Shaping the Domino’s Brand with Training and Development

When I came to Domino’s a little over three years ago, I was excited to step into a growing company that supports training and understands the value of ongoing development. But with company growth comes challenges. My team had to create effective, voluntary programs for an incredibly diverse global workforce.

To do that, my team starts every initiative centered on five mantras:

1. Represent and promote the personality of the brand
2. Start with a measurable business objective
3. Eliminate “one and done”
4. Make it short, small, and easy to use, facilitate and update
5. Let the learner drive when possible

Domino’s is an innovative, cutting-edge brand that believes in feeding the power of possible, and I wanted to reflect that in our point of view as a training department. Although the Toppings Game we created helped people more quickly and accurately make pizzas, it also needed to communicate what we stand for, who we are, and where we want to be as a brand. We chose to work with AllenComm because I knew we needed a partner who could understand our brand and see the vision of integrating our brand personality in the training.

We chose to work with AllenComm because I knew we needed a partner who could understand our brand and see the vision of integrating our brand personality in the training.

Because we see training as an integral part of driving Domino’s future, the training department has worked hard to understand and be involved with the different parts of the organization. Taking the time to build a foundation of trust, and making sure operators know that we understand their needs has made a world of difference. Support for our tools and programs has increased because people know that we get it, and we’re working to support the results they’re working hard to achieve.

My team exists to drive capability and productivity in the organization. To do that we have to be good at our jobs, and make sure that we are always learning and developing our own skills. Our brand relies on us to be experts in our field, so we’re constantly challenging each other, jumping on webinars, doing additional homework, measuring and testing everything, and bringing new ideas to the table. If we want to have influence in the company, we have to earn our seat at the table through our actions and results—confidence and experience aren’t enough.

I think any company can do what we’re doing. It requires strong performance and a focus on results to build the trust, but once you’ve earned that, you can go anywhere. The training team has a responsibility to support and drive brand innovation, and when you own that responsibility, you can make a statement about the important role your team plays in growing your company.