The Challenge

In the long history of Keurig Dr Pepper, the company has acquired numerous distributors and bottlers. While the change was beneficial for business, it did present challenges. The workforce was geographically dispersed, and many of the companies KDP acquired didn’t have the same high standards. Therefore, KDP had the enormous task of instilling all the successful disciplines and practices it had developed over time in all areas of the company. Doing so would increase profits and limit liability.

Growth Presents Change

KDP’s large workforce had to learn the company’s way of doing things, whether that was talking to clients, bottling products or keeping records. Every staff member on each level of the company needed to learn the KDP standard. To accomplish that, the company had to develop a training program that it could implement quickly and effectively over a vast distance – the longer it took to train staff, the more chances liability issues could occur. With the goal of rolling out a unifying and effective training program in a relatively short amount of time, KDP turned to HSI and began using its menu of off-the-shelf training videos and eLearning solutions.

Early Days of an eLearning Partnership

HSI produces custom and off-the-shelf training videos that cover a variety of topics, from HR compliance to sales techniques to communication skills. Because HSI already has a fully developed and effective library of off-the-shelf training videos, KDP knew it could quickly assign training tasks to its employees. Bruce Miner, Director of Coaching and Capabilities at KDP, noted that because HSI’s executives had experience working with bottlers, KDP felt comfortable forming the new partnership. What’s more, Miner said HSI’s background knowledge has made the content creation process go smoothly. “[The HSI team is] real good at figuring out what it is that I’m envisioning,” Miner said. “So, very rarely do I have to send stuff back to re-edit, you know, three and four times to get it right. It’s usually done right the first or second time, which is really a treat.”

How KDP Has Used HSI Services

Every company uses HSI’s eLearning services differently, as they have to cater to their individual needs. KDP has been a model client, taking HSI’s available options and optimizing them for its unique requirements. KDP uses a mixture of off-the-shelf and custom content to create truly branded training videos. HSI’s off-the-shelf training videos have personalized features. So, while the videos were prerecorded and part of an existing library, KDP could add company-specific content to the programs. Those clips could, for example, have comments from the executive team that help everyone in the company get to know their superiors.

Additionally, KDP uses completely custom content creation. In that case, KDP reviews its key performance indicators to prioritize and determine which behaviors need to be addressed with training. Next HSI, or KDP, writes the script for the team to review, and then add elements that support the learning objectives and make the final product more effective. When scripting is complete, HSI adds its award-winning instructional design methodology to ensure the program’s success. Then, it’s off to the studio where the final program is brought to life. Now KDP has a training program that supports its KPIs and can be viewed on any device.

This method of using off-the-shelf, revised and fully custom content has allowed KDP to standardize its workforce. Now, employees working in all parts of the company live up to the KDP brand, which has limited liabilities and made customers happy. “We needed to create a standard that says, ‘This is the Keurig Dr Pepper way.’ And using this medium, through videos, really enables us with that opportunity to create the standard that says, ‘This is the way we do it here,’” Miner said. “It’s really helped us to shape our culture in our organization.”

Smooth Sailing for Keurig Dr Pepper

Since KDP began using HSI’s custom eLearning content, employee participation in training programs has been high, and the company has established a unified culture. In the last two years, Miner estimates he has worked with HSI to create over 14 hours of content. Employees can watch those series of 8- to 10-minute videos from their desks, tablets, and cell phones. “People will learn to do something after they participate in [a video training session],” Miner said. “So we’re changing behaviors, we’re setting standards … I just think it’s a terrific way to do it.” While KDP found success with ej4 in its own way, every HSI partnership is unique. With off-the-shelf and custom options, companies of all sizes use video training tools that help them meet their goals, unify their staff, and promote higher standards.