1. Why are a needs assessment and ongoing training important for firms like Whirlpool to conduct?
2. Is focusing on training managers and supervisors prior to training rank-and-file employees a good strategy for Whirlpool?
Most Americans are familiar with Whirlpool. Whirlpool, which is based in Benton Harbor, Michigan, and has been in business for more than century, is perhaps best known for the washers and dryers it makes.
But the company also makes refrigerators, freezers, and cooking appliances that it sells under various other brand names around the world (Amana, Maytage, Kitchen Aid, and Roper are some of them).
Perhaps it's not surprising that given the length of time it has been in business, up until 2008, Whirlpool University, the company's 100-acre learning division located at its corporate headquarters, had relied on a centuries-year-old teaching method: traditional, lecture- based learning in a classroom. Whirlpool didn't online training. A series of 30-minute modules are now used to help familiarize and onboard new hires.
In addition, Whirlpool began taking a "closed-loop" approach to training. For example, instead of just doing popular types of training other companies were doing, Whirlpool began surveying managers to find out what types of training Whirlpool truly needed and what types it didn't and then designing training programs based on those specific needs.
Because they are central to the training and development of their employees and in the best position to observe and coach rank-and-file employees, Whirlpool began first focusing its training efforts on managers. The company did so by implementing a
12-month-long intermittent training program called Leading People. "In the past, we would bring leaders into a classroom for three days to teach them basic supervisory skills. Then, we sent them back to the job and never talked about it again," Patrick says.
Instead of just classroom training, the Leading
People program consists of blended learning, including pre-work modules managers do online, followed by classroom training, business projects, and seminars with top managers. A manager's direct reports provide an initial baseline assessment of his or her skills, and then the manager is assessed again following the training.