Nestled in the heart of northwest Ohio, Cooper Farms is a family-owned, farm-to-fork protein producer. Their operations span approximately 70 miles, including farms, processing plants and feed mills.
With a diverse workforce of around 2,400 team members, Cooper Farms faces unique challenges. Their people vary widely in age and tenure — plenty of long-standing employees work alongside newcomers. Managing such a diverse and widespread workforce requires robust HR processes.
Cooper Farms turned to Cornerstone to improve its HR processes and ensure seamless training and development for all employees. They know a thing or two about cultivating success, and this endeavor has produced the same fruitful results for HR that they’re accustomed to in agriculture.
Championing change
Recruitment and development manager Andrea Kuehne works alongside training and development assistant Alexa Dirmeyer to drive Cooper Farms’ HR initiatives. Before partnering with Cornerstone, the two faced significant challenges in their employee development processes.
The traditional methods Cooper Farms employed were no longer sufficient to meet the evolving needs of its employees. The company needed a robust solution to streamline onboarding, ensure compliance and provide continuous learning opportunities. The goal was clear: to implement a modern, scalable, and employee-focused learning management system—alongside a robust content library—that could handle the complexities unique to their farm.
In September 2020, Kuehne brought Cornerstone Learning into the Cooper Farms fold to tackle these challenges head-on. This decision marked the beginning of a significant transformation in how Cooper Farms approached employee learning and development. A couple of years later, they expanded to include Cornerstone Content as well.
Helping the herd
As Cooper Farms doubled in size over the last 10 to 15 years, the company encountered significant challenges in managing its training programs. Previously, training was conducted in person or onsite and tracked inconsistently — sometimes manually or, at best, on spreadsheets. This decentralized approach made it difficult to ensure uniformity and efficiency across the diverse and dispersed workforce.
"We knew we needed a centralized place to track all that information as well as just deal with the diversified company that we have and be able to provide things,” Kuehne says.
Beyond logistical challenges, Cooper Farms faced a significant issue with workforce retention. Attracting and keeping employees in the competitive agricultural sector was a top priority. Research indicated that providing development opportunities and clear career paths was essential for retaining talent. Cornerstone Learning emerged as a vital tool in addressing this challenge, enabling Cooper Farms to offer structured development programs that promoted employee growth and loyalty.
Meeting needs
One key reason Cornerstone Learning was the right fit for Cooper Farms was its ability to foster a learning culture through innovative methods.
"We’re submitting a lot of micro-learning opportunities for people,” says Kuehne. “Every other week, we send out an assignment of some leadership development based on a topic. It’s a great way to get things in people's hands so they can apply it to their environment in little micro-doses instead of that all-day training we used to do."
Cornerstone also facilitated the logistics of in-person training through its ILT (Instructor-Led Training) program, making it easier to handle sign-ups and manage sessions. This hybrid approach ensured Cooper Farms could continue offering in-person training where necessary, while leveraging the benefits of online and remote learning.
“When I think of Cornerstone, the first thing that comes to mind is support,” Kuehne says. “We’re supporting the training in our company, and they’re supporting us so that we can do that in a better way."
This mutual support has been crucial in enhancing Cooper Farms' training capabilities, allowing them to deliver more efficient and effective learning experiences to their employees.
Implementing solutions
Although Cooper Farms uses a different system for performance reviews, Cornerstone has enabled the company to set up specific competencies within its training program. This seamless integration ensures that employees have access to targeted training resources that align with their performance goals and development needs.
“If there's a certain skill that maybe people are lacking,” Dirmeyer says, “they can turn to Cornerstone to use some training to help them with that skill."
Cooper Farms has also introduced the Honor Roll, a monthly playlist of curated trainings focused on specific topics such as communication and leadership skills.
“We send out a collection of three training sessions each month from Cornerstone Content about a certain topic,” Dirmeyer explains. “We send that out to the administrative team members in the organization. It's not a required training by any means, but it's something we send out to them to help them develop themselves as leaders."
The Honor Roll is just one example of how Cooper Farms is committed to fostering continuous development and self-improvement among its employees, providing them with ongoing opportunities to enhance their skills and leadership abilities.
Collaborating to create success
Another significant advantage of working with Cornerstone has been the ability to offer tailored content to meet specific training needs. Dirmeyer elaborates: "When a supervisor comes to us and says, 'Hey, I'd really like for someone on my team to work on X,' then we can pull up content in Cornerstone and say, 'Hey, here's some great videos that you can show to your team member.'”
Dirmeyer also praised Cornerstone's hands-on support, which has significantly improved their day-to-day operations.
"My favorite benefit of Cornerstone is how hands-on everybody is,” she shares. “If I have a problem with the system, I know there's somebody on the other side of my computer screen who can help me out with that."
This assurance of real-time, human support has fostered a strong sense of reliability and trust in the system, enabling Cooper Farms to tackle new challenges and confidently explore new opportunities. Dining programs have been instrumental in nurturing a cohesive and motivated workforce.
Kuehne explains: "To get on the phone with somebody who is a training professional and be able to say, 'This is what we want to do, how can we do it? Give us some options,' and have someone who really knows what they're talking about – not necessarily even from the technical standpoint, but from the vision and making things happen – has been invaluable."
This collaborative spirit has enabled Cooper Farms to harness the full potential of Cornerstone's solutions, driving continuous improvement and success.
Streamlining workforce agility
In today's fast-paced work environment, adapting quickly is crucial. Kuehne captures this sentiment perfectly: "Workforce agility is evolving to react to the needs of the people in the company." This adaptability has allowed Cooper Farms to respond effectively to the dynamic demands of its diverse workforce, seamlessly blending the needs of both newer and older generations.
"Workforce agility is essential for today's business because it's such a fast-changing work environment,” Dirmeyer elaborates. “It's about combining the newer generation coming in with Gen X and older generations already in the workforce and really seeing what works for both."
Cornerstone has provided Cooper Farms with the systems, tools, and content necessary to deliver high-quality training that is both professional and respected by employees.
"If I have to describe Cornerstone to someone I just met,” says Kuehne, “it's that it’s a platform that gives us the systems and the tools and the content that we need to deliver excellent training to our company in a way that people can respect and is very professional."
The successful implementation of Cornerstone has also paved the way for future expansions and integrations. Cooper Farms is excited to integrate more of our compliance training into Cornerstone. People are getting more and more comfortable using the platform, and Kuehne and Dirmeyer hope that’ll allow for better communication of those compliance materials across the board.
Bringing home the beef
The partnership between Cooper Farms and Cornerstone has not only addressed the immediate challenges faced by the company but has also empowered its leaders and employees to dream bigger and achieve more. For Kuehne and Dirmeyer, Cornerstone has been a game-changer, enabling them to confidently transform visionary ideas into actionable plans. The platform has provided the necessary systems and tools to make ambitious goals attainable, fostering a sense of optimism and possibility within the organization.
Looking ahead, Cooper Farms is well-equipped to continue evolving and thriving in an ever-changing business landscape. The collaborative efforts with Cornerstone have laid a strong foundation for ongoing success, ensuring that the company remains agile, innovative, and committed to the growth and development of its workforce. With Cornerstone as a trusted partner, Cooper Farms is poised to achieve new heights and sustain its legacy of excellence in the agricultural industry.
