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At Norfolk (Nebraska) Beverage Company, when four of the beer wholesaler's 30 employees wanted to learn Spanish, president Gary Blinn paid for their local college courses.He then sent them to Antigua, Guatemala, for two weeks, to live with local families and speak only the native tongue.The result: Valued staffers got a once-in-a-lifetime adventure.Blinn welcomed home employees who had learned "not just Spanish but also courage.Once you've made your way in a foreign country not knowing the language, having to ask a supermarket executive to put Budweiser on sale for the Fourth of July is a cakewalk."And there's even something in it for the company, he says: In a region with a growing Hispanic population, "we're showing customers we care about them" by training bilingual staff.
Blinn also sends everyone who drives for his distributorship to Skip Barber Racing School, in Elkhart Lake, Wis. "They have a blast" training in race cars, he says.His employees come back much sharper drivers, and the company enjoys lower insurance rates because its drivers are so accident-free. (Norfolk Beverage also knows a little something about fun for fun's sake: Last summer, the company rented a sleeper bus and drove employees to Sturgis, S.D., for a day of music, food and roaring Harleys at the annual Black Hills Motorcycle Rally.)
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