This is original content from the Virginia Economic Review (p. 47).
As the COVID-19 pandemic raged on over the last two years, contractors became more popular as people reevaluated the spaces where they lived (and suddenly worked). Builders erected and renovated houses and apartments and added decks and treehouses, leading to a surge in demand for lumber and building materials. Already in the midst of a major capacity expansion, Trex Company, Inc., the world’s largest manufacturer of wood-alternative decking, was well positioned to respond to increasing demand and wanted to ensure the same for its team.
Trex, based in Frederick County in the Northern Shenandoah Valley, has experienced rapid growth in recent years — including the addition of several new leaders, both from internal promotions and external hires. The company reached out to the Workforce Solutions department at nearby Laurel Ridge Community College to provide company employees with leadership training.
“We saw the opportunity to build a customized program focused on Trex’s real-life scenarios to ensure greater success for all leaders and build a consistent experience for employees,” said Jay Rudolph, vice president of human resources at Trex.
Less than a month later, Laurel Ridge implemented a front-line leadership training series for 44 Trex manufacturing employees. The Laurel Ridge team first met with Trex leadership and toured the facility to gain a better understanding of day-to-day production processes and operations, then tailored two of the college’s existing classes, Servant Leadership and Buddy to Boss, to the company’s unique operational structure and challenges, developing custom role-play scenarios and content. An instructor from Laurel Ridge taught the employees over two eight-hour days, giving them resources to use in their new leadership roles.
“Feedback from both day- and night-shift leadership was overwhelmingly positive,” Rudolph said.
The classes were specifically tailored to Trex built on an existing relationship between the company and the college. “Trex continuously looks for opportunities to invest in our workforce, make sure every employee knows they are valued, and offer relevant professional development opportunities. Partnerships like these are a critical component of those efforts,” Rudolph said.
The leadership training provided to Trex employees is part of Laurel Ridge’s Workforce Solutions program, which offers noncredit professional development classes. “We want to make sure that businesses know we not only offer in-house classes and programs, but that we can develop customized solutions tailored to our client’s needs,” said Larry Baker, corporate training sales manager at Laurel Ridge.
Laurel Ridge has offered various leadership trainings since 2001, giving employees from a number of different companies, such as Home Depot distribution centers and Berry Global Inc., the opportunity to learn leadership skills as they take on roles with more management responsibility. The classes created for Trex affirmed the need for a formal front-line leadership training program for local manufacturers and resulted in the creation of Leadership Basecamp, a 10-week cohort program.
Since its launch in August 2020, nearly a dozen companies have participated in Leadership Basecamp. The college’s corporate training opportunities also include apprenticeship and certification programs, consulting, and assessment services. Tiered certifications allow employees to match the skills they want to learn with the college’s classes.
“We’re there to provide training to help enhance skills,” Baker said. “Leadership is one of the more robust areas that we offer. We want to make sure that we’re providing those classes to help [area employers] be successful.”
See What One Employee Had to Say About the Training
On What She Got Out of the Training
“I think everyone was pretty happy to attend the training. For me, the thing that sticks out the most from the training was the leadership style — servant leadership. And to me, that just speaks to my personal style and as we were going through the training, it really helped me put a name to what my style was.”
“The training gave me some skills to better hone the leadership style I was already doing and to identify it and research other things I can do that fit my leadership style.”
On Her Servant-Style Leadership
“You want your team to do their job and to be successful so providing them with all of the right tools they need whether that be physical tools or techniques for them to help guide their smaller groups, that’s what I took away from the training.”