Obviously, communication is an important part of education, a foundational aspect in fact. What form of education, from product training to leadership development, doesn’t involve communicating some sort of information?
In our workforce training world, communication is a two-pronged approach for many companies. In addition to communicating in the classroom, trainers are targeting communications to potential learners (employees and customers, for instance) and past learners. The communications often come in the form of electronic newsletters, though newer technology like PDAs and social media are increasingly changing the game. Regardless, the communications are used to announce courses, applaud learners and share results.
Newell Rubbermaid is one such company that’s making 360-degree use of communications. I recently spoke with Katy Hofer, senior manager of learning & development for Newell Rubbermaid, focusing on the company’s tools, hardware and commercial products group.
Katy has also taken the lead on a training-related newsletter for her group, based in Huntersville, N.C. Launched nearly 7 years ago, the newsletter makes use of Katy’s 20 years as a college instructor, including classes in public relations, journalism and newsletter production. The initial plan was to highlight the group’s training center, educating those in other divisions who might not have been aware of the center. The first newsletter focused on class participant, highlighting registration possibilities. “It truly was a marketing piece,” Katy said. “For the next couple of years, I’d say we produced 2 to 3 letters per year.”
The communications medium was noticed. Last year, the office products division in the Chicago area started its own newsletter.
This year, Katy took the newsletter out of paper to a more economical, greener electronic format. She produces about twice a year, with the focus now less of a marketing tool since training has become part of the company’s culture. Instead, the newsletter applauds learners and those who are helping with training, and discussed other staff accomplishments and missions of the training center.
“We’re trying to make sure people are recognized,” Katy said. “The value I see is people are viewing us as more partners now rather than just a training center. It really recognizes people for their contributions. They get to see that we’re more than just a place to have classes and host meetings. There are a lot of things going on here they’re not aware of.”
The newsletter goes out to about 5,000 people around the globe, in Katy’s particular group as well as others in the larger organization. Some people are also sharing the newsletter with their customers, to show the level of training they’ve been involved with.
“It really helps build credibility from a selling point and to build knowledge,” Katy said. “It just highlights what we’re doing and how great we’re doing.”
