May 2006                  return to the newsletter contents page

New Book from DREF Addresses Training and Development

Unfortunately, human resource development (HRD) lags in the wholesale distribution industry behind other businesses. With little emphasis on employee development, it is no wonder that wholesaler-distributors are not always considered as employers of choice by the workforce. The failure to develop people and meet their needs might explain the perennial challenge of finding and retaining top-quality employees.

The Distribution Research and Education Foundation (DREF) has released a brand-new book to put a spotlight on Training and Development in the wholesale distribution industry titled Smart Investments: Developing Top Performers in Wholesale Distribution. To order Smart Investments, visit http://www.naw.org/smart/ or call NAW at 202-872-0885.

Successful companies approach soft, people-oriented issues as they would any other business issue: They leverage training to achieve bottom-line business results. They think about and plan for HRD initiatives in the same way that they think and plan all other aspects of their business. The value of this book lies in one thought: The goal of HRD activity is to prepare people to perform at their best.

Smart Investments presents five strategies used by successful wholesaler-distributors to find and retain top-quality employees. Distributors will learn how to incorporate these strategies into their planning processes so their companies are more competitive in the marketplace:

• Integrate training activity with business strategies

• Form partnerships with training personnel

• Develop a strategic training plan

• Engage everyone in training activity and hold them accountable

• Utilize creative solutions to overcome obstacles.

Author Susan Levering, an 18-year HR expert in the distribution industry, includes more than two dozen Road Maps for distributors to work through. Each Road Map represents an important step in the distributor’s strategic planning process to identify and implement training and development functions that are smart business practices. What’s more, the book contains stories from successful wholesaler-distributors who are committed to allocating resources to the training and development needs of their employees. Levering includes her own industry experience, as well as insights from effective companies outside of wholesale distribution. Distributors will learn from and benchmark their training practices to the experiences of others in the field.

Says Bobby Cohen, CEO, Daycon Products Co., Inc., “Smart Investments showed me a way to assure that I was investing my company training dollars wisely and that I am able to engage all of my employees to move forward with a common vision. It is one of the few training and development books with a focus on the wholesale distribution industry.”

Smart Investments: Developing Top Performers in Wholesale Distribution and other products published by DREF are available at www.nawpubs.org.