In my previous post, I shared that as the President of my college SHRM chapter, I worked with local HR professionals to create a Mentorship program. One meant to facilitate conversation and learning from HR students and help bridge the disconnect between curriculum and real world HR.
How can you do this?
First, reach out to your local SHRM chapter. They may or may not already have a mentorship program developed with local colleges. Typically, SHRM chapters have a College Relations Director or something similar. The function of this person is to work with college Chapters and faculty advisors to get the students more involved in local SHRM events. Start with them!
If they already have a program, great! Where can you sign up? A few questions you should ask …
- How active is the program?
- Where does accountability for the mentorship lie?
- How much of a time commitment are they asking?
If they don’t have a program … let’s get started!
Work with the College Relations Director to explain what you’re trying to accomplish and how you can successfully work together to establish this goal.
Things to Think About:
- How many students per professional?
- How many times per week?
- What mode of communication?
- What are the goals of the mentorship? Establish these up front. What does the student want to learn? What would you like to teach?
- Will other outreach opportunities be offered such as job shadow days?
- Consider the fact that students may be interested in different size organizations and different industries. Some may have already picked a specialty, while others are exploring the generalist route. Take an initial interest survey from both students and professionals aggregating this information to find a better connection for each pairing.
- Accountability. This needs to come from both the professional and the student. Often in student clubs, they need to complete membership “requirements”. Perhaps completing the mentorship fills one of these requirements. But, you should also sit and consider, what will motivate you?
Once the goals and logistics of the program are set … there is one thing you still need.
Students and HR pro’s!
It will be important to sell the SHRM club faculty advisors on this idea as well as their officers. They will be the ones pushing this to their students and members; get them excited! Offer to attend a chapter meeting and speak to the members about the program.
Next, you’re going to need a database of HR professionals to match the students up with. If you have been able to find enthusiastic students willing to take the initiative, offer them the opportunity to come and speak at local professional organizations about the program. This accomplishes 2 things.
- It allows them exposure and experience presenting and interacting in a professional setting
- It allows the HR professionals the chance to put a face to the students they will be supporting
Each year there is a new generation of HR professionals released into the workforce. Get to know them! Help their growth, impact their futures and make a difference. Who knows? You might just meet your next HR superstar!
What are you waiting for?
Part II of this series will dive into the specific knowledge you can share with HR students that they aren’t getting from the classroom; and how to effectively share that information. Stay tuned!
Photo Credit, KevinSpencer
{ 2 trackbacks }