How VF Corporation is Building Bridges: Exploring the Outcomes of a Mentoring Program with Qooper
ABOUT
VF Corporation is an American global apparel and footwear company.
LOCATION
Denver, CO.
COMPANY SIZE
10,000+
PRODUCTS USED
Career Mentoring Program
Regional Mentoring Program
Frontline Employee Mentoring Program
Leadership Mentoring Program
"Qooper is the most beautiful and effective software to connect employees for sales and support. And you make it super easy for us!"
Challenge
VF Corporation is one of the world’s largest apparel, footwear, and accessories companies, connecting people to the lifestyles, activities, and experiences they cherish most through a family of iconic outdoor, active, and workwear brands.
Before Qooper, VF corporation ran small mentoring programs using manual methods, matching mentors and mentees and requiring HR managers to spend hours comparing employee profiles. This was unsustainable as they looked to scale their program to improve employee engagement and connectivity.
Evaluation
After seeing the benefit and the workload that came with running mentoring programs, VF corporation decided to look for a matching tool. The 3 key solutions they looked for were a flexible mentor-matching algorithm, a mobile application, and robust reporting. VF Corporation looked to engage retail employees and office staff to offer an open space for mentors and mentees to connect, find career guidance, develop skills, and network within the company.
In order to achieve this goal, they needed a mentor-matching tool that was flexible enough to include their values. After the matching process, since their pilot program had front-line employees, they looked for a mobile application for mentorship.
Finally, robust reporting to see metrics on who is participating and how many employees are connected. After reviewing multiple vendors, Sarah had a conversation with her manager to get budget approval. In this process, VF Corporation's point of contact, Omer, supported them with a 1 pager and a program brochure which finally got the approval to move forward with Qooper and to get started.
Implementation & Adoption
As the first step in Qooper's onboarding process, VF Corporation initially scheduled an onboarding call with their dedicated Customer Success Manager. For VF Corporation this person was Elona. During the onboarding phase, Elona gathered detailed information about the existing program, the expansion plan and the program goal to provide the right configuration recommendations to VF C..
Before launching the program, VF corporation wanted to test the experience they would provide to employees which they did with their dedicated CSM. Elona also conducted comprehensive training sessions for VF Corporation's program administrator and pilot (user/employee) group to get familiar with the mentoring program and Qooper.
This initial program's goal, which was acting as a pilot, was to connect retail workers (mentees) with office employees (mentors) to provide career opportunities for retail workers to transition to an office setting if they seeked to do so.
As the pilot started to show results, the program started to expand over multiple regions and VF Corporation decided to launch a company-wide program to provide mentorship and networking opportunities to more employees.
Over time, the program grew from a 100 participant pilot to over 1,500 employees including participants from sales, finance, support and more. The program continues to expand today.
Thanks to Sarah's efforts and Qooper's measurements, displaying results to leadership was essential here to get approval to expand the mentoring and networking initiatives at VF C. through Qooper.
Solution
To grow a mentoring program from a couple dozen participants to over 1,500, the key solutions VF C. took advantage of were matching, the mentoring platform that's also available on mobile, and finally reporting.
While Qooper offered additional solutions such as training, guidance, tracking and more, VS corporation wanted a less structured program for open mentoring and networking, they didn't leverage those solutions.
On the other hand, the matching solution allows hundreds of employees matched through Qooper's algorithmic match suggestions, available for the employees to pick the best match for themselves. Also occasionally, Sarah ran the matching algorithm to pair up employees who didn't take action.
Before getting to reporting, in order for any reporting to be available, an engaging platform that meets the users/participants where they are is needed.
In this case, meeting the frontline employees on mobile and office employees on their computers was key to engaging them with their mentorship matches, setting up meetings, goals and more.
This way, VF C. is able to show reporting and analytics to show engagement and to expand the programs.
VF Corporation opted to work with Qooper`s platform in December 2021 to offer mentoring opportunities to more people without adding to the workload of program administrators.
They started with two pilot programs to connect retail (mentee) and office (mentor) in partnership with Qooper in 2021. The program has grown 1400% since its first year. What started with 100 users now supports 1,500 employees globally and aims to grow even more.
Throughout the partnership, Qooper and VF Corporation have run several different mentoring programs in different regions and various areas of their organization with different objectives, such as sales, finance, and support.
Results
With the help of Qooper, VF Corporation successfully implemented six mentoring programs on the platform.
They experienced improved employee performance, more effective lead management, and better networking.
The user-friendly platform and customization options provided by Qooper to contribute to higher employee adoption rates and increased overall efficiency
Sarah quoted "Qooper is the most beautiful and effective software to connect employees for sales and support. And you make it super easy for us!".
She also went to impress the board by presenting the achievements and possibilities with Qooper.
Takeaways
- VF Corporation faced challenges with manual mentoring processes, driving the need for a scalable solution like Qooper to improve engagement and connectivity.
- VF Corporation's selection criteria for a mentoring tool included flexibility, mobile accessibility, and robust reporting capabilities, enabling them to engage employees and align with their values.
- Qooper's implementation led to significant program growth, improved employee performance, and enhanced networking, driven by a user-friendly platform that increased adoption and efficiency.
How Qooper Grew VF Corporation's Mentorship Program by 1,400% Globally
VF Corporation, one of the world's largest apparel and footwear companies, was running small mentoring programs entirely through manual methods — requiring HR managers to spend hours comparing employee profiles. As they looked to scale, this approach was unsustainable. Qooper transformed their program from a 100-person pilot into a 1,500-employee global initiative.
Program Growth & Scalability
- VF Corporation's mentorship program grew by 1,400% — from 100 participants in their first year to 1,500+ employees globally.
- What started as 2 pilot programs connecting retail employees with office staff expanded into 6 distinct mentoring programs across sales, finance, support, and multiple regions worldwide.
- The program continues to expand today, with no ceiling on growth in sight.
Operational Efficiency
- Qooper's algorithmic matching engine replaced hours of manual profile comparison by HR managers, enabling hundreds of employees to be matched automatically across the organization.
- Employees could self-select their best match from Qooper's algorithmic suggestions, while administrators retained the ability to run bulk matching for inactive participants — reducing manual intervention to near zero.
- A dedicated Customer Success Manager conducted comprehensive training sessions for both program administrators and pilot user groups before launch, ensuring a smooth rollout.
- Qooper's mobile app ensured frontline retail employees could access their mentorship matches, set meeting goals, and engage with the program from any location.
Leadership Visibility & Expansion
- Robust reporting and analytics enabled VF Corporation's program manager to present measurable program achievements directly to the board, securing approval for continued expansion.
- Displaying engagement metrics and participation data through Qooper's reporting was the direct catalyst for scaling the program from a regional pilot to a company-wide global initiative.
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FAQ
How do you replace manual mentor matching with an automated system without losing program quality?
Manual mentor matching — comparing employee profiles one by one — works at 20 participants. It completely breaks down at 200, and it's impossible at 1,500. VF Corporation's HR managers were spending hours on profile comparisons before moving to Qooper. The transition to automated matching doesn't sacrifice quality when the algorithm is built around customizable values and matching criteria specific to your organization. Qooper's approach also adds a critical human layer: employees receive algorithmic match suggestions and self-select their best fit, rather than being assigned a match they didn't choose. Administrators retain a bulk-matching fallback for participants who don't take action — giving the program both autonomy and completion rate.
How can a mentoring program help connect retail employees with office career opportunities?
One of the most underutilized levers for retail talent retention is structured visibility into internal career paths. VF Corporation used Qooper specifically to pair frontline retail employees (mentees) with office-based employees (mentors), creating a bridge for retail workers who wanted to explore a transition to corporate roles. This kind of cross-function mentoring serves two goals simultaneously: it gives frontline employees a tangible reason to stay and grow within the company, and it builds a pipeline of internally developed talent for office roles. For global retail and apparel organizations, this model is replicable across every region and brand division with the right platform infrastructure.
What does a 1,400% growth in a mentoring program actually require operationally?
VF Corporation grew their mentoring program from 100 participants to 1,500+ globally — a 1,400% increase — without proportionally increasing HR overhead. That kind of scale requires three operational foundations: automated matching that handles volume without manual intervention, a mobile-accessible platform that meets frontline and office employees in their respective environments, and reporting that generates leadership buy-in at each expansion stage. VF Corporation's program manager used Qooper analytics to present measurable results to the board, which directly unlocked budget and approval for each successive expansion phase. The program's growth wasn't accidental — it was a data-driven case built incrementally from a 2-program pilot into 6 programs across multiple global regions.
Do enterprise mentoring programs need to be heavily structured to be effective?
No — and forcing structure onto a program that doesn't need it often kills adoption. VF Corporation deliberately chose an open mentoring and networking model rather than a heavily guided curriculum, because their goal was organic connection and career exploration — not a step-by-step training program. Qooper supported this by offering structured tools (training, guided milestones, tracking) without mandating them. The right mentoring platform gives you the flexibility to run a loose networking program in one business unit and a structured onboarding program in another — on the same system, with unified reporting. Program design should be driven by the outcome you're targeting, not by what the software forces you to do.
How do you get internal budget approval for a company-wide mentoring software investment?
Getting sign-off for mentoring software follows the same playbook as any enterprise HR tech investment: start with a scoped pilot, measure obsessively, and present outcomes in the language of leadership — not engagement scores, but retention impact, career mobility, and time saved. VF Corporation's program manager used a vendor-provided one-pager and program brochure to secure initial budget approval, then used Qooper's reporting to present board-level results that unlocked further expansion. The lesson: your vendor should be an active partner in your internal selling process — providing collateral, ROI data, and program benchmarks that make the business case for you. If your vendor only shows up after the contract is signed, that's a red flag.
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