UniFirst Wins Leadership Excellence Award

UniFirst Corp., Wilmington, MA, recently received a 2015 Leadership 500 Excellence Award for its UniFirst Management Institute (UMI). Presented at the LEAD2015 forum in Dallas, this award recognizes the top 500 leadership organizations that demonstrate achievement and innovation in developing their most important asset – their employees, according to a news release.

"We're very proud to have been recognized for the work we've done that has made UMI a successful leadership development program," said Tara Bodine, UniFirst talent acquisition and development manager, who was on hand to accept the award.

UMI supports the career progress of the company’s top potential leaders. UniFirst targets individualized professional development using a blended-training solution, according to a news release. Program highlights include a series of five-week-long workshops with key leadership, business simulations and competency assessments. Overall, about one-third of all UMI participants have been promoted from the positions they held during their UMI attendance, with several reaching executive leadership levels.

The company spends considerable time developing the program to effectively prepare employees who show great promise as future leaders of our company, said Bodine. National Accounts Manager Patrick O'Leary, who attended the conference as a UMI success story, said he’s a testament to the program’s value and importance. He started his career at UniFirst in 2003 as a national account executive, attended UMI in 2004 and was promoted to business development manager in 2005. He earned a second promotion in 2008 to manager of the national accounts program sales division. "I am certain that my career track wouldn't have been as direct or as swift without the training and skills provided by UMI,” O’Leary said.

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