Customer: Sun Microsystems

Program Description:

• The vision of Sun Microsystems was “The Network is the Computer” and their commitment is to encourage collaborative network participation through shared innovation, community development, and open source leadership
• Sun Learning Services (SLS), the training organization within Sun Microsystems, initiated a company-wide mentoring program to help achieve this goal

Evaluation:

• Over 900 mentors and mentees performance was compared to over 6,400 non-participants in the program over a period of seven years

Findings:

• The mentoring program for both mentors and mentees vs. those not in the program showed increased employee retention, promotions, base salary
• The increased retention among participants over non-participants translated into a net savings of $5.6 million dollars in turnover savings for the study period