A researcher Edhec has measured the impact of a mentoring program the Club’s Twenty-first century on young professional issues of diversity.

so many years ago that the offers of mentorship are developed for active women. One of the first major programs, designed by Ingrid Bianchi, founder of the law firm Diversity Source Manager, was launched at Engie in 2010. In the stride, the Women’s Initiative Foundation has helped to promote this practice, first for women entrepreneurs in France and then in larger groups for women with high potential, with programs for inter-companies in Europe and the United States.

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For its part, the Club Twenty-first century has imagined in 2014, with the help of Ingrid Bianchi, a mentoring program for women, issues of diversity, called Revel@Her. Objective : to help them to overcome the double glass ceiling, due to both their gender and their origin. A double ceiling which they are not necessarily aware of it. “We wanted to accompany women who are not at all, because they have completed their training but are not yet identified as high potentials,” says Ingrid Bianchi. Over the program, and three promotions, the target has been enlarged : in the promotion 2019, the youngest participant was 25 years old, and some more than 40 years. “The quadras are in need of help, they have generally passed the period of maternity, they are just behind the door, but no one takes care of them”, emphasizes Ingrid Bianchi.

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Nearly 60 women have already benefited from the programme Revel@her, of which the 4th edition will soon be launched. A demanding programme, “engaging”, according to Ingrid Bianchi : at least one meeting per month with the mentor, according to a route type around specific themes, such as the network, the visibility, career management, leadership, stereotypes, complemented by workshops-conferences mandatory.

To measure the impact of this program, the Club Twenty-first century has entrusted to the Centre Edhec Open Leadership for Diversity a study to evaluate how the representations and behaviours of the participants had evolved. “It is a qualitative research, on a thirty mentorées,” says Hager Jemel, director of the Center. It has the merit of highlighting the reality of the contribution of mentoring.” The women interviewed are graduates of higher education, the most managers, with an average of twelve years of professional experience, a majority of them in the sector of bank-insurance.

A significant improvement in self-esteem

the Results are the more striking to the researcher : the growth in confidence and self-esteem in the participants, who were asked to assess this feeling on a scale of 1 to 5. Thus, at the beginning of the program, none of them claimed to have “a very strong self-esteem”. “The self-esteem, it is an important prerequisite to the success,” says Hager Jemel. If it consolidates, it unlocks a lot of things.” Two-thirds of the participants interviewed say that they have improved their performance at work and nearly three-quarters consider that their relations with the work environment have also improved.

More surprising, thanks to the mentoring, the behavior of these young women is changing : at the beginning of the program, they are in search of inspiration, role-model ; at the end of the program, they not only have become more confidence in it, but most importantly they have developed their own vision, ensures Hager Jemel.

Finally, thanks to the mentorship, these young people professional issues of diversity are becoming aware of the double glass ceiling to which they face : “it is Often from modest families, they have been reared with the idea that it was enough to be a good student to succeed,” says Hager Jemel. Some are graduates of large schools but this is not enough. They feel hampered but don’t know why : it was not spoken of the discrimination of the network. Mentoring helps them to get out of the position of the victim. They identify the problem and therefore can attack.”

evidence : 40% of mentorées of the promotion 2019 have asked for an increase of salary, and 60% have asked for a promotion. “They have become more pro-active in order to seize new opportunities,” summarizes the researcher.

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To Ingrid Bianchi, the study of the Edhec finally confirms the importance of the triptych on which is based the program Revel@Her : a relationship mentor-mentee, workshops, collectives, and finally the emergence of a community of women who are discovering that diversity has many faces.