Company Background

The McGraw-Hill Companies is a leading global information services provider meeting worldwide needs in the financial services, education and business information markets through leading brands such as Standard & Poor's, McGraw-Hill Education, BusinessWeek and J.D. Power and Associates. The Corporation has more than 290 offices in 38 countries with nearly 20,000 employees.

Business Case

In April 2004, The McGraw-Hill Companies’ Women’s Initiative for Networking and Success (WINS) conducted an employee survey to determine whether there was interest in an internal, formal mentoring program.  When the results came in, there was tremendous support for mentoring (over 75% of employees said, “Yes, they would like a mentor!”) and WINS knew it was on to something big.

As a next step, a dedicated team of WINS volunteers conducted extensive, best practice research on successful mentoring programs and respected leaders in mentoring consulting.  Based on that research, in May 2004, The McGraw-Hill Companies engaged Menttium to assist in the planning and execution of a formal mentoring program.

To ensure the mentoring program was aligned with key business objectives, Menttium worked closely with senior leadership at The McGraw-Hill Companies to conduct a Strategic Design Session.  During this session, key goals for the program were identified including:

• Provide leadership development to enhance talent readiness
• Promote thought leadership
• Broaden business perspectives
• Develop collaboration and cross-functional/segment learning and sharing of best practices
• Develop an entrepreneurial mindset by developing initiative and ownership
• Contribute to attracting and retaining diverse leadership talent
  

Build a mentoring culture

To support these goals, the target mentee population was defined as middle to upper-middle managers. This group was identified because of specific challenges in regards to retention and development.

Mentoring Strategy

During the first 2 years, over 350 mentoring partnerships have been successfully launched across the Americas and Europe.  Mentor/Mentee partners are generally selected from different business segments to encourage cross-segment dialogue.  In fact, participant research has revealed that cross-segment learning and collaboration is one of the main benefits of the program.

The McGraw-Hill Companies continue to launch new mentor/mentee partnerships every six months across the Corporation including localized geographic areas in Europe, Latin America, and targeted geographies within the US.

Impact

Survey data indicated the following program results:

• 97% said they would recommend the program to a colleague
• 89% achieved a high level of trust with their partner
• 88% learned a great deal about their partner’s business unit
• 73% of the mentees said they had become more confident since the beginning of the program
• 80% achieved the majority of the goals they set

Special Recognition