A 2020 study by Forbes found that 76% of people believe mentorship is an important part of professional development. Not only that, but mentoring is proven to propel careers, with the Academy of Management Journal finding mentees were promoted five times more often than those without a mentor.

Wider research, including our own proprietary social listening data, points to other positive advantages of mentoring, including helping to make employees feel more engaged with their organisations (78%), therefore more likely to stay, and 65% of mentees going on to become a mentor themselves; ensuring the cycle of support and advice is ever flowing.

With the number of women in boardrooms jumping from 12.5% to 39% in a decade and the move to hybrid working, whilst the benefit of mentoring is proven, are we set up to exchange advice in the best way?

Many mentoring schemes already exist within the advertising industry, but they can sometimes feel purposely exclusive and are not adapting at the same pace as the rest of the working world.

Lengthy application forms.

High levels of commitment.

Scary interview processes.

There’s also a stigma that mentoring only becomes accessible the higher you climb the career ladder. Something which is perpetuated by the boom in executive coaches – the term ‘executive coach’ saw a massive +1092% growth in search between 2020 and 2021.

It doesn’t stop there. When you eventually get matched with a mentor (hooray!) it can often feel disappointing – you’re paired up on a long-term basis but a couple of sessions in, mentees can be left feeling like they’ve exhausted what they get from this very transactional, one-way relationship…

I believe support doesn’t have to be this formal. And a modern working environment requires a modern solution. As agencies are focusing more on flexibility and inclusivity, mentoring needs to move with the times too.

The desire to find a mentor that brings more than just ‘hard skill’ development, and someone that both looks like you and relates to your experiences is spoken about openly online. There’s a need for personal advisors. 

A new era of mentoring is emerging. One which allows for vulnerability, openness and candour. Somewhere you can still share concerns and seek support but where you don’t need to put on a fake smile or play workplace politics.

Relationships play such an important role in building our self-belief. So, why should we rely on just one person for that over a set time period?

Mentorship shouldn’t be a one-hit wonder. Instead, as pointed out by Stef Sword-Williams at a recent Wunderman Thompson event, why not have a cocktail of people you can turn to? People you look up to. People who steer your decisions. People who are your biggest fans.

Start cherry-picking advice from lots of different sources, for lots of different outcomes. This is where the real growth happens.

Wunderman Thompson’s women’s network, RISE (which I co-founded and lead), felt like there was a gap in facilitating these types of relationships, particularly given the absence of physical connections, those organic ‘water-cooler’ conversations, over the past couple of years.

We were staggered to find that just 69% of women have female mentors to turn to vs. 82% of men having male mentors. As a women’s network, with an ambition to empower our female talent and make sure they feel understood and valued, we needed to find a solution.

That solution was Magpie.

Built to replicate all the best bits of our favourite dating apps, Magpie is somewhere people can go to connect with others for support – whatever that looks like. You can find your ‘match’ based on expertise, soft skills and knowledge rather than years in the industry.

And it’s something that can be used as and when needed, allowing people to switch mentors depending on the support they’re seeking at that specific moment in time. Completely self-serve. Where everyone can exchange shiny pieces of advice.

With over 50% of Wunderman Thompson women engaging with Magpie in the first month, perhaps it is the future of mentoring?

I’ll leave that for you to decide.