WASHINGTON, D.C.—The National Mentoring Program provides a meaningful way to live our values and Code and Commitments of serving each other, interdependence and investing in relationships. Mentoring provides many benefits, and the Work Environment & Performance Office is pleased to announce the National Mentoring Program is accepting online applications from mentors and protégés through Jan. 29, 2021.

Mentoring directly contributes to our agency’s strategic goal of excelling as a high-performing agency by aiding the professional development of employees. The Mentoring Program establishes a partnership between a protégé and a higher-graded mentor for the purpose of furthering the protégés professional development. The length of the partnership is six to nine months with an average investment in the mentoring relationship of two to four hours per month. Mentoring transfers institutional knowledge from a more experienced employee to the protégé, helps the protégé develop skills, and provides opportunities for the protégé to broaden his or her experience.

The partnership between protégé and mentor provides benefits to the mentor as well. Mentoring is a two-way learning experience in which the mentor also learns from the protégé while the mentor continues to develop his or her own leadership skills. Mentors have reported that they received as much benefit from the mentoring relationship as the protégé received.

The agency also profits from these partnerships through improved employee retention, improved succession planning by developing employees, and communication of the agency’s norms and values. Mentoring relationships contribute to our value of diversity and the beneficial exchange of perspectives, ideas, and experiences between the participants.

Interested employees are invited to apply with their supervisor’s approval. You will find complete information and the link to apply on the Mentoring Program SharePoint site (internal link). For questions, send an e-mail to Doralee Cumpian, Program Manager, at FS-TED Mentoring Program.