Kevin Edmonds has concentrated his time and talents over the past two decades on building a career within and adding value to The Kroger Company. Spanning the gamut from bagging groceries and helping customers to leading a talent development function, Kevin continues to evolve his passion for people. See how Kevin shopped Kroger for career success (figure below).

Q: Let’s start out by talking a little about your current role.

A: As the senior director of talent development, my focus is on training and leadership development. Of course, this ties to the overall talent development cycle, touching on such things as assessment, engagement, development, and performance. Our work is concentrated on changing and shaping behavior to support enhanced performance. It’s an exciting and rewarding position because my work affects everyone from the associate who just started in a store to the executive suite and everything in between.

Q: What**’**s the most satisfying dimension of your current work?

A: It’s really satisfying to work with a team dedicated to investing in people. What we do directly supports the business but it also makes a difference for people. I’m in it for the long-term, which is good because the results are not always immediate. But down the line, when I’m in a store and no one knows who I am but they’re doing what I know we taught them, it’s great. I get to see the investment that we make in people pay back in so many ways—from business results to stock performance to satisfied, loyal customers. That’s what it’s all about.

Q: What skills, characteristics or traits have been most helpful to you along the way?

A: There are a few capabilities that have worked well for me throughout my Kroger career. The ability to take complex situations and make them simple was a natural talent that I’ve had the chance to hone since today we are focused on simplicity in all things.

Also, my ability to bring attention to detail while at the same time holding big picture in mind has been a real help—although, it’s certainly frustrated my staff from time to time. It’s really essential.  

And finally, being able to work across as well as up has served me well. Particularly when you think about the kinds of solutions we’re providing today in learning space, working cross-functionally is the only way to ultimately move the needle.

Q: Looking back, what one or two choices did you make that helped most to move you forward?

A: For me, the recurring theme involves remaining open to opportunities and change outside of my normal course or expected career direction. I’m steeped in operations, having worked my way through the store system. Then I moved to Atlanta out of operations and into administration and went from executing strategy to writing and developing it. That was a significant shift and turning point in my career.

Then I made the next big move (taking me WAY out of my comfort zone) to corporate headquarters in Cincinnati. Working in Atlanta was big and there was plenty of responsibility, but you cannot appreciate a company as a whole until you’ve worked at corporate. I’ve come to realize that if I’d limited myself to a business function, I might not have been able to deliver as much value to the organization as I have—and I certainly wouldn’t have grown as much as I have.

Q: Without having to kill me, what are you working on that**’**s new or exciting?

A: The fun and exciting challenge for us at Kroger is to evolve learning. We are working hard to recast learning and deliver solutions that are simpler with shorter run times. The ‘long-play’ formats of the past just don’t work today. We’re also looking to leverage technology differently and figure out how to train leaders more effectively within context of their jobs.

A lot of what we’re focusing on now involves trying to approximate the customer experience in support of our Customer First Strategy. Everyone must look at the business through the lens of our customer. So, we’re playing with perspective and point of view, creating Google-glass style video and even setting up our training center with customer images all over the walls. If employees aren’t standing in the customers’ shoes, we’re not doing something right.

Q: Looking into your crystal ball, what do you believe will be the next big thing in L&D?

A: For us, and probably for others as well, it’s going to be about bringing learning to bear in role-specific ways, real-time and just in time. It’s going to be about figuring out what people need to perform optimally and delivering that.

We’re going to see more of a focus on learning communities and cohort learning. At Kroger, we’re just starting to work in the business/social space. We’ve rolled out Yodel (a LinkedIn/Yammer-like app) that encourages collaboration and has tremendous implications for informal learning. 

Kevin Edmonds is the senior director of talent development for The Kroger Company, responsible for all facets of learning and leadership development. 

Kevin started his grocery career 33 years ago as a courtesy clerk (bagger).  Kevin has an extensive retail background primarily focused within operations. During his career, he has held numerous positions from store manager to district manager, as well as assistant human resources manager in the Atlanta Division where he was responsible for the “Customer 1st” strategy and training and development, before relocating to Cincinnati to launch Kroger Television (KTV).

In his current role, Kevin and his team are tasked to provide end-to-end integrated talent management solutions in four major areas: engagement, planning, development, and assessment. These training and development opportunities are consumed at virtually all levels of the organization, from an associate’s first day on the job receiving new hire engagement to a well-defined leadership curriculum that supports the development for a newly assigned executive.