Managing Users > Configuring Search and Match

Users can search for a mentor based on keywords, and then use the search results to request a mentor match.

This functionality is very flexible and can be used either for a simple “Find a Mentor” search, or as part of a mentor matching process. Here are a few examples of typical usage:

•	For mentor-mentee matching, where you want to find a suitable mentor for a specific mentee, based on matching specified skills and expertise

•	For a generic search, where you might just want to find someone with a particular skillset

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For an informal mentoring programme, where ‘mentees’ want to search the database to “find an expert”. This doesn’t need to be part of a formal mentoring relationship; it might be where a mentee wants to ask a question of an ‘expert’. So they can search for a mentor with the relevant expertise and then send them a private message.

Each mentor can add skills to their profile and these skills are used by the matching process. Any authorised user can then perform a search to find all mentors who match the specified skills in some way. The search will return full and partial matches, ranked in order of fit.

There are various administrative tasks that allow you to define the way the search and matching works:

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You can decide who has access to the mentor-matching functionality. For example, you might decide you want to keep control of the matching process and therefore only the administrator can make matches. On the other hand, you might decide that your mentees should be able to search for a mentor and request a match. You can then decide whether the mentor can approve/reject the match or whether the administrator has to approve/reject the match.

•	You can define a global ‘max number of mentees’ for each mentor. Each mentor can then over-ride this by specifying a lower number. The system will not allow a match to be requested if a mentor has reached the maximum.

•	You can define the skills list, and decide whether users have the option to create new skills, or whether they have to select from a pre-defined list created by the administrator.

For more information about configuring the Search and Match facility, please contact sfG.