturing all the great matches made and the benefits to your staff makes the planning stages feel full of promise. But what happens when you get started?
Whether you are running mentoring in house currently or looking to start a mentoring program, there are so many options for how to do this – it can feel overwhelming. Mentoring software is one way to take the headache out of mentoring, but how do you identify the right time to invest?
What is mentoring software?
First up, it’s important to understand what mentoring software is. Sometimes known as a mentoring platform or mentoring app, mentoring software is a solution to running mentoring programs easily and at scale.
There are a few different types of mentoring software on the market that can offer different things. For example, some mentoring software matches people with a pool of mentors outside their organisation, whereas others focus solely on internal matching.
Both types of mentoring software have some common features that include:
- Easy sign-up: Participants can join the program online from wherever they are based
- AI-powered matching: Mentoring software takes the pain out of mentor matching by creating matches through smart AI
- Better communication: Most software will include communication functionality so matches can stay in touch with ease
- Calendar booking: So that both sides can easily suggest and book dates for mentoring
- Progress check-ins: The ability to track mentoring progress keeps people on track to meet their goals
- Report on impact: Reporting is essential to prove that mentoring has been a success
Depending on which software provider you go for, you may also get extra features. Here at Guider, we offer innovative extras such as a bespoke learning hub and stellar customer support to help you scale your program with ease!
Read our handy guide to How Mentoring Software Works to find out more.

What are the benefits of mentoring software?
We’ve already touched on this above, but essentially mentoring software takes the entire process of running a mentoring program and makes it as easy as possible for everyone involved. This will help program leaders in particular to save time and energy.
The benefits include:
Save time and admin burden
This has to be the number one benefit for program leads! When you’re setting up and running a mentoring program, it’s often on the side of your regular work.
Investing in software means that the time and admin burden of manual matching, manual check-ins and answering everyone’s questions all the time, are gone. Freeing up program leads to better invest their time on other tasks.
Better mentor matches
With mentoring software, you can trust that individuals will be matched based on areas of skill and expertise without the headache of manual matching. No more post-it notes on your kitchen table!
When using Guider, several available mentors are provided to each mentee so that mentees are given the power to choose for themselves. This can help prevent drop-out rates throughout the program by empowering mentees from the start to drive the relationship. Better matches mean better mentoring.
If you want to find out more about how Guider works read our article here.
Join online from any location
Our working world is more flexible than ever before. For many organisations, the switch to remote or hybrid working has been a challenge but one that presents new opportunities.
Utilising software means that you can engage your people from wherever they are based. Offering virtual mentoring will allow employees globally to benefit from mentoring and share experiences with a diverse range of people.
Keep mentoring on track
With mentoring software, you can monitor the progress of your matches, track engagement with the program and stay one step ahead to keep your people involved in your mentoring program.
Participants can also track their progress within the platform, helping everyone to meet their goals and make the most of mentoring.
Better data to prove efficacy
We live in a data-led world and if you dream of impressing your boss at your annual review, then you’ll be glad to know that mentoring software can give you better, clearer data that shows the efficacy of your mentoring program. It’s a win-win!
Scale and grow
A common problem when setting up a mentoring program is how to scale successfully. Manual matching may work when you have 20 participants, but the time and effort it takes to match 100 or even thousands of employees makes the DIY approach unsustainable.
Mentoring software allows you to increase the number of participants in your program without increasing the headaches for your program leads.
Offer different types of mentoring
Did you know there are many different types of mentoring program? Mentoring platforms can make it easy to set up multiple programs, which means you can make the most of all the different types.
You might find a reverse mentoring program helps you to meet your diversity and inclusion goals or that flash mentoring is a great way to introduce mentoring to a large number of people. Whatever your goals, there is a type of mentoring that can help you achieve them.
Additionally, you can also use mentoring software to start coaching, sponsorship and buddying programs too!
So, do I need mentoring software?
A DIY approach may work in a smaller organisation or if you are running an informal program. However, if you really want to maximise the potential of mentoring in your organisation, mentoring software could be just the ticket.
A good starting point is to ask yourself: how many people in my organisation can benefit from mentoring? Then break down the time and energy it would take to run a mentoring program on that scale.
When you think about the cost of your program lead’s time running an in house program and the opportunity cost of not scaling your program to reach more employees, you may find that investing in mentoring software becomes a no-brainer.
If you’re looking to create an accessible, scalable and simple way to implement mentoring in your organisation, then talk to us at Guider.
To find out more, book a discovery call with our team today.