During my first week at Deloitte I attended a training session on the Firm's Mentoring Programme. This session was run specifically for those working within the marketing team (Go To Market). I initially attended as I thought it a good way to meet some of the marketing community and build up my own personal network of contacts – but in fact I was pleasantly surprised about the additional value I got out of the session.
Deloitte runs an excellent mentoring programme that is valuable for people at every level. On a personal level I was impressed on several counts:
- everybody is encouraged to have a mentor – and to be a mentor to someone else – whatever your level of experience
- the attributes and role of a mentor were really well explained
- the session was well presented - Marketing people from across the UK were able to dial into the session and ask questions of the panel (the technology was great, enabling live Q&A via IM)
However, what really impressed me was the open and frank conversation around the role of mentors in relation to working parents and mothers returning to work after maternity leave. The mentoring process is clearly very supportive and well thought through in relation to this. For example, if you are on maternity leave and considering your return to work, you can be matched with a mentor who has relevant experience themselves.
In my personal view, many companies have excellent policies in place to support working parents. But isn't it refreshing to see how such policies can be embedded in the culture of an organisation?
As a full time, working mum in my first week at Deloitte after a 16 month career break, I was pleasantly reassured about my decision to join this Team.
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