Establishing a Corporate Mentor Partner Program (CMPP) focusing on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) – considering addressing gender bias and equality

Abstract

At Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS) we piloted a new innovative mentoring program, the Corporate Mentor Partner Program (CMPP). Several factors contributed to this initiative, with one of the main drivers being that certain groups of graduates, females on a specific program, did not progress their career as well as expected and were lagging their peers after graduation. In the CMPP pilot, we worked with individual organisations, corporate partners, on a specialised and individually tailored mentoring program, making sure we could target and match specific student groups and aligning this with the ethos and CSR goals of the corporate partner organisation, particularly focus on gender equality.

The mentoring would no longer just be between the mentor and the mentee, but additional stakeholders would benefit such as the University and other external organisations. An online mentoring platform was carefully selected. Student groups were invited to engage with the CMPP. The article discusses the background of the program, how students were identified and engaged, selection of corporate partners, why and how CSR played a role, the benefits to all stakeholders, criteria for an online platform, but also the challenges and learnings that needs to be taken into consideration should a larger scale program be established. Key learnings from the pilot are to consider clear rules of engagement, consider the methods of matching carefully and be sensitive to cultural differences, consider target groups (females or further inclusivity) as well as having clear timelines for maximum impact.