Duckwall overhauls employee training
Article Type: Notes and news From: Industrial and Commercial Training, Volume 41, Issue 4
Duckwall Stores, a low-cost mass merchandiser, is overhauling the way it trains thousands of its employees through the use of an award-winning learning-management system.
The company will use the LearnCenter platform from Learn.com to automate its training practices and improve operations in more than 250 stores across the USA.
The new system will be implemented in two phases, starting with in-store managers. Assistant managers will receive mandatory training courses on demand,while current managers will receive refresher courses as needed.
In phase two, Duckwall will use the new platform for its support center and distribution center, and to train the company’s remaining 3,500 store associates. The software will also enable the company to create job-skill analyses and skills tests, which can be used as the basis for promoting employees within the company.
Ron Preston, Duckwall director of corporate training, commented: “Our goal is to enhance, update and upgrade our entire training program from what we are doing currently. We seek to create one true training environment for all our associates, with one user experience and one database of record.”
Duckwall has 258 stores across 23 states in the Midwest and south-western USA. It specializes in meeting the needs of smaller, underserved communities.
Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC), which operates the third-largest aviation system in the USA, is using LearnCenter to automate the management of its security and driver training.
MAC is responsible for administering the security-badge program for some 16,000 employees at Minneapolis St Paul International Airport. Since the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on 11 September 2001, MAC’s security regulations have changed constantly. The police department, which administers the airport’s security operation, needed a method to ensure that employees who require badges were receiving compliance courses and testing information in a timely manner.
“The software enables us to centralize, automate and administer essential compliance training and keep a record of employee involvement and test scores. Some take the training every year or two, depending on the badge they wear. Other employees, who drive on airport runways, must also be licensed to operate a vehicle and the software will maintain the test results of these licences as well,” said Christi Duffy, IS project manager at MAC.
The Metropolitan Airports Commission must meet both Transportation Security Administration and Federal Aviation Authority requirements and therefore it is important that training is managed and tracked accurately.
“We needed a solution that enabled the various departments throughout our organization to own and operate their learning and development to reach their training goals and objectives,” Christi Duffy concluded.
