Founded in 1939, Nicholas & Company is a rapidly growing foodservice distributor devoted to serving a variety of clients located across Utah, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Wyoming from its headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah. Nicholas & Company has 470 employees working toward providing the Western United States with quality food, beverages, and kitchenware, from vendors like Kraft, Markon, General Mills, and more.
Challenge
Prior to partnering with Business Training Library in 2005, Nicholas & Company lacked a formal training program. Wes Stockmann, Nicholas & Company’s Manager of Performance Development, suggested the introduction of a performance development department to company executives to support its 10-year trend of double-digit growth. Nicholas & Company executives decided it was time for a formalized development program committed to management development training, as well as training in other soft skills, including communication, safety, and more.
Nicholas & Company partnered with Business Training Library based on a recommendation from the American Society for Training and Development’s (ASTD); which touted Business Training Library as a great resource for providing companies on limited budgets with access to a wide variety of training programs. The large selection of courses really spoke to Nicholas & Company, because they wanted to be able to customize learning for each manager and enable managers to gain the skills necessary for their personal development and career growth. Stockmann knew that Business Training Library could help them to improve management, interpersonal skills, and the company’s overall organization processes.
Implementation
Stockmann and others in Nicholas & Company’s performance development department work with their Account Manager at Business Training Library to develop various training curriculums. Managers undergo mandatory quarterly training sessions on pre-determined topics covered in the Lending Library’s video and DVD catalog, and other corporate employees receive communication and soft skills training on a monthly basis. In addition, sales training is provided to Nicholas & Company’s sales associates, safety training to their warehouse workers, and internal training to their purchasing and procurement department.
Most training occurs in a classroom setting, and role-play and discussion groups are used to further learning, in conjunction with multi-media training programs from Business Training Library. Stockmann has also implemented best practices ranging from lunch and learns (used by Nicholas & Company’s human resources department for educational and wellness topics) to webinars. Regardless of which training method is utilized, all training is tied to the performance review process; each employee is given a customized development plan, and his or her progress influences reviews, promotions and compensation.
To determine their employees’ development objectives, executives at Nicholas & Company meet annually to determine the company’s top five organizational goals for the year, and training curriculums are closely tied to these goals. These goals are mandated and supported by all senior level executives and department managers. One person in each department is considered the training “champion,” and it is their duty to assist the performance management department in communicating all processes within their department.
Benefits
Since partnering with Business Training Library, employees at Nicholas & Company have developed a broad range of soft skills—an area that, prior to the partnership, they had no formal training in at all. Business Training Library’s 3,000-plus video and DVD course library has provided Stockmann with a variety of learning options to draw from. In fact, to customize training, Stockmann often views several courses on a single topic and shows snippets of several courses during a training session. In addition, many of the courses come with pre and post-work for employees, as well as course leader and facilitator guides.
Conclusion
Nicholas & Company attributes their employees’ skill development, goal-orientation, and participatory learning to their partnership with Business Training Library. Stockmann noted that the customization available through Business Training Library’s large course selection has allowed him to directly target developmental needs that coincide with Nicholas & Company’s annual organizational goals, creating a high impact learning process.