Jan Kelly started her career in the food industry in 1981 bagging groceries for a Stater Bros. store in Grand Terrace. Like most employees of the San Bernardino-based retailer, she started out at the entry level and worked her way up the retail food chain.
Today, as director of training and employee development, Kelly works from the corporate headquarters to set Stater Bros.' newest hires on the same path.
She oversees the Stater Bros. training center, a series of classrooms and offices on the company's massive corporate campus that Jack Brown, Stater Bros.' longtime chairman and CEO, said is unusual in the industry.
"We have to learn to do it smarter, and having an education is very important," Brown said. "So we try to do what we can to help our people get a better education. It's not only about service at Stater Bros. It also is to help them have a better life."
Some of the training programs have been around for decades, but Stater Bros.' move in 2007 to its larger headquarters enabled it to "greatly expand," Brown said.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: The Press-Enterprise. (Riverside, CA)