Case Study One: Using Training and Development to Spice up Business Results

Case Study

You may know McCormick & Company from its flavorings and spices that enhance the taste of appetizers, main dishes, and desserts. You should also know that training and development play a strategic role at McCormick & Company. Learning is driven by the company strategy. The company’s main strategies include growing sales, fostering innovation, managing the cost base, and planning for succession.

To ensure that training and development are strategic, the director of learning and development has positioned the training department as a team of performance consultants who serve the needs of the business. Also, McCormick & Company has emphasized teaching at all levels of the organization, with the goal of making the company more agile and able to adapt to change and cope with the loss of expertise due to the retirement of baby boomers. Teachers include trainers and all employees with supervisory responsibility, regardless of their level.

McCormick & Company’s board of directors will provide additional funding for training and development initiatives if a business case is made for additional financial resources.

Prompt

To answer the prompt below, utilize the following readings:

  This week’s textbook reading: Chapter Two of Employee Training and Development

 McCormick & Company’s website: www.mccormick.com

If you were the Vice President of Learning for McCormick, how would you approach training and development? Your paper should include the following:

 Evaluate the types of training and development initiatives would you create

 Design metrics you would use to collect information that allows you to determine and measure the effectiveness of your initiatives

 Defend for or against having employees, who are not training or learning experts, teach others as a means to making training and learning more strategic