Ahlers Logistics Academy

The Ahlers Logistics Academy is focused on providing comprehensive and up-to-date knowledge and skills to individuals and organizations in the Ahlers organization. The academy aims to foster a culture of continuous learning and development by offering a range of courses, workshops, and certifications designed to meet the diverse needs of our professionals. With a team of experienced trainers and a commitment to providing high-quality education, the Ahlers Logistics Academy is dedicated to helping our employees achieve their full potential.

In the last 18 months, we organized four training modules of our Ahlers Logistic Academy in a hybrid format — face-to-face, remote, and in distributed teams, leveraging our project management office. The program participants were warehouse and shift managers. The first group gathered managers from different regions in Russia to provide a 360-degree view of our internal processes related to warehouse operations.

Interestingly, not all of the participants knew each other before the training, not only did they become closer while working together, but they also learned about each other's experiences. All four modules dived into different topics. Participants met with Account managers, immersed themselves in the topics of budgeting and tariff setting, and talked about customer service and planning, investment projects, and much more.

Active Participation

A cross-cutting theme of the entire program was to develop projects with support from our Project Management Office and present their implementation results. The three main projects they worked on: Re-launch of daily warehouse meetings, Daily automated reporting, Minimizing customers goods loss.

We motivate active listeners during a workshop, using the following tactics:

  • Engage them: Ask questions, get feedback, and encourage participants to share their thoughts and ideas. This will keep them invested and interested in the workshop.
  • Make it relevant: Connect the workshop content to the participants' experiences and show them how the information applies to their daily work.
  • Use interactive activities: Incorporate games, group discussions, and hands-on exercises to keep participants engaged and break up the monotony of a lecture-style presentation.
  • Set clear expectations: Explain what we expect from our participants in terms of their engagement and participation.

Participants Feedback

The program was a good opportunity for team building, a better understanding of the company's capabilities, mutual assistance, and more communication between departments.

What do our employees have to say about the academy experience?

  • "I enjoyed the teamwork with people of different backgrounds, the objective and accurate feedback from the experts, and the team bonding."
  • "Training in a dialogue format with the audience."
  • "It is worth parsing the material being presented with more examples, though as simple as possible. This will allow better assimilation of the material and faster progress in learning."
  • "I would like more face-to-face meetings so that participants have the opportunity to work in a different setting."

Thanks to everyone — participants, organizers, and speakers — for being active, engaged, and willing to join our efforts so that our warehouses are places of safe and interesting work, and our people get more information, learn new things, and can put new knowledge into practice.

We are planning to organize regular sessions this year in the Ahlers Logistic Academy, so that new participants can join with topics, projects, and tasks that can be solved only together, combining our efforts, experience, and knowledge.

Goals for future workshops:

  • Showing enthusiasm: Be passionate about the workshop topic and show your enthusiasm for it. This will encourage participants to be more interested in the workshop and more motivated to engage with the material.
  • Being flexible: Being open to changing the workshop approach based on feedback and energy levels.
  • Continue to making it fun: Lighten the mood by incorporating humor, anecdotes, and enjoyable activities. This will help keep participants motivated and focused.