201: WM’s Award-winning Program for Front-Line Leaders

In many organizations, those who supervise individual contributors are often neglected when it comes to development opportunities. Not at WM. Phil Rhodes describes how they are providing a transformative program for all 3,600 of these leaders, which has led to 90%+ retention rate for those who complete the program. You’ll want to take notes to capture all the fantastic strategies Phil shares.

Phil is Head of Learning and Leadership Development at WM, formerly Waste Management, a Fortune 250 company and North America’s largest environmental services company. Phil joined the People Organization at WM in 2021 and led the successful reorganization of WM’s learning organization. This effort supported the design and delivery of more consistent learning and leadership development solutions for the company’s 50,000+ employees.

Phil and his team at WM were just named Bronze Winner of the Learning in Practice Award by Chief Learning Officer for their first-line leaders program.

You’ll discover:

• The “listening tour” Phil conducted before re-designing WM’s learning organization
• How the CEO and the leadership team consider “People First” before making decisions that impact employees
• What WM did to provide a virtual coach to every front-line leader
• How Cohort Learning is used to support learners and ingrain skills
• WM’s generous program for educational assistance

Check out all the episodes
Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
Connect with Meredith on LinkedIn
Follow Meredith on Twitter
Download the free ebook Listen Like a Pro