Your mentoring program, designed before it runs.

The cost of a mentoring program consultant depends on how much of the work you hand over. A one-off design costs less than a design plus a review at the end of every cycle. The number of teams or sites taking part, and how much your own staff want to write, also move the price. Evensteer publishes no price list. You get a written scope with a fixed price within 48 hours of your call.

A mentoring program plan should set out one goal, who can join, how big the cohort is and how long each cycle runs. It should also say how you’ll find mentors and how you’ll measure results. Write the goal and its measure first, since leadership will ask for both at the first budget talk. Evensteer puts it all in a written cycle plan your team signs off on.

Plan it first, even if the plan fits on one page. Mentoring can pay off. In a Sun Microsystems study, 72% of mentees stayed at the company, against 49% of staff outside the program. But an improvised program has no goal to report against, which makes a second round hard to fund. Write down the goal, the measure and the owner, then start with a small pilot you can fix.

You need a named owner inside the company either way. A consultant can then do the design and review work around them. The owner knows your people and answers for the program day to day. A consultant helps most at the start and at each cycle review, when an outside view saves your team time. At Evensteer, AI drafts the documents, a specialist builds the plan, and your team signs it off before rollout.

It depends on how many people take part, how long each cycle runs, and whether you buy software to match and track pairs. Staff time counts too, including the hours mentors give and the person who owns the program day to day. Cost out a small pilot first, so you have results to show before you ask for a bigger budget.