Mentoring from Deckers Brands –

Mentoring to Solve Diversity & Inclusion Challenges.

This case study explores the challenges faced by Deckers, the solution PushFar offered and the results of implementing a mentoring program.

An introduction

Deckers Brands is a global leader in designing, marketing and distributing innovative footwear, apparel and accessories developed for both everyday casual lifestyle use and high-performance activities, including brands such as UGG, Tiva and HOKA. Deckers Brands has a 40-year history of building niche footwear brands into lifestyle market leaders attracting millions of loyal consumers globally.

• Deckers wanted to implement mentoring and reverse mentoring for all employees, giving them the skills that they needed.
• They were originally going to launch their mentoring program to one specific location but realised the impact and benefit it could have on people throughout the whole organisation.
• Deckers had employee resource groups set up for Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DE&I) and one specifically for mentoring. Led by the US, the initial plan was to do it on spreadsheets and match people based on the skills that people wanted.
• Career pathways, talent management, learning and development are key for Deckers. They outlined mentoring as a great way to kickstart this process.

“PushFar’s UI and UX is fantastic.”

Deckers Brands

The Challenges

• Deckers use Workday® but felt that it could be done better. They needed a solution that offered a deeper and more enriched learning experience.
• Deckers were concerned about personal bias if DE&I matching was done manually.
• With different DE&I teams across continents, they needed a platform that enabled effective communication.
• The Decker’s customer service team is very diverse and the L&D team wanted to ensure this was consistant throughout the whole orgnsiation, therefore needed a way to promote equal career progression opportunities at every level.

The Solution

• PushFar self-led matching process and algorthim allowed Deckers employees the ability to find their own matches which eliminated Admin bias.
• PushFar enabled Deckers to tackle mentoring seriously with a more enriched program to support the experience.
• Deckers were able to feed it into career pathways and their existing talent management systems.
• Deckers found PushFar simple to use, with a great UI and UX design. Suitible for all employees. It also allowed the leadership development team to sort information easily.
• The flexibility PushFar offered Deckers allowed them to run multiple mentoring programs concurrently.
• The PushFar algorithm allowed for matches to be made automatically.
• The mobile app created accessibility for all team members.

The Results

• The platform is being used across the organisation in the US, EMEA, and APAC.
• An increase in the number of mentors, mentees and engagement.
• Employees felt Deckers were investing in them.
• Out of the initial pilot of 100 people that had agreed to sign up, 46% of them were in mentoring relationships within the first week.