MillerCoors Onboarding Revamp

What we made

ELM developed an interactive learning experience that challenged the MillerCoors employees in understanding the four main functions at MillerCoors. 

The issue

MillerCoors needed to find a way for their internal departments to better interact and understand each other’s business objectives. 

Project highlights

  • Developed a modern, on-brand design supported with an engaging, funny, and relevant narrative
  • Used a microlearning approach to make it easier to take the course during the work day
  • Resulted in a huge increase in new hire participation

The issue

The Issue: Unboring Onboarding

With over 450 years of combined brewing heritage, MillerCoors knows a lot about beer. The company employs over 4,500 people across the United States who work in bottling, marketing, brewery operations, finance, packaging, IT, human resources, distribution, etc. MillerCoors might be the authority on beer, but onboarding was another story.

It was clear that internal departments understood their jobs very well, but it became apparent to company executives that employees didn’t understand business objectives in other departments. Though they seemed unrelated, departmental objectives influenced everyone’s own jobs and company outcomes: but how do you teach new hires to understand the entire machine and not just their cog? The company had an onboarding program in place, but truthfully, it went mostly ignored as enthusiastic new hires skipped the less-than-engaging content to get started in their new positions.

The journey

The Journey: ELM Crafts Better Onboarding

New hires were attracted to MillerCoors’ fun and engaging culture, so why dampen their enthusiasm with content that didn’t match up? Through research and interviews, ELM identified five internal departments within the company that every employee should know about, and built onboarding training around an understanding of Engineering, Manufacturing Development, Manufacturing Systems, Finance, and Human Resources. ELM reflected MillerCoors’ funny, engaging, and irreverent culture with a narrator who embodied the same qualities. The character outlined each department and its role, and demonstrated how each department and role impacted each individual employee.

The outcome

The Outcome: Cheers!

Helping employees see the inner workings of the company (and how it affected their jobs) gave new hires a better understanding of how to be successful in their roles, resulting in a smooth finish to the onboarding process.

Ignored no more! MillerCoors saw a huge increase in new hire participation, helping to drive enthusiasm as new hires began promising careers at the company.