Connect is the latest addition to an expanding line-up of our services to support members’ professional development needs. It is an online tool – including a searchable database – that facilitates the establishment of mentoring relationships. It is user-driven, allowing registered mentees to search among registered mentors using specified criteria to find individuals whose experience and expertise match areas in which they wish to be mentored. 

Any member, regardless of their career stage.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes, the flexibility of Connect means that members can choose how they wish to interact with one another, be it in person, through video calls or via the exchange of emails.

There is no guarantee you will be matched, but we encourage you to periodically log into Connect as it may take some time to find a mentor / receive a mentoring request.

Try narrowing your search criteria more. The more information you input, the more accurate your search results will be. You won't always find the "perfect" match, but generally, mentors that appear higher up in the search results are more likely to be a better match. 

Click on the member's name that you're interested in establishing a mentor/mentee connection with. The link will bring you to their profile page. Look around. If you think it's a desired match, send them a connection request. If it's not a desired match, you can simply go back to your previous search results.

This is for the mentee and mentor to choose between themselves, with the mentee driving the process. Typical areas are matters such as career planning, work/life balance, tips for pursuing personal goals and objectives, communication and influencing, raising profile, personal confidence and focusing on a specific skill to improve.

This is up to the participants. It could last for a maximum of a year, but you are free to remain in contact for as long as you wish.

We suggest various ways to “break the ice”, by discovering connections between you, talking around current work projects, career accomplishments and common interests and then finally that you ensure you have a clear agreement as to how you contact each other to arrange meetings, when and where you will meet, who will be responsible for setting up meetings and other practical matters. Videos and articles on the platform will also guide you.

There could be a variety of reasons for this. You should first try to discuss any issues directly with your mentoring partner, but if you feel you cannot do this, our customer service team will be happy to help. They can get in touch with your mentoring partner on your behalf.

Generally speaking, most mentors respond quite quickly to proposals. However, to allow for the fact that a mentor may be unable to review and respond to a proposal, we send out reminders to mentors 3, 7 and 15 days after a proposal is sent.

If they have still not responded after 21 days, we will automatically withdraw your proposal to the mentor and ask you to select an alternative mentor.

This can vary greatly. You may find that a mentee looking for a mentor with your skills and experience sends you a proposal within hours of you registering. However, the right match could take weeks or months, so don’t be disheartened if you are not immediately contacted.

If at any time you feel unable to offer your mentoring support you can switch off your availability and then switch it back on again when your circumstances change.

Members can become busy or unavailable for a number of reasons, personal or professional. We suggest waiting up to 2-4 weeks. Do try and reach out to them again in that time by sending them another message - they will be notified via email. If there is still no reply, you should withdraw from the mentoring relationship.

Once logged in to Connect, go to the 'Relationships' tab. Next to the name of that member, click on the 'Actions' dropdown and select 'Withdraw'. You may continue your search for a mentor, or if you are a mentor, simply wait to be contacted again. 

Yes, mentors can accept as many proposals as they see fit. 

Yes. You may feel that while you’d like to improve your own skills, you’d also like to repay the
favour by helping someone else develop their career.

Navigate to ‘Edit Account’ in the top right of your screen once logged in to Connect. Select the ‘I want to be a mentor/mentee’ tick box. Save this change and edit your new profile. You’ll be able to easily switch between both of your accounts and each time you log in to Connect, you’ll need to select the account you want to access.

Please read our privacy policy for full details on personal data handling and protection. This can be found in the FAQ section on the platform.

It may contribute to your structured CPD depending on the learning objectives you highlighted at the beginning of the year for your development. It may also contribute to unstructured CPD depending on the learning outcomes you achieve through your mentoring relationship. To find out more, visit https://www.cii.co.uk/learning/cpd/cpd-scheme-rules/

You must use your membership login details to log in to Connect. You can amend your password when you log in to your Society website.

You must use your membership login details to log in to Connect. You can amend your email address when you log in to your Society website.

When logged into your account, click ‘Edit Account’ at the top of the screen, then click ‘Delete Account’. When prompted, confirm that you want to delete your account. This will withdraw you from any existing relationship(s) and will mark your account as inactive on the system.

If you require us to permanently delete all the personal data associated with your account then please submit a support request or contact us by phone, email or mail.

You can use the platform to send out meeting requests to users you are in an active relationship with. To use this feature click on the ‘Relationships’ tab, choose the relationship you want to set up the meeting for, click on the ‘Tools’ option then select ‘Meetings’. You can then complete the meeting information and press Save. Once you press Save, a notification will be sent to the mentor/mentee you have arranged the meeting with.

Once a proposal has been accepted your Relationship dashboard will show a ‘First conversation’ button. When you click on this you will be able to access the ‘SWOT’, ‘G-STAR’ and Goals tools, which both parties in the relationship can use. These tools can be useful in helping to clearly identify challenges and opportunities to work on during the relationship.

Once you have completed and saved the tools, you can re-access them by going into the ‘Relationships’  tab, and using the ‘Tools’ option. You can then either view,  amend, update or add a new one.

In the ‘Relationships’ tab, find the relevant relationship and then click on the ‘Details’ link. You will then be able to view the proposal.

On the home page, click on the ‘Relationships’ tab. Find the relevant relationship and then click on the ‘Details’ link. You will then be able to view the proposal. In the bottom right hand corner you will see ‘Edit details’. You can click on this to make changes to the proposal.

One the home page, click on the ‘Relationships’ tab. Find the relevant relationship and then click on the Details link. In the bottom left hand corner of the proposal you will see ‘Withdraw’. You can click on this to withdraw the proposal. The other person in the relationship will be notified of the withdrawal. If you then wish to re-instate the proposal you can simply click on ‘Reopen Request’ in the bottom right hand corner of the proposal.

When logged into your account, click ‘Edit Account’ at the top of the screen, then select ‘Make Unavailable’.
You will know your account is set to unavailable when you see the message ‘You are currently unavailable to mentees’ on the Edit Account and Profile screens.

Rejected proposals can still be accessed from the Relationships dashboard. Choose the relationship you have rejected, then click on the ‘Details’ link. In the bottom left hand corner of the proposal you will see ‘Reopen Request’, click on this. The other person in the relationship will then be notified.

Yes. It is up to the mentee to decide how many mentors they require for their different needs, if one mentor cannot meet all of their expectations. No conflicts should arise by having multiple mentors, but it is the responsibility of the mentee to commit to all of their mentoring relationships.