Have you ever felt the loneliness of working remotely, missing those impromptu chats that once sparked innovation and genuine connection?

As we step into 2025, we're looking back on an outstanding year for PLD Mentoring Platform. In 2024, we hit key milestones, earned industry recognition, and continued to grow.

Picture an office before computers, with its endless paperwork, clunky typewriters, and hours lost to manual tasks. Now think about your business mentoring programme. You may be managing it with spreadsheets, emails, and sticky notes, but are you truly maximising its potential?

Imagine this: hundreds of mentor-mentee pairs, each eager to learn and share, but your inbox is flooded, your calendar packed with follow-up reminders, and your spreadsheets overflowing with data.

If you recognise that mentoring is crucial for passing on engineering knowledge and key skills, you're probably already considering a formal mentoring programme as a logical next step. And you're right.

If you're exploring mentoring software then you’ve probably already started wondering what the real costs will be and whether you can afford it in the first place. Luckily, there's a simple solution.

Are you Overwhelmed by Mentoring Management? If you're managing a mentoring programme manually, having to match mentors and mentees and then their relationships, the answer's probably yes, correct?

Like me, I'm sure you've often found that doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals project a certain air of control and confidence.That makes you feel like you're in good hands, doesn't it?

You might be thinking that running a mentoring program is a lot of work. And, you're right. That is if you don't have the right tools. Now, if you have the right tools, it's probably easier than you imagined. Let me show you how that works.

You've probably already heard that peer to peer mentoring can be hugely beneficial in an organisation? But, maybe you feel a little overwhelmed as to where to start? Or perhaps you're wondering how to create time to manage it, match people up and make sure that people in your organisation actually participate in the peer mentoring program?

In the run-up to National Mentoring Day on 27th October, we have been considering why an organisation should have a mentoring scheme and how best to encourage potential mentors to step forward to support mentees.

Recent news includes much about the growth and development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it will impact on many different areas of our lives. The PLD mentoring software is a form of AI according to the definition provided by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy...

Learning at Work Week is a unique annual event open to everyone. It aims to build learning cultures at work, placing a spotlight on the importance and benefits of continual learning and development.

Are you wondering how to reduce training costs? Wouldn't it be great if there was a more cost-effective way of developing your employees' skills and knowledge that could also save your organisation money? ...all, while still providing high-quality development opportunities.

With unemployment at an all-time low and workforce shortages in many industries and professions, it has never been so important to smooth the transition back into employment for those who have taken a break.

The post pandemic work landscape means more people are now working remotely and adapting to the virtual work environment. This is throwing up all manner of new challenges that we need to work through, not least how to successfully onboard and retain new employees.

It is a sad fact that retirement often means that for many organisations and professions a wealth of knowledge and experience walks out of the door along with the retiree.

Recently, I revisited a fascinating piece penned by Simon Reichwald from Connectr, published in The HR Director. This article resonates with our own experiences, given our many years of supplying the software necessary to facilitate various mentoring programs. Below, I highlight some of the crucial insights that were detailed in the article.

Have you ever wondered why, no matter what training or policies you put in place, the diversity of your workforce has failed to improve? Perhaps you're already considering using mentoring to help create diversity and inclusion within your organisation. Well, you're not alone...

Did you know that mentoring is a proven way to make effective connections for learning, skill development and collaboration for both mentees and mentors. It also has great benefits for the mentoring program organiser in terms of increased engagement, retention rates and skill development.

Traditionally coaching and mentoring have sometimes been viewed as tools that are used to help with career advancement, but that isn't their only use. They can be used very effectively to support users in many other aspects of working life, including supporting well-being and mental health.

Even after the easing of pandemic restrictions, it quickly became apparent that life wouldn't revert back to the pre-pandemic "normal", with many preferring to continue working from home. In addition many companies discovered the advantages of this for the first time, too. The work environment has therefore experienced a dramatic transformation in how people and companies interact.

Employee mentoring programs can enable you to get more from your most valuable resource, your employees. An effective workplace mentoring program could prove to be an important benefit to both existing and prospective employees.

Entering a mentorship relationship can sometimes lead to a rush to simply begin the process and move forward without proper consideration. In our experience this approach can result in unstructured and ineffective conversations that do not address the underlying issues, ultimately leading to stagnation in the relationship.

Comparing coaching and mentoring can be difficult, as they have a lot in common but also have distinctive features that are all their own. As an additional challenge, the definitions of each are not set in stone but depend on your reference sources. In this article, we will aim to clarify the situation.

One of the standout legacies of the Covid pandemic has been the way it has revolutionised the workplace. Overnight, organisations had to gear up to home and distance working in a way that would have been unimaginable 12 months earlier.

Having a mentor is one of the most important things a person can do to enhance their career and professional life, so it's no surprise that at least 75% of executives have said that mentoring has been vital in their career development.

At PLD we are increasingly seeing professional associations realising that there is a critical need to help members to progress in their careers and navigate their respective industries through the implementation of a mentoring program.

While there is widespread consensus that mentoring is critical to an organisation's long-term success, defining mentoring is now becoming more challenging as it moves away from its traditional form.

According to a 2019 survey by Pearson Business School, nearly a fifth of graduates were found to be not "workplace-ready". Just 13% of the 531 employers and HR leaders who took part in the research felt that graduates were ready to hit the ground running after university.

Over the last 12 months, PLD has continued to see steady growth in the number of organisations implementing mentoring programmes to help support and develop their members. It has certainly provided an important source of support and a mechanism to continue professional development throughout the pandemic.

Imagine a workplace where seasoned professionals share their wisdom, guiding the next generation of leaders toward success. A business mentoring programme offers these benefits and more, bridging the gap between experience and ambition.

You may have heard of reverse mentoring, and even have a thorough understanding of it, but actually implementing a reverse mentoring programme within a workplace, an association or university can be quite daunting. So, how do you get started?

Attracting, developing and retaining great employees is a necessary but expensive process. But what would happen if those employees decide it's time for them to move on either to retirement or a new role?

Virtual meetings have been becoming more and more popular for a while now, but have seen a rapid increase in popularity in response to COVID 19. Out of this necessity it has become clear how productive and effective virtual meetings can be.

Through our experience of developing mentoring programs we have identified 5 key elements that need to be considered when planning to launch and run a membership mentoring program.

Numerous studies have shown that people who are mentored move more quickly through the ranks of their organisation, are more satisfied and are generally more successful in their careers, than those who do not have a mentor.

Over the next few weeks and months it will become more important than ever for us to work together to provide strong support for each other and to ensure that whilst having to socially isolate we don't become isolated.

Continued growth and retention of memberships is a necessity for any successful professional association. Yet a decline in membership is highlighting to associations that they must do something different to attract and retain industry professionals.

A survey by Accountemps, found that 86 percent of CFOs believed that having a mentor is somewhat or very important for career development - yet only 26 percent of workers have a mentor.

You can probably recall some parental words of encouragement in your life that helped make you who you are. Rather like parenting, a successful mentorship connection can profoundly transform the lives of both the mentor and the mentee.

With 2020 rapidly approaching many of us are starting to think about resolutions for the New Year. We probably made resolutions last year, possibly the same ones we are going to make this year...

An article in the Harvard Business suggests that the positive benefits of mentoring could help reduce stress and increase satisfaction. Decades of research has demonstrated how junior employees...

Studies have indicated that workers are more likely to thrive in their professional environment when they have a mentor. Why then do these mentoring initiatives frequently fall short?

When most individuals consider mentoring, they often associate it with career guidance and advice. Traditional mentoring setups commonly match younger staff members with their more seasoned counterparts.

Effective relationships and learning underpins the success of today's organisations. By finding meaningful ways for employees to connect, organisations are more likely...

It is clear that mentoring has benefits for both men and women in the workplace. Why then aren't more women involved in mentoring roles, either as mentors or mentees, especially when there are clear advantages to it?

Mentoring programs can have a significant impact on organisations' business goals, in addition to employee professional development, according to research from the Association for Talent Development (ATD).

For employers and organisations with multi-generational workforces now is the time to consider how to build engagement, understanding and productivity across the generations.

At PLD we are seeing an increasing number of organisations realising that mentoring is becoming a critical component to any successful organisation.

Human resources programs often talk about the value of mentoring in growing talent in an organisation and being able to solve a number of challenges.

Generation Z are the 16-24 year-olds who are now entering the workforce – and they are not happy. Results from the surveys on workplace happiness platform, Engaging Works, have shown...

In this time of technological advancement finding information and resources to help us improve performance isn't a problem, they are everywhere. The problem is now sifting through...

As the work environment continues to evolve, the importance of skill development in the workplace without sacrificing performance is becoming increasingly evident for organisations such as yours.

If you're looking for ways to attract talent to your company, you're probably already wondering how other companies do it - and how to stand out from the competition. Or perhaps you've recently lost some talent?

When assessing effective mentoring techniques and strategies, it is important to first fully understand the role of a mentor. Mentors are individuals who provides guidance, support and motivation to a mentee in order to enhance their career or business success.

It is now widely accepted that mentoring can change careers and lives. The Virgin group founder tapped into the knowledge of Sir Freddie Laker, a former airline founder...

Within any organisation effective staff management is not an easy task. The difficulty can be compounded when trying to manage different generations at the same time.

A mentoring program in the workplace can be a valuable asset for both current and potential employees. Mentoring can be the crucial factor that separates career advancement from stagnation, as shown by research.

Over the last few years I have become smart enough to recognise that my teenage children are my go-to sources when it comes to finding out the latest trends in communicating and connecting via social media.

Student and staff mentoring programs are becoming increasingly popular and rightly so, a good mentoring program can have benefits...

Implementing a student mentoring program can have benefits for students, alumni and the universities, colleges or schools who run them...

I recently read an interesting article by CFA institute that I would like to share around their experience of mentoring. The CFA Institute found...

Being in the company of a role model, a wiser head who can guide you through a period of transition, can be very powerful. That is the power of a mentor...

An effective mentoring program could prove to be an important benefit to both existing and prospective members. Mentoring provides the critical...

The education system is not adequately preparing young people for the workplace so there is a large gap between their experiences and the reality...

The effectiveness of a company depends on the productivity of its employees. With four generations currently in the workforce, bridging the generation gap...