Success Story: Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) Mentorship Program 

About six years ago, in 2016, Jerad Esquibel and Chuck Attardo in Region 1 (Denver/Metro) started the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) Mentorship Program. By 2018, the Program entered its second cycle and Headquarters (HQ) was added. The purpose of the Mentoring program is to recruit, retain, and develop CDOT staff. This program utilizes mentors to coach staff of all levels about CDOT culture, CDOT specific processes, and interviewing techniques. Mentors will serve as a second opinion for staff facing difficult career decisions and they will help prepare staff to be the best at their jobs. 

The third cycle saw a high demand for mentors. In turn, CDOT consulted with the American Council of Engineering Companies who offered to supply additional mentors. Now, as the Mentoring Program is set to kick off its seventh cycle this fall, it continues to expand in popularity. The last cycle expanded to Region 2! This program is an exciting opportunity to help develop and participate in the workforce of the future by engaging in a mentor/mentee relationship. It is intended to help with career development and to better teach and retain staff.

How the Program Works:

     Step 1: Open House 

This step is meant to create excitement, awareness, and to explain the program mechanics either in-person and/or virtually. Invitations to complete the electronic mentee/mentor applications are then distributed via email.

     Step 2: Application 

To join the program, mentors and mentees complete their respective applications (a Google Form survey). It will ask the mentee/mentor applicants detailed questions about what they want from the program and from their mentor/mentee pairing. The responses are automatically entered into a closed Google Spreadsheet.

     Step 3: Pairing Process 

The Committee gets together and uses careful judgment to determine who should be paired together - based on the information from step 2 and their knowledge of the applicants. Pairing notifications are then sent out.

     Step 4: Six Month Program

Once the pairs are notified they are clear for the kick-off meeting. The committee then sends out mentorship resources at key milestones over the 6 month mentoring period.

     Step 5: Satisfaction Survey

To wrap up each cycle and towards continuous improvement, the committee thanks all participants also offering to obtain candid feedback on how the cycle went.

Jerad Esquibel is the Executive Sponsor for the program in addition to being an active committee member. The HQ/Region 1 Committee has 10 committee members.The Region 2 Committee has 7 members with Sara Rose in the lead. Their most recent cycle ended June 30th and had 8 pairings. When the program expanded to Region 2, local staff formed their own committee after receiving key start up materials from the R1/HQ committee. Additional regions are highly encouraged to follow Region 2's example. Independent mentoring committees are critical because each respective mentoring committee must be familiar with the applicants to facilitate successful pairing.

If you are interested in starting a mentorship program in your region, feel free to get in touch with jerad.esquibel@state.co.us. If you wish to become a Region 1/Headquarters mentor or mentee, the invitation to apply was distributed via public announcement on August 1st. Dan Fischer can be contacted for additional support at daniel.fischer@state.co.us. Keep reading for more information about this program as well as the Region 2 Mentoring Program! Kourtnei Osborn, an intern with the Office of Process Improvement at CDOT, was able to interview one mentor and one mentee from each Region, and ask about the program and their experiences so far! 

HQ/Region 1 Mentor - Jerome Estes:

Jerome Estes is the R1/HQ mentoring committee facilitator at Headquarters having been a committee member for the last four years. He highly encouraged other regions to follow Region 2's example of starting their own mentoring "franchise". Jerome indicated that while it takes commitment to stand the program up and keep the cycles coming, the results are worth the investment. "A regional mentoring program can serve as a staff retention tool in many ways, for example through giving staff a clearer picture of what their potential future career at CDOT can look like."

HQ/Region 1 Mentee - Daylin Gray:

I was able to interview Daylin Gray when he got back from his honeymoon (Congratulations!). He is an Engineer in Training (EIT) in the Region 1 South Program and started in June of 2021, so he has been with CDOT for just over a year. Prior to this, he was working with a consulting firm and went to the Colorado School of Mines. A few weeks after he joined team CDOT, he joined the HQ/Region 1 Mentorship Program! 

His change from the private sector to the public sector was huge, so he wanted some tips, pointers, and advice. He went to Benjamin Davis (Region 1 West Program RE), his mentor, because they both went to Mines and have similar backgrounds. Benjamin was able to help him meet people and join other organizations. After initially joining the program, he and his mentor met every 3 weeks or so. Towards the end, they started catching up once a month and his mentor would actually bring someone from his team with him (from the West Program) to chat. It was completely up to them as to when they should schedule meetings, and what they should talk about. Sometimes Daylin would bring a list of questions, but usually they just talked about things they found interesting!

Daylin also told me that, at the end of his first cycle in the program, he received an email from the committee to signify a successful finish, as well as a follow-up email with a survey. He liked that the survey allowed them to do what they wanted, and not feel forced, as they gave feedback and requests preceding the next cycle. Mr. Gray really enjoyed the program and is excited for the opportunity to be a mentor soon, as it made him feel more comfortable at CDOT and gave him someone other than day-to-day coworkers to bounce ideas off of and ask questions.

Region 2 Mentor - Michelle Malloy:

Michelle Malloy is a current mentor with the Region 2 Mentorship Program, and recently spoke at the 2nd cycle wrap-up celebration (in-person)! Michelle is the current Concept to Project (C2P) Program Manager in the Office of Process Improvement at HQ, but she worked in Region 2 for 5 years as an SAP Business Management Analyst. Michelle’s mentee scheduled their meetings, and Michelle created a tracking document for them and took notes during each session.

When talking with Michelle, it was learned that Region 2 operates on a 6 month cycle for the program. Each Region has control of their own Mentorship Program and they operate slightly differently. Allowing each Region to create their own version of the program creates the best pairs possible. After all, the people in each region know each other best! It also makes the whole process/operation easier. One way that Region 2’s program is different from Region 1 is that, as Michelle mentioned, there was a mid-way checkpoint survey sent out and calls were made asking for feedback from the pairs. She also often received emails with resources from the committee, these were ‘guide post materials’ such as self-assessments and articles.

She plans on sticking on as a mentor for the next cycle and believes that the program will continue to grow!

Region 2 Committee Lead- Sara Rose:

Sara Rose, an Administrator in Region 2 (Pueblo), was an instrumental person in adopting the Mentorship program for Region 2. She stated that the advertising for the committee started last Summer and that committee was appointed by the RTD in late Spring (with someone representing each area - maintenance, civil rights, North & South programs, traffic, etc.). August was the first Region 2 open house and enrollment began in September. The first cycle had a total of 12 pairs signed up, but ended up finishing with just 9 pairs. One pair used the program as a way to study for the engineering test and others joined to learn more about moving up in their area. There was a meeting to go over everything for their 6 month cycle goals at the beginning, and at the end there was celebration! One pair didn’t finish their goals due to project delays, but they plan on continuing into the 2nd cycle.

Sara let it be known that the feedback they received was positive and the results of the mid-way point survey showed that ⅓ of the pairs had already completed their goals. Many pairs reported back that they had made new connections, and plan to continue cultivating them. One pairing that had to end their cycle early even finished their goals beforehand! Another pair stated that meeting strictly virtually wasn’t beneficial, so they’d like to have the first meeting in-person next time. Plus, feedback showed that the mini training programs seem to be going well. The Region 2 committee is taking this into consideration and planning how to improve the next cycle, with some ideas already in mind. For example, they plan on assigning one committee member per pairing, to make check-ins easier and more personable. They are also considering creating a separate program for maintenance, as their work is a bit different, and makes pairings somewhat difficult.

She also mentioned that more mentors signed up than mentees, so some mentors did not pair off with a mentee. The next open house is in August and she encourages everyone to join - especially mentees!

Still on the Fence? Here are some encouraging words from Current Mentorship Program Mentors & Mentees:

“Why not join? The entry fee is zero, there is very little risk, and it is valuable for the future. Even if you end up with a mentor or mentee that isn’t a great match, you will still have met someone new in your Department!” (Jerome Estas - Region 1 Mentor)

“If you are hesitant to join your region's Mentorship Program as a mentee or a mentor… don't be!  This has been a really awesome experience and I am ready to sign up again.” (Michelle Malloy - Region 2 Mentor)

“You should absolutely do it, especially if you’re new to CDOT. You can learn more, ask questions, and know that you don’t always have to have something to talk about. Just sit down and chat and get to know each other, that was my favorite part. Feeling more comfortable at CDOT as a whole.” (Daylin Gray - Region 1 Mentee)

“The Mentorship program is the best way for us to spread and share our intellectual resources. Employees are our #1 resource! We need a lot of different resources to run CDOT, but human resources are the most valuable. It takes a lot of investment to cultivate excellence. Joining this program gives you a place of support and it is the best way to achieve internal equity.” (Sara Rose - Region 2 Committee Lead)