Building a Culture of Development: How Gildan Supports Its People

NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / November 7, 2024 / "We believe in our people" and "We act like entrepreneurs" are two core values, part of Gildan's DNA. While the former signifies the Company's belief in succeeding through teamwork and collaboration, the latter highlights the Company's entrepreneurial spirit and leadership's passion to do more, do better, and continue driving the organization's growth and success. A large part of these values is Gildan's commitment to empowering its employees and ensuring they have the right resources available to collaborate and take ownership of their careers. This is why the Company invests in identifying, creating, and providing Learning and Development (L&D) opportunities, allowing both employees and the organization to advance.

We sat down with Cristal De la Cruz, Manager of Global Organizational Development (OD) at Gildan to learn more about Learning and Development (L&D), its importance at Gildan, and how the Company builds a culture of development to drive talent further.

Can you speak about the importance of L&D at Gildan and how the Company approaches talent development?

At Gildan, we are constantly looking for opportunities to allow our employees to reach their full potential within the organization. This starts first and foremost with openness and transparency when it comes to the employee's development aspirations and needs. So, encouraging a culture where that is conducive is something we consistently try to reinforce. We encourage our employees and managers to have regular and transparent feedback sessions, identifying employees' strengths, competencies, and gaps, both on an individual level, and in terms of their larger role at the organization. By facilitating these conversations through our performance management process, known internally as GPAT, we help the organization gain insight into its talent, and also allow employees themselves to recognize what they need to achieve their professional objectives.

This is where L&D comes in. The L&D function defines the best approach and provides the tools to continuously cultivate our talented workforce of over 45,000 people, such that they are able to bring their talent to areas that are meaningful to them and find their true fit at the organization.

How does Gildan go about creating a culture of development?

Our approach to creating such a culture is to provide the tools and resources employees may need to propel their development, and make sure people are aware of these tools' availability. For instance, we provide our administrative employees with Gildan Academy, an online resource consisting of training modules from a wide range of areas, including leadership, technical development, DEI, cybersecurity, health and safety, and more, all offered in alignment with Gildan's competency framework. With Gildan Academy, our networked employees have access to L&D resources right at their fingertips! Last year, administrative employees completed over 35,000 hours of training through Gildan Academy. In addition, we regularly send a newsletter to our employees, imparting knowledge about a certain development topic, highlighting Gildan Academy courses to supplement it, and motivating people to continue their development journey.