Maybe you’ve inherited a million spreadsheets, maybe you created the spreadsheets, or maybe mentoring has been brought up a thousand times and you’ve finally found 20 mins in between trainings, internal meetings and planning to look into what’s out there.

No matter where you’re at, let’s dig into how to know if your company is ready, and what mentoring could mean for your people and culture.

“We’ve got a lot of informal mentoring happening already. Do we need a platform?”

It’s a good question to ask. If mentoring is already happening naturally, that’s a strong sign there’s value in it. A platform isn’t about replacing those organic connections but about making them more insightful, inclusive, and easier to support over time.

If mentoring is thriving on its own, and people are finding each other easily, you might not need a platform. This is often the case for organisations with headcounts under 250 in which most people know each other, they can see each other’s availability, there is a strong culture of collaboration and connection and they don’t have plans to scale.

If you’re over 300 employees, many people won’t know who could be a good mentor or if they would be willing to do it. Some people might find mentors but could you be overlooking quieter talent, remote talent or people who might be less confident to ask for support and mentorship?

Even if finding the right person is easy, without sponsorship and structure, development can fall through the cracks. Ask yourself: If I joined right now, would I be able to find and connect with a mentor easily? Is informal mentoring just one-off sessions? Could talent and the company benefit from structure? As a people team, do we know which skills people are developing? That’ll help you decide whether to build on what you have or keep it as-is for now.

“Our employees keep asking for more career development. Could mentoring help?”

Mentoring can be one piece of the career development puzzle, especially if employees are seeking guidance from someone who's walked a similar path, or if they’re looking for more real-world advice than traditional training can offer.

If you’re hearing things like: “I’m not sure how to grow here”, “I wish I had someone to talk to outside my team”, “I don’t know what skills I should be building next” and “I don’t really know what I’m good at” — mentoring as part of a broader development approach could work like a charm.

Watch out: Mentoring works best when it's supported by other elements like clear role expectations, manager check-ins, and visible growth paths. If those aren’t in place yet, you will want to build those alongside a mentoring effort.

“We’re growing fast and it’s hard to keep everyone aligned.”

This is a big one. As companies grow, whether it’s new hires, new teams, or new locations, it becomes harder to maintain the informal learning and connection that naturally happens in smaller groups.

The things that used to happen organically like shadowing a teammate, overhearing how a challenge got solved, or picking up on company values through everyday conversation, start to fade as the team gets bigger or more distributed.

This is where a mentoring programme and a platform can really shine. Think of it as a bridge between old and new, experienced and fresh eyes, department A and department B. It helps newer folks get up to speed faster, yes, but it also strengthens connections across teams and helps preserve the “how we do things around here” culture that can otherwise fade out.

And it’s not just for newbies. Mentoring gives seasoned employees a chance to reflect on what they’ve learned, reinforce their own skills by teaching others, and stay connected to the next generation of talent.

“We’ve tried mentoring programmes before, but they fizzled out. Would a platform make it different?”

That’s more common than you think. Manual mentoring programmes often struggle because they’re:

• Hard to manage manually
• Dependent on a single person to run
• Lacking in follow-up and measurement

A platform can automate the logistics (matching, scheduling, nudges) and give you visibility into what’s actually happening. That makes it easier to scale, adjust, and show impact. For participants it also makes it smooth, sticky and top of mind. So yes, it would make a massive difference.

“How do we know if this is the right move right now?”

A simple way to think about it is through three lenses: demand, culture, and capacity.

To understand if there is demand, look at engagement, exit surveys and feedback mentioning career development needs. You can also check if performance reviews highlight a lack of support. This exercise will be super useful when you present the idea of a mentoring platform to leadership.

Similarly, mentoring works best in environments where sharing and growth are encouraged. Do you have a culture where people feel safe asking for help, leaders support L&D efforts and there is excitement about knowledge sharing?

Lastly, look at capacity: you don’t need a full team but a clear owner and a sponsor will make a huge difference.

The Bottom Line: Mentoring is Culture in Action.

Choosing a mentoring platform isn’t about chasing the next L&D trend, it’s about creating real opportunities for people to connect, grow, and thrive. When done well, mentoring becomes a signal to your workforce: we invest in each other here, we believe in learning, we’re building this together.

And when people feel invested in, they stick around, they step up, and they pass that care forward.

If that’s the kind of place you want your company to be, then mentoring is a natural next step.