Q. Are there mentoring issues that are unique to professionals in Hawai'i?

A. In 2003 I had the opportunity to participate in the Pacific Century Fellows Program, the program that Mufi Hannemann started about eight years ago. When I talked to my fellows, other young business professionals, many of them also did not have mentors. Growing up in an Asian family, I have always felt uncomfortable asking other people for help. We were taught to do things on our own and not ask for help.

Q. How did you come upon the concept of a Web-based mentoring business?

A. This concept starts back to my passion of working with older adults. I was pre-med in college and wanted to be a geriatrician. I enjoyed working with older adults. It was just a calling. On the Mainland, I worked in nursing homes and senior centers and had the opportunity to sit one-on-one with older adults very near the end of their life. I realized they had so much to offer. I learned so much from them. When I became a health educator here at HMSA, little was being done to focus on their mental and social and emotional aspects. In the Pacific Century Fellows Program, as we sat one-on-one and these leaders shared their stories with us, time and time again I heard that a mentor had helped them to get to where they are today. That mentor opened their eyes. I realized, who's my mentor? There were so many times when I wanted someone to help me but I didn't know where to turn. So I brought the older adults in with the young professionals.

Q. How does it work?

A. Everybody's familiar with informal mentoring. Ingage has created a formal mentoring program, but it's Web-based, formal mentoring. We offer mentors to proteges, modeled kind of after an online dating site. But it's not as tacky as that. We do it very professionally. You can go on to our site, www.ingagementors.com, and we list our topics, anything from leadership development, strategic planning, sales and marketing, implementing technology, organizational culture. Our initial target for mentors was retired business professionals. They have the knowledge and experience we're looking for. But we've got people who are still working and really want to give back because they're passionate about it. And we also have consultants who do something like this for a living.

Q. Do the mentors work for you or as independent contractors?

A. We hire them as employees versus independent contractors because we've created a standardized system we want them to follow, identifying goals, documents to track the goals and schedules. We want to show the return on the investment and we want to make sure that every protege has a similar experience. If you want another mentor later on, you'll know exactly what to expect. We currently have 18 mentors online in 25 to 30 fields. We have Hawai'i and Mainland mentors. We have four one-on-one mentoring programs: a one-month program that includes eight hours of mentoring; a 3-month program that includes eight hours of mentoring a month; a six-month program with six hours of mentoring per month and a 12-month program of six hours of mentoring per month. We also offer teleseminars and webinars facilitated by one of our mentors, very interactive. The sessions are kept to a maximum of eight participants, which allows them to share their personal experiences and network with proteges who are having similar experiences. We also offer a speakers bureau.

Q. What is the cost?

A. The costs range from $1,400 for a one-month program up to a little over $12,000 for a 12-month program. Because of the cost, most people can't afford that on their own. So we approach their organizations and ask that they look at mentoring as a professional development resource as an alternative to seminars and workshops and conferences. We feel that mentoring provides more value.

Q. What is the obligation for the proteges?

A. We're looking at primarily young business professionals, at least middle managers or even at a senior level — individuals who have taken on new positions and are looking for someone to give them insight. They identify their goals, agenda items for each meeting, and they keep track of what they've accomplished and what their tasks are for the next meeting.

Q. Is there any direct contact?

A. You have the option of one-on-one, telephone or e-mail mentoring. We leave that up to the mentor and protege to determine what's most effective for them. But I conducted focus groups and we heard from local people that they want that face to face.

Q. In our economy that's doing so well, one of the major issues is keeping good people. Can mentoring help retain managers?

A. Formal mentoring programs show an impact on retention, recruitment, succession planning, skills development. From an employee's perspective, a formal mentoring program shows that you care about their personal and professional development. It also shows the employee that the company cares, and they start to get more engaged and more involved — and their job satisfaction is higher.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.