Paid Mentors - Incentivizing Participation & Higher Expectations

Benefits of Paid Mentors 

Improved Mentor Recruitment

Asking mentors to volunteer doesn’t always leave a program with enough mentors to support the number of mentees interested in mentorship. Offering the opportunity to become a paid mentor incentivizes the role and often leads to more engaged mentorships.

Higher Mentorship Expectations

Programs often prefer having fewer, highly-trained mentors supporting more mentees each. This allows administrators to regularly meet with mentors, set higher expectations, and be more connected to active mentorships.

Efficient, Tech-Enabled Mentoring

Paid mentors can and are expected to support each mentee on an individual basis, as needed. However, paid mentors are matched with their mentees as a “group,” and will be provided a mass SMS relay where they can message all mentees at once to check in, send reminders, or provide resources.

Develop Career Readiness

In addition to providing financial support and stability, investing in paid mentorship also encourages career development and preparation for joining the workforce. Mentors will gain the core and transferable skills necessary for professional success, as identified by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). These skills include professionalism, communication, leadership, teamwork, and technology - as seen in the Mentor Competency Rubric.

Paid Mentor Models

Depending on your institution's budget and mentor support needs, there are two primary paid mentor models.

All Paid Mentors

It is recommended to pay all mentors in situations where programs anticipate their mentor population will be small and/or hesitant to participate in the program. Offering the mentor role as a paid position will further incentivize mentors to participate, and allow your program to dramatically increase the numbers of mentees that can be supported in the program. 

How Many Paid Mentors Do You Need?

Programs should examine previous program performance and/or Mentor Collective's benchmark data in order to estimate the number of mentees they expect. Then, you can determine the number of paid mentors your program may need.

Example: You expect that you will need to match 500 mentees. Your paid mentors will support a maximum of 25 mentees each. You will need to hire 20 paid mentors.

If you need access to Mentor Collective benchmark data, please contact Partner Support (partnersupport@mentorcollective.org).

Select Lead Mentors

It is recommended to create a lead mentor position for a select few mentors in the program when the program would benefit from both increased mentee and internal support. Lead mentors, similar to other paid mentors, will be able to support a larger number of mentees in the program if the program anticipates a low number of volunteer mentors. In addition, lead mentors can also support the remaining volunteer mentors (ex: office hours) and assist in recruitment efforts at the institution (ex: recruitment events, tabling on campus). 

How Many Lead Mentors Do You Need?

Programs should examine previous program performance and/or Mentor Collective's benchmark data in order to estimate the number of mentees and volunteer mentors they expect. Then, you can determine the number of lead mentors your program may need.

Example: You expect that you will need to match 500 mentees. You anticipate 75 volunteer mentors, who will support 3-5 mentees each (or 300 mentees total). Lead mentors will support 20 mentees each, and assist with additional internal and mentor support. You will need to hire 10 lead mentors.

If you need access to Mentor Collective benchmark data, please contact Partner Support (partnersupport@mentorcollective.org).

Tips & Best Practices

Use Existing Hiring Processes

Use your institution’s standard hiring protocol for the application and selection process. Participants are more likely to trust and use a process and institution they are familiar with, and they are more likely to find the opportunity! 

You are welcome to use these sample job descriptions for paid mentors.

Plan Ahead & Start Early

How long does the hiring process typically take at your institution? Adjust your program’s recruitment and matching timeline accordingly. Hiring new employees can always have unexpected complications - so the earlier you begin hiring, the better in order to prevent any delays in the program launch. 

Make Clear Distinctions

If your program uses both lead and volunteer mentors, or if you decide to use paid mentors after the program has already launched, reinforce the different expectations for different types of mentors. This will particularly prevent confusion for any volunteer mentors.

Payment Methods

Institutions have previously used the following common payment methods:

• Stipends - fixed stipend, for the length of the program
• Hourly - pay per hour, requiring mentors to track their time
  • Many institutions take advantage of work study or grant funded budgets. 
• By Conversation - pay per conversation logged in the Participant Dashboard

If you are looking for more creative or non-monetary ways to compensate paid or lead mentors, review our list of alternative incentives here. 

Other Resources

Check out the following resources for additional support in developing a paid mentor model in your mentorship program:

• Webinar - Leveraging Student Employees to Bolster Your Mentorship Program: Examples and Strategies
• Blog Post - How to Talk About Being a Mentor on Your Resume