Calhoun, Ga.—Training magazine has once again recognized Mohawk Industries in its annual Top 125 training organizations list, ranking the company 26th among some of the United States’ most highly regarded businesses.
For the 13th consecutive year, Mohawk earned a position on the prestigious list, which evaluates excellence in employer-sponsored training and development programs. The company retained its position as the highest ranked of four flooring manufacturers on the current list. Mohawk placed 55 spots higher than any other flooring provider, reflecting its industry-leading commitment to employee development.
“Mohawk continually invests in new technology to make the best products in the industry and to offer the best service to our customers, and we invest just as aggressively in the men and women in all aspects of our business to optimize the impact of those investments,” said Becky Redd, director of Mohawk’s corporate Learning Resource Network. “We’re proud of state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment, groundbreaking logistics systems and revolutionary customer relationship management platforms, but our greatest return on investment comes from helping each person fulfill his or her potential in the workplace and beyond.”
Redd noted that training at Mohawk takes on many forms—both formal and informal—and is offered in many platforms, whether on the plant floor, through the company’s expansive learning management system, via sales meetings in the field or via conference calls where knowledge is shared across broad geographies.
“In the U.S., we employ more than 21,000 amazing men and women across 49 states, which helps us provide superior service and understand local needs,” Redd said. “It also means we can’t welcome everyone into one big classroom and that we have to understand the needs each person has in order to deliver information to them on an ongoing basis. Each person’s learning journey is unique. Thousands of people across the business work every day to meet those specialized needs.”
Redd added that while she is proud of her own team of learning professionals, training at Mohawk includes many people who formally train on the plant floor, provide instruction about safety, coach employees on improving their wellness and deliver technical knowledge.
“In addition to our dedicated training professionals, people receive ongoing lessons every day from their managers, colleagues and specialists who share tips and best practices in conversations,” Redd said. “Some of the best lessons I’ve received have been shared in moments with mentors and leaders in our business. Those moments aren’t always viewed as ‘training,’ but they can be life changing. We try to balance the formal and the informal to maximize our training impact.”
Redd cited new employee onboarding as an example of how this blended approach works. She explained that newly hired individuals have shared formal classroom experiences in orientation, then they received structured introductions to their jobs in the workplace, policy and safety information from human resources, wellness support and chronic disease management as needed from Healthy Life Team professionals, formal skills training from departmental trainers, informal guidance from colleagues and performance reviews and feedback from supervisors.
“Training at Mohawk is a shared responsibility and a shared passion,” Redd said. “People receive instruction and encouragement from dozens of experts and workplace friends. This is a continuous learning process, and it provides the knowledge, skills and motivation for people to deliver their best results in the workplace and lead their best lives outside it. Our long history of recognition from Training magazine reflects the important contributions of all those men and women and reinforces the value that they bring to our company and to our customers. I am so proud that their outstanding work has been recognized throughout the past thirteen years.”
A complete listing of the 2019 Top 125 organizations is available at trainingmag.com.