Most Americans are familiar with Whirlpool. Whirlpool, which is based in Benton Harbor, Michigan, and has been in business for more than a 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, May-tage, KitchenAid, 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.

As part of the training, managers are given tips and guidelines to help encourage employees to think e-learning was engaging enough to be effective, especially when it came to supervisors and managers, says the university's director, Tamara Patrick.

The last economic recession changed all that. Sales of appliances fell throughout the economy, and Whirlpool was forced to lay off thousands of workers. Although budgets were being slashed, Whirlpool had a pressing need to develop managers who could lead the company through the downturn. At that point, Whirlpool's CEO, Jeff Fettig, insisted Whirlpool University find ways to deliver training that would have a measurable impact at a lower cost.

To help meet that goal, the university invested in a learning management system and began conducting turn learn and leverage newly acquired skills and assess their impact. The managers are then later surveyed as to how well the training is working and what can be done to improve it. In other words, there is a feedback system in place, hence the “closed-loop” moniker. That way, the design, delivery, and redesign of the training is a continuous circle and constantly being improved over time, says Patrick.

James Crawford, in Whirlpool's Chicago division, said the training helped him become a better leader. “It helped me pinpoint weak spots in my leadership practices and then gave me a strategy for turning those weaknesses into strengths,” Crawford says.

Why are a needs assessment and ongoing training important for firms like Whirlpool to conduct?

1. Is focusing on training managers and supervisors prior to training rank-and-file employees a good strategy for Whirlpool?
2. Explain two key learning points from this case.