2024 DEI Mentoring Programme

Mentors can still sign up by clicking on ‘join’ in the top right corner of the page.

The DEI Mentoring programme is a guided programme focused on professional development and will support mentees to develop their skills, expand their networks and grow their careers at Springer Nature. Find out more on Hive.
 
The programme will run from May - November 2024 for up to 100 mentee/mentor pairs and will connect mentees from three groups that experience lower levels of inclusion or are currently underrepresented in leadership at Springer Nature, with mentors within our organisation.

   

What will the 2024 programme look like? 

 Following training sessions in early May, mentee/mentor pairs will meet monthly from May to November, with optional check-in sessions with the DEI team throughout. 

Mentees will benefit from: 

• Monthly meetings with their mentor, with optional conversation prompts and self-reflection tasks received monthly by email. 

•  Optional Mentee Meet-up groups, connecting mentees for peer support & networking 

• Opportunities to learn from senior leaders, in addition to their mentor   
  

For mentors and mentees, time spent in meetings together and in training sessions can contribute towards your annual training and development time (see this blog post on ‘Taking Ownership of your Development Time’ for more information). Mentoring is a valuable professional development opportunity and we ask that managers please support their team members in signing up, which will help us to progress towards our strategic DEI objectives. 
 

  
 If you have any questions, would like to discuss participation in the programme in more detail or need support accessing the mentoring platform, please contact the DEI Team. 

 

Who can be a mentee?

The 2024 programme is open to mentees at all levels globally who self-identify as: 

• Disabled or neurodivergent and/or 
• LGBTQ+ and/or 
• People of colour*

 Identity language is very personal and the terms people use to describe themselves vary based on region, cultural background and community, as well as personal preference. The identity groups above are intended to be inclusive, so if you do not use a particular term to describe yourself but know it is sometimes used to describe a community you are part of, please consider applying. We will not be recording or sharing identity information for mentees and will leave it up to each individual to determine their eligibility for the programme.
 
 *We recognise the term 'people of colour' is not used globally. By people of colour, we mean people who self-identify on the Inclusion & Diversity Survey as Asian, Black, Latin American, Indigenous, Middle Eastern or North African, Pacific Islander, and/or Traveller or Roma.  

 Who can be a mentor?

Mentors must have at least three years professional experience but, as the programme is open to mentees at all levels, we need mentors from a wide range of seniority levels. Mentors do not need to belong to a particular identity group, but of course, colleagues that would be eligible to apply as mentees are warmly encouraged to volunteer as mentors instead.