A look at the distribution of management positions in companies shows that women still fall far behind in comparison to the men they work with. Only 24% of all management positions worldwide are held by women. The number is even lower when it comes to board seats: 12% of board members and 4% of board heads are women. Many companies want to bring about change and have introduced appropriate support methods. Most of these initiatives are put in place to help women to balance family and career as well to reform recruitment methods. The introduction of women's quotas and promotion guidelines is also an attempt to harness the benefits of a diverse management class for the company. While most of the steps are taken on a corporate policy level, there is often a lack of concrete development opportunities for young talents on a personal level.
Studies have shown that women graduates frequently decide for or against a management path in the first few years of their careers. Early impulses are key. One of the most efficient development methods for entry-level women are targeted mentoring programs. According to Catalyst, women who were mentored by experienced leaders increased their chances of taking on a leadership career by 56%. With eSister, we want to create a flexible, personal dialogue that can be easily integrated into anyone’s hectic daily work routine. The format takes place completely online via video chat and connects managers of all genders with women who are in the early stages of their careers. In this way, participants can connect regardless of their location and hierarchy within their company. The individual exchange at eye level supports, among other things, early career planning and develops self-confidence.
"With eSister, we are pursuing our mission of increasing the number of women executives. The chance of success increases when young women deal with the topic of leadership right at the beginning of their career and take concrete steps.", says our founder Dr. Suska Dreesbach-Bundy. The program is an efficient personnel development method and consists of six one-hour sessions that focus on career-critical topics such as negotiation andcommunication strategies, how to prepare for and conduct yourself in meetings, varieties of leadership styles and networking techniques. The eLearning content can be complemented by any company’s respective corporate culture. In addition to supporting young women, online mentoring can also benefit experienced executives by broadening their perspectives and enhancing their leadership abilities.
To connect the participants in the best possible way, we have developed our own matching algorithm. Our algorithm compares the personality profiles and similarities in career development and mentoring goals of all mentors and mentees. After the successful matching phase, the individual mentoring sessions take place via video chat in a digital classroom. The learning content is structured by eLearning materials. Online mentoring should be seen less as a hierarchical relationship and more as a mutual exchange of giving and taking at eye level. The eSister program offers talented women the opportunity to view their performance potential from a different perspective and benefit from the experience of an established leader. In addition, the participants are trained in live training sessions and the entire mentoring process is comprehensively supervised by our team of operational specialists. In this way we can ensure the success of the program.
eSister is our tool for companies that want to promote talented women right from the start of their career. For more information, please contact us by email at info@volunteer-vision.com. We also recommend downloading our free whitepaper Why Online Mentoring?
