Background
SoftServe is a global digital consultancy employing more than 11,000 associates across 16 countries. Experiencing 30% annual growth, the company faced a major challenge: how to keep skills, leadership and culture evolving fast enough to match business expansion. Traditional training models could not meet the pace of change or the company’s need for rapid, experience-based learning.
SoftServe recognised that mentorship, already informally embedded in its people-first culture, was its most powerful learning asset. The challenge was to formalise and scale this instinctive knowledge-sharing into a structured, global ecosystem that could accelerate leadership capability, sustain cultural cohesion and strengthen talent retention in a competitive market.
Approach
Launched in 2015 and continually refined, SoftServe’s individual-oriented learning ecosystem transformed organic mentoring and coaching into a strategic pillar of business growth.
Between 2017 and 2019, the learning and development function was restructured to separate design from operations, creating clear accountability. From 2020 to 2022, a Center of Learning Excellence and embedded learning partners ensured alignment with business goals and analytics-driven decision-making. In 2022–2024, the Global Educators’ Community (GEC) united mentors, trainers and job-shadowing hosts, supported by a dedicated Mentorship Office for strategic oversight and improvement. In 2024–2025, the automated HelpDesk system enhanced mentor–mentee matching, increasing transparency and improving overall process performance by 28%.
“Mentorship became SoftServe’s competitive edge, uniting 11K people in a culture of growth, connection and performance”
Mentorship formats ranged from long-term leadership development to short-term job shadowing and were guided by a seven-step structure. Mentors were chosen for expertise and leadership maturity, with contributions formally recognised. Coaching complemented mentorship through certified internal and external programmes, equipping leaders to build resilient, high-performing teams.
Outcome
By 2024, nearly 24% of all SoftServe’s global employees were active educators, far exceeding the 10% KPI. The programme achieved a 93 NPS for two consecutive years and consistently ranks as the company’s most impactful learning experience. GEC contributors achieved an 80% promotion rate in 2023, compared to 68% for non-contributors, and exceeded performance expectations by 10%. Mentorship participants showed 8.6% higher retention in 2024 and onboarding has accelerated.
Beyond numbers the initiative has cemented a self-sustaining learning culture where mentorship is viewed as a strategic contribution. Knowledge-sharing is now part of performance evaluation, recognition and career progression, strengthening belonging and purpose across geographies. SoftServe has turned a natural ‘instinct to share’ into a scalable, measurable growth engine – one that keeps its people learning, connected and future-ready.
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