HR Management & Compliance

Coffee-Picking Expedition Changes Employees ‘Forever’ (Video)

Kathy Brooks explains how Green Mountain Coffee Roasters achieves a 94% retention rate. It could have something to do with the coffee-picking expedition that top employees get to go on each year. Some 30-50 employees — all nominated by their peers or supervisors — are chosen to visit coffee-growing countries like Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Mexico, where they spend time in the fields, actually picking coffee. “People are changed forever,” says Brooks, who has been the Waterbury, Vermont, company’s VP of HR and Organizational Development since April 2001.

Brooks says Green Mountain also invests heavily in employee development and training. Within 30 days of joining the company, employees meet with their supervisors to formulate and put in place a development plan, which is updated every 12 months.

Brooks is part of the panel discussion “Managing Today’s Talent Pipeline: 30 Ideas in 30 Minutes” at the 2011 Advanced Employment Issues Symposium (AEIS) this week in Las Vegas. The following video clip below is from the same panel discussion during the AEIS conference held in Nashville, Tennessee, in October.  She also individually presented the session “Good Brew: How Employee Engagement Delivers Business Success.”

Watch part of Kathy Brooks’ presentation at AEIS Nashville

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