Barilla America, Inc. Wins ASTD 'BEST Award' for Commitment to World-Class Employee Learning

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Nov 02, 2010, 09:00 ET

BANNOCKBURN, Ill., Nov. 2, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Barilla America, Inc. is proud to announce that it ranked 6th in the American Society for Training & Development's (ASTD) 2010 BEST Awards. Barilla is among 31 organizations from India, Singapore, Turkey, and the United States to receive an ASTD BEST Award. All winners are recognized in a special section of the October 2010 issue of Training + Development (T+D), ASTD's monthly magazine.

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Members of the Barilla Human Resources department accepted the ASTD BEST Award during a reception in Washington, D.C., on September 30. The following day, Barilla America, Inc. presented some of its most notable learning and development practices during a "Learn from the BEST" professional development event.

"At Barilla, our training philosophy is that if the company instills a culture of enabling people to excel at what they are naturally good at and to trust their leaders, performance will follow," said Wayne Bosch, Vice President of Human Resources at Barilla America, Inc. "This award demonstrates our deep commitment to cultivating the very best workforce in our industry."

The BEST Awards recognize organizations that demonstrate enterprise-wide success through employee learning and development and awarded Barilla America, Inc. for their "Transformation to Last" (T2L). Finalized in 2009, T2L prepares the organization for a future growth and aligns its many legacy systems with a global platform, connecting employees with information and expertise companywide. As a result of this initiative, Barilla America, Inc. experienced zero customer interruptions, zero project team employee turnover, and a decreased overall turnover rate of 8.1 percent, compared with the previous year's 10.8 percent and the industry average of 17 percent.

"The ASTD BEST Awards are the training industry's most coveted recognition," said Tony Bingham, ASTD president and CEO. "These 31 organizations excel in creating innovative learning cultures that clearly align with strategic business goals. And they continue to demonstrate their commitment to workplace learning and development even during a challenging economic climate."

For the 2010 BEST Awards, Barilla America, Inc. competed against 104 organizations in nine countries. These organizations submitted quantitative and qualitative information to ASTD about their learning and development practices and programs. Applications were assessed in a blind review by members of the BEST Awards advisory committee, a select group of experts in the learning and development field.

This is the eighth year of the ASTD BEST Awards. More information about the 2010 ASTD BEST Award winners may be found in the October 2010 issue of T+D magazine and online: www.astd.org/best. Details about the 2011 ASTD BEST Awards program will be available next February.

About the Barilla Group

Barilla, originally established in 1877 as a bread and pasta shop in Parma, Italy, ranks as one of today's top Italian food groups. Barilla leads in the global pasta business, the pasta sauces business in continental Europe, the bakery products business in Italy and the crispbread business in Scandinavia.

Barilla owns 54 production facilities (14 in Italy and 40 outside Italy) and exports to more than 125 countries. Every year, over 2,500,000 tons of food products under the brands of Barilla, Mulino Bianco, Voiello, Pavesi, Alixir, Academia Barilla, Wasa, Harry's (France and Russia), Lieken Urkorn, Golden Toast (Germany), Misko (Greece), Filiz (Turkey), Yemina and Vesta (Mexico), are featured on dining tables all over the world.

Barilla has become one of the world's most esteemed food companies and is recognized worldwide as a symbol of Italian know-how by respecting its longstanding traditional principles and values, considering employees a fundamental asset and developing leading-edge production systems.

For more information, please visit: www.barillagroup.com.

About ASTD

ASTD (the American Society for Training & Development) is the world's largest association dedicated to the training and development field. ASTD's members come from more than 100 countries and connect locally in 130 U.S. chapters and with 30 International Partners. For more information, visit www.astd.org.