Why has Oracle Spain implemented a mentoring program?

At Oracle, we foster an inclusive and innovative environment that leverages the gender, diversity, backgrounds, and perspectives of our employees, customers, suppliers, and partners to drive a global competitive advantage. And to be successful, we also need to develop, engage, and empower current and future Oracle generations based on integrity and equity.

Mentoring allows us to develop our internal talent and learn to think in a different way, outside of our comfort zone. It is a powerful talent management tool that helps to develop our people.

Our mentees are Top Talents (men and especially women) with potential but with developmental needs; this program enables them to accelerate their professional growth and also enables the mentors to continuously develop their leadership skills. There is a very special focus on women to help them to solve any social or career barriers to develop their potential.

We have different initiatives, like some mentoring programs under the Spanish Equity projects (especially OWL), or the Cross Company Mentoring, which is a program that introduces a new way to share the company's best practices. It is an initiative that aligns equitable treatment and talent development, combining internal and external requirements.

What can we learn from this program, and what are the outcomes?

The program gives the opportunity to learn from professionals of a high level in another business, applicable to both mentors and mentees. The mentees are able to develop their skills supported by leaders of different areas and, in parallel, the mentors develop their leadership capabilities too, outside their daily scope.

Through this program, the mentors should enable mentees to learn from their past successes and failures, and encourage them to engage in self-determined learning and to find their own solutions. We receive very good feedback from all the participants.

Regarding Cross Company mentoring, we have been pioneers in creating this mentoring model, being a reference for other companies in Spain.

What would you like to see happen after this experience?

Oracle employees get a further and faster development, getting a better gender equity balance in managerial positions and readiness to assume new responsibilities. It is also key for spreading the network and enhancing collaboration.

I would like to continue with this program, in order to create a strong and diverse leadership organization, which will lead to success in the IT market.

As a summary, developing and retaining our top talents and achieving a gender equity balance are key objectives for Oracle Spain and the Country Leadership Team. We are sure that it makes us a high potential organization.

Aims, Organization, and Implementation

Mentoring plays a role in this program. For Oracle, mentoring is essential to ensuring the career progression of both men and women. The group is well advanced in this area, with mentoring programs (OWL: Oracle Women Leadership) available locally and by country. Its aim is to develop women and men in a very specific way by creating pairs of less experienced and more experienced colleagues. Mentoring, which enables the intuitive and tacit transfer of knowledge, puts the emphasis on feedback and the mentees' questions. It's part of Oracle's “self-driven learning.” The program has around 70 percent female mentees and 30 percent male mentees.

A specific mentoring template has been developed to explain what mentees can expect and what mentors can contribute (experience, networking, team management and remote management, intercultural experience, etc.). A pilot mentoring group, composed of six women from different group subsidiaries (Oracle and companies acquired by the group) analyzed mentees' expectations and mentors' potential contributions. The mentoring pairs, of mixed genders generally, are carefully designed: two mentors are proposed to each mentee, who can speak with the proposed mentors and decide on one of them. Sometimes people who have not put themselves forward as mentors are requested, for example, to meet a specific requirement of the mentee.

Before starting, the program is presented to mentors and mentees along with the commitments and expectations required of each mentor and mentee. Meetings are organized regularly over breakfasts or lunches to encourage the sharing of experiences. Each mentor has a contact within the pilot management group to refer to if necessary. The group is responsible for all the experiences of the pairs. At the European level, discussions are also organized via a network that brings mentors together. And if the latter meet any problem in terms of listening, communicating, or restating, training is available to them.

Specific Roles

As advisors, the mentors support, encourage, and clarify matters for the mentees. Thanks to their experience, the mentors encourage the mentee to get involved in projects and to discuss the challenges constructively and objectively. This brings benefits also to the mentors: not only do they acquire new leadership skills, but they also gain personal and professional knowledge as well. Mentoring allows mentors to test out new ideas, improve networking, rediscover Oracle's organization, further develop their own networks, and use their coaching and advisory skills. Finally, the mentors' managerial skills also improve qualitatively. The mentoring program has a positive effect on the satisfaction and retention of colleagues.

Every beneficiary of the program must respect the aims agreed to at the start, and remain responsible for their achievement. The mentees acquire new skills and widen their knowledge base through discussions with the mentor. They must be open to their mentors' comments, and accept possible changes of direction. They must optimize the opportunities made available through mentoring, which is like a new kind of apprenticeship. Through the program, each mentee gains in confidence, benefits from encouragement and support, and becomes more visible in terms of career progression.

Toward an Intercompany Experience

An intercompany mentoring program is in place in subsidiaries in Rumania, the UK, Switzerland, and Spain. Open to both men and women, such programs attract a number of colleagues. The intercompany program decompartmentalizes the mentoring process and reduces the perceived confidentiality risk, which can make some people reluctant to consider internal company mentoring.

In Rumania, where the program was developed with GSK, Xerox, Renault, and Petrom, a survey of the mentors and the mentees measured the program's success: Was the mentor allowed to develop a network that opened doors? Was the mentee more networked than before? This intercompany mentoring allows participants not only to develop their networks, enhance their professional and individual profiles, but also opens up other industries, other ways of working, and other values.