Continuous Learning

We are committed to inspiring lifelong learners who continually improve and succeed. We encourage, enable, and fund employees’ pursuit of excellence in their current position--and acquisition of new skills for any job to which they aspire.

 

Self-Directed Professional Development

At Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, employees direct their own professional development.

Beginning day one with orientation, employees utilize an appreciative inquiry process to explore their strengths, identify peak life experiences, and define their aspirations and goals for their careers with GMCR. They have lunch on their first day of employment with their manager and ask them ‘When hiring me what assets did you think I would bring to this team? Then employees identify learning opportunities to move toward their newly defined vision for their future.

Employees can pursue career objectives in many ways. They can request funding for anything from one-on-one coaching to education assistance to complete undergraduate and graduate degrees. In the words of Service Process Improvement Coordinator Josh Martin, “I’ve never been told no when I asked to participate in a class. My requests are always met with, ‘Go for it!’”

A Catalog Full of On-Site Courses

Continuous Learning is a daily option due to a catalog of over 100 programs and courses offered on site. The Continuous Learning Team designs and customizes curricula to support applied learning. Besides delivering many of these courses, the Team researches and contracts external trainers and even offers them opportunities to improve their training skills.

Ongoing offerings include Dale Carnegie Training, Microsoft Office for Experts, Continuous Process Improvement, Applied Mathematics, GMCR Stretching Program, and Fundamentals of Project Management. In 2007, we will re-institute Employee Ownership Training to keep new and current employees up to date on what it means to be an employee-owner and how they can contribute to GMCR’s success in tandem with their own career progression.

Employee curricula include holistic courses to accommodate different learning styles: Yoga, Transformational Breath, Silva Basic Method, and Mindfulness Meditation. Senior Graphic Designer Ryan Dreimiller finds the meditation training helps him focus more intensely on his graphic designs, as well as recognize and minimize stress to attain high productivity: “I’m less distracted and less reactive to situations around me - as a result, I get more done and I’m easier to get along with.”

Off-Site Educational Assistance

College courses and degrees are encouraged and financially supported through an ever-expanding program called Educational Assistance. In the beginning, employees had to pay tuition; after the course was completed, they could apply for variable reimbursement if they received a grade of B-minus or better. Outstanding academic performance by employee-students permitted GMCR to enhance their policy: Now the company pays up front for college courses under an agreement that the employee will reimburse if their grade is lower than B-minus.

How Employees Find Out about Continuous Learning Options

Employees learn about all the Continuous Learning opportunities at their 3-day Orientation; Director of Continuous Learning Pru Sullivan invites each employee to take charge of their careers from day one. Employees are reminded of upcoming classes and informed of new education options through e-mails, weekly communications, and meetings.

Twice each year, GMCR hosts a Continuous Learning and Wellness Expo, a festive event where all internal faculty and external trainers and institutions are available to answer questions and share information about their programs. More than 150 of our Waterbury campus employees attend the Expo to explore what local colleges offer and learn about the 120+ programs the company is planning to sponsor the upcoming year.