After acquiring her Bachelor of Science in Education and working on a Master’s degree in Curriculum Development and Reading, Rhonee Iula began her career in education as a sixth grade teacher.
After the school she was working at closed, she switched gears, “I thought, well, now what do I do? My master’s work is in curriculum development, and I always loved creating learning in some way, shape, or form. So, I went into adult learning, and I’ve loved it ever since and never looked back. It’s been a really good progression for me.”
With nearly 17 years now in adult education, and three years of experience at Mazzella Companies, Rhonee and her team in Lifelong Learning are helping team members accelerate their careers through education and development programs.
What led you to Mazzella Companies?
“I saw the ad and was very intrigued by the fact that one of our core values was Inspire Lifelong Learning. I had not seen that before, so I though, ok, I’m going to check in and see how much they really do believe in learning.”
Rhonee went on to share that she was further intrigued after searching Mazzella Companies’ website, delving into their Lifting U materials and learning channels, and consuming their YouTube videos and blog articles saying, “I just saw that we really do believe in learning. And I thought that was really cool because a lot of companies say they do, but they don’t put their money where their mouth is.”
With a background in manufacturing, and a keen love for seeing how things are made from the ground up, she says seeing the pride of production floor teammates ended up being a new but welcomed point of pride for her. “People are excited about what they’re doing, and they love to show and teach other people about what they’re doing. It keeps me engaged in this industry. I love feeling that I’m part of a company that really is an industry leader.”
How do you approach adult education?
Rhonee shares that she uses the Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate (ADDIE) model in her approach, and has done so for over 25 years now. “Once your stakeholders agree that it’s a good route to go, then you instruct. The key is to evaluate the instruction and see how that whole strategy went.”
Her experience in electronic learning creation as well as instructor led sessions has taught her that sometimes the biggest obstacle for students is finding the time to work on themselves, “we have such a dedicated workforce here that sometimes they just don’t think about themselves and don’t stop to take the time to help themselves develop in their roles. So, we try to help come up with programs that are a little more palatable and allow them to get that small amount of time that they feel they have to develop themselves.”
How has your role evolved over time?
Having started a team from the ground floor up, Rhonee divulged that her role has changed greatly over time. Reminiscing on some of her first projects at Mazzella Companies, she revealed that her first hurdle before she could begin instruction was getting every team member enrolled in the online learning portal, which almost tripled the number of users in her system.
Knowing she wanted to start by focusing on a safety series, her first partnership in developing adult education for Mazzella Companies’ team members was with Kevin Paul, Safety Director, doing a safety series. “That was a once-a-month series that helped people understand how things that happened to them in life revolved around safety. You know, how to react in the extreme cold and extreme warm temperatures. We want to make sure our folks are safe both at home and here at work.”
Rhonee went on to share some of the other great programs she’s had a hand in evolving, and in some cases created. “We now have Professional Development Plans, or PDP’s, that help team members grow their career within Mazzella companies and even career pathing in certain business units to show someone how they might progress in their own department.”
Not only is her team developing programs for established team members, but they also continue to help new generations place their roots here and begin to grow, “we have rotational programs for people who want to check out a few different areas of our company, internships, and apprenticeship programs, all designed to help new people find their passion.”
With many of her previously and newly actualized programs running strong, Rhonee has inserted her talents and passion into almost every facet of the company, “each new system we bring in is something that matches what we’ve already been doing, but it takes it to another level and gets us to think more creatively about how we’re doing our work.”
Related: What Education Benefits Does Mazzella Companies Offer?
What is the role of Human Resources at Mazzella Companies?
With a goal of keeping top talent intact, “I’m a firm believer that we should make sure that we’re helping our talent develop here during their career at Mazzella Companies. We want to make sure we have the right learning programs and that we’re advertising them properly so that people understand how they can grow either in their current position or into other positions here.”
What’s a time something didn’t go as planned and how did you handle it?
One of Rhonee’s obstacles to quash was being asked to use a system that she found was not going to work for their situation. After extensive research to support her conclusion, she presented her findings to the leadership team and was relieved when it was well-received. Rhonee gives a lot of credit to the culture at Mazzella Companies, which continues to impact business, “I think that says a lot about our company, that our leaders are willing to listen once they have the facts and they know that you’ve really done your research.”
What advice would you give someone starting out in Human Resources?
In joining her team specifically, she said that they can look forward to joining a fun team, “we have a great amount of expertise on our team, and we have people who really love people and want to see people succeed.”
When it comes to getting into Human Resources as a whole Rhonee said, “learn as much as you can, about the culture, the industry, the people. Once you gain that understanding, you can help meet the needs of the internal customers.”
Dedication to Innovation
With a changing workforce comes a need for strategy, “the team puts a lot of effort into that upfront work of analyzing the situation and making sure we’re coming up with something that will work for the target audience. We’re very careful to create questioning techniques that really look to the learner’s knowledge.”
With a dedication to both their external and internal base, the Lifelong Learning team wants to make sure that they are creating innovative and engaging materials – to and for the learner – and meeting the needs of Mazzella Companies’ growing team members.
