How it works

The score

The cohort

1. HR sends invites.People join from the email and fill in their own profile.
2. People fill in the onboarding questions.Free text about goals and how they like to work, plus the skills they want to grow from one shared list. The matching reads these answers.
3. HR runs the matching.Every allowed pairing gets a score. Each proposal comes with a written reason, like the card above.
4. HR releases each proposal, or withholds it with a reason.HR checks for what the engine cannot see: a reporting line, a prior relationship, a conflict of interest. HR does not change the ranking. Withholds are logged and counted by group.
5. The mentee decides first, then the mentor.The mentor sees the proposal once the mentee has accepted. If either declines, the mentee is included in the next run. That mentor is not proposed to her again.
6. The pair starts meeting.Goals, milestones and sessions are recorded in the app. After the third session, or at the programme's midpoint if that comes first, and again at the end, both people answer two questions about how it is going. At the end, the mentee is also asked whether she would recommend the programme.

The Equity page

The HR console has an Equity page. It splits every mentee by gender identity, career stage and field, and shows 29 measures side by side with the figure for everyone: who got matched and how long it took, how often pairs meet, what the mentees say about the match, what mentors did beyond advice, and what changed by the end.

A group is shown only if it had five people or more when its figures were worked out. A cell that is well below the figure for everyone gets a red mark and a plain sentence in the "Needs a look" list, and is written to the activity log the first time it appears. Answers about promotions, moves and confidence are only counted when the person ticked the box that allows it.

What mentors log

A sponsor uses their standing to open doors. The app asks mentors, when they join, whether they will make introductions, put someone forward for a stretch assignment, or speak up in a promotion conversation. Mentors who say yes score higher for mentees who have no senior backing.

During the match, a mentor logs each of those things in a few words. The mentee sees the list on her dashboard. The Equity page counts introductions, stretch opportunities and advocacy per match, by group.

The console

• Add people one at a time, or up to 200 at once from a CSV file. Someone added on their own gets an email invite straight away. Someone added from a file gets one when HR sends it from the People page.
• Set up a programme cycle with a start, a midpoint and an end. New matches join it, and HR finishes it in one step. HR ticks the pairs that want more time, and they keep going.
• Run the matching, release each proposal or withhold it with a reason, and re-run it when new people join.
• The weights, hard rules and equity settings are documented in the console.
• The dashboard shows active matches, waiting mentees, mentors with spare capacity, session completion and goal progress.

You decide how many mentees you take

• When you join, you say what you can help with and how you like to work.
• You set a capacity. The engine never gives you more mentees than that.
• Each proposal explains why you were picked. You accept or decline it.
• Your mentees, their goals and your sessions are on your dashboard.

You can say no to a match

• Write your goals as normal sentences. "Get better at presenting" will find a mentor who coaches public speaking.
• Each proposal explains why this mentor was picked. You accept or decline it.
• If you decline, you are included in the next run. That mentor is not proposed to you again.
• Goals, milestones and sessions are tracked in the app.