"It Makes Our Lives Easier" - How Rootwurks Helps Homeland Baking Scale Production with Training
Industry
Food and Beverage
Challenge
Homeland Baking is a growing, family-owned food manufacturer that has faced challenges with onboarding, learning, and language barriers among new hires.
Results
Homeland Baking has significantly improved onboarding efficiency and employee comprehension with Rootwurks. The platform's engaging video courses and customizable learning plans have not only streamlined training processes but also bridged language barriers, ensuring all employees receive clear and consistent instruction. This has resulted in a more confident and productive workforce, allowing Homeland Baking to focus on scaling its operations and achieving its business goals.
Key Product
Rootwurks Learning Experience Platform
“Rootwurks is a really good combination of being able to make things on your own or take things that are already there and just tweak them to make things easier for yourself.”
Brooke Rehberg
Director of Administration and Quality Assurance @ Homeland Baking
About Homeland Baking
Homeland Baking, nestled in the heart of Claremore, Oklahoma, proudly creates Mitchell’s Sausage Rolls—delicious, packaged, pre-cooked sausage rolls readily available at convenience stores, Costco, and Reasors grocery stores. Additionally, the company collaborates with a variety of food and beverage brands, embodying a spirit of creativity and partnership in every product they contribute to.
Keeping pace with rapid growth is a challenge for any food manufacturer. For Homeland Baking, expanding production while maintaining rigorous food safety standards required a new approach to employee training. Traditional methods were proving time-consuming, inconsistent, and ineffective for their diverse workforce.
The Challenge
Homeland Baking is a small, family-owned prepared food manufacturing company that is significantly expanding its workforce and product line. With growth comes new challenges. Homeland Baking found themselves facing:
- Onboarding Bottlenecks: Relying on handouts and on-the-job training for new hires was inefficient and led to inconsistencies in knowledge transfer.
- Language Barriers: A significant portion of their frontline workforce struggled with reading comprehension in both English and Spanish, hindering their ability to learn effectively from written materials.
- Scaling Training Efforts: With plans to double their workforce and launch new product lines, Homeland Baking needed a scalable training solution that could keep up with their growth.
The Solution
Brooke Rehberg said the company was in the market for a learning management system where things won't "get lost in translation" - figuratively and literally. However, the company also needed training that was customizable and efficient enough to free up HR and management to focus more time and energy elsewhere.
Homeland Baking turned to Rootwurks' Learning Experience Platform (LXP) to address these challenges. Rootwurks provided:
- Engaging, Multimedia Content: Rootwurks' pre-built courses, featuring interactive videos and quizzes, catered to different learning styles and overcame language barriers.
- Customizable Training Plans: The platform allowed Homeland Baking to tailor training programs to specific roles and easily update content as needed.
- Streamlined Onboarding: Rootwurks' efficient onboarding process ensured new hires were quickly brought up to speed on essential food safety protocols.
“As a small company, we are all required to fill our day to the fullest and utilize our skills and abilities to the best of our ability so our HR director has more than just one job, and Rootwurks helps her stay organized.”
Brooke Rehberg, Director of Administration and Quality Assurance at Homeland Baking
The Results
Implementing Rootwurks has yielded significant benefits for Homeland Baking:
- Improved Training Effectiveness: Interactive, multimedia content has enhanced knowledge retention and employee engagement.
- Increased Efficiency: Streamlined onboarding and automated training processes have freed up valuable time for HR and supervisors.
- Scalable Solution: Rootwurks' flexible platform has enabled Homeland Baking to accommodate their rapid growth and ensure consistent training across all employees.
- Enhanced Compliance: Rootwurks' built-in SQF code compliance tools have simplified audit preparation and ensured adherence to industry standards.
"Rootwurks has been instrumental in helping our employees understand critical food safety procedures in a way that makes sense to them. The platform's flexibility and ease of use have allowed us to scale our training efforts and keep pace with our company's rapid growth."
Brooke Rehberg, Director of Administration and Quality Assurance at Homeland Baking