Mohawk Industries earns fourth in national training rankings

Media release: With a 2012 ranking of 4th in Training magazine's Top 125, Mohawk Industries' outstanding training and development program was recognized as one of the best among American employers.

"Each day, in every part of our company, trainers, Human Resources professionals and departmental leaders are helping people reach their full potential," said Amanda Arnwine, Corporate Learning Director. "This honor recognizes the value of all of those people's good work and reaffirms the company's position as the industry leader in training and development."

The official rankings were released at the Training 2012 Conference and Expo on February 13, 2012, at Atlanta's Georgia World Congress Center. Training magazine played host to the gala dinner at which training leaders from around the country are recognized annually. Now in its twelfth year, the Training Top 125 is the only ranking of companies that work toward developing the talent within their organizations. Published by Lakewood Media, Training is a 47-year-old professional development magazine written for training, human resources, and business management professionals in all industries that advocate training and workforce development as a business tool.

Lorri Freifeld, editor-in-chief of Training magazine, expressed the importance of training to companies in today's challenging marketplace.

"Training Top 125 companies realize how vital training is to their success and continue to invest in it," said Freifeld. "Equally important, though, they maintain a laser focus on linking training to the achievement of corporate goals and making sure they have the results to prove it."

This year marks Mohawk's seventh consecutive appearance in the Top 125. Last year, the company ranked number 18. The rankings are based on training programs at every level of the business and how they are linked to strategic goals and business priorities. Programs in Mohawk Flooring, Mohawk Home, Dal-Tile and Unilin as well as enterprise-wide initiatives were included in the exhaustive survey of company-wide training projects.

Arnwine noted that Mohawk's high ranking places the company in an elite group of organizations. Among the world's largest and best known organizations that also made the Top 125 were UPS, Microsoft, Edward Jones, Best Buy, BB&T, Wells Fargo, Nationwide Insurance, FedEx, Bank of America, MetLife, Intel and ADP. Verizon ranked number 1.

Mohawk's top five ranking is exceptional for a manufacturing company. In 2006, General Mills ranked fourth on the Training Top 125, but no manufacturing company has been ranked that high since. The rankings are dominated by technology giants, leading financial services organizations and world class hospitality chains.

"Mohawk is the only flooring company to ever achieve such a high ranking," said Arnwine. "It's a point of great pride that our training is seen as world class by training experts. That reflects the quality of the men and women in our organization who formally deliver successful training programs and who informally improve the quality of performance through coaching and mentoring."

Arnwine emphasized that training at Mohawk wasn't just a numbers game.

"We aren't focused on how many classes we develop; our goal is to change behaviors in a positive way," Arnwine said. "We help people on the plant floor deliver products with the highest possible quality. We help our sales force better understand customer needs and use tools and resources to better deliver on those needs. We help our management team develop the next generation of leaders. Mohawk's rich culture of formal and informal learning translates into superior service for our customers and opportunities for professional growth for all of our people. I'm so proud of all of our training professionals, my corporate team and all of our business unit trainers."