Forging Ahead:
Death, Taxes and Mentoring

Paul Ogden and Cecilia Corral work for California’s Franchise Tax Board (FTB). It might surprise you to know that they don’t talk a lot about the revenue and taxation code. Instead, they prefer to share the achievements of FTB’s new Enterprise Coaching and Mentoring Program. Given its 27% employee participation rate and the positive feedback during the first year, that’s not too surprising after all.

FTB’s mentoring program grew out of a larger management development program. Corral, training manager in Employment Development Services explains, “We are trying to ingrain the nine management competencies throughout FTB’s culture. So, in October 2007, we launched the Enterprise Coaching and Mentoring Program.” The goal is to provide support, guidance and an avenue for collaboration for all supervisory and management classifications.

Marketing the mentoring program was easy, according to Corral. The FTB provided a verbal during a town hall-style meeting as well as during its leadership café, a monthly lunch session that covers various topics. The FTB posted additional information on its intranet. “But word of mouth was the best promoter,” Corral said.

The voluntary, one-year mentoring program matched mentors with at least two or more years of supervisory/management experience with supervisory employees who wanted opportunities for guidance. Because one of the goals was to build stronger relationships that cross organizational lines, a major criteria was matching participants from different divisions in FTB. Other criteria included ensuring the mentor was at least two classifications higher than the mentee and that work schedules were comparable.

Ogden, manager in the Personnel Resources Section, coaches two employees. “Mentoring around our competing work schedules has been, for me, the most difficult piece,” he said. “Other than that minor issue however, mentoring has been a great experience. I’ve learned just as much from my mentees as I hope they’ve learned from me.”

Participants in the program provide feedback throughout the year. Both the mentor and mentee complete “relationship checkups” five to six weeks after the match-up. For instance, they both might share five things they feel are going great in the mentoring relationship and one thing they wish to change. Additionally, the FTB surveyed participants after three months. Opt-out procedures were built into the program from the beginning in case work schedules became too hectic.

Because program participation was so high during the first year, 160 total matches across all divisions of FTB, and the response has been largely positive, the mentoring project team became a steering committee. The committee developed templates and parameters so that divisions could implement similar programs to their rank-and-file employees. Corral states that FTB’s Filing and A/R divisions intend to begin their own mentoring programs in the future.

After an outstanding inaugural year, Corral and Ogden are ready to talk some more about mentoring. “Our year-end event for mentors and mentees will be sometime in August,” Corral said. “We’re ready to celebrate our success and build our pool of participants for next year.”

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