Staffing and HR Development at Coca-Cola Company - Case Study Example

STAFFING AND HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT Student’s Name Course Professor’s Name University City Date Staffing and HR Development at Coca-Cola Company Introduction Staffing and HR development is one of the major critical activities that are found within a company. The existence of quality staff in a company determines the image that the company will give to its customers. The reason why the existence of quality staff will define the image of the enterprise is that skilled workers will lead to the production of quality products and services which will lead to customer satisfaction thereby creating a real picture of the firm with them. Therefore, the human resource department in any organization, for instance, the Coca-Cola company has to come up with strategies they will enable attraction of the best employees in the market while retaining the best at the same time. To ensure that quality products and services are offered, the human resource practices must be carried out in a very efficient way to satisfy the employees who produce and deliver services. Background Information of the Coca-Cola Company The company was invented in the year 1886 by a pharmacist who was known as John Pemberton. The company deals with the manufacturing of a variety fresh drinks, but its main products used to be the sodas. However, with time, the company started producing other beverages and also the non-alcoholic drinks. The company’s 2020 vision is to be the outstanding company leading in the beverage industry, motivating people and adding value through excellence (Ali 2007). The long-term objective of the company is building a stable business which is profitable through refreshing consumers while partnering with the customers, deliver high value to the shareholders and increasing its trust of the community. About human resources activities, the company has an overall goal which aims at the building of a highly capable organization which makes it the employer of choice. According to Ali (2007), management of employees at the Coca-Cola Company takes the bureaucratic style where the mangers instill discipline to the workers. However, an open door policy at the company exists where employees can visit the managers’ offices and be assisted. Theme 1: Recruitment The method of advertising is critical to the company as it carries some of the advantages and disadvantages that a company might benefit from and get affected by respectively. Based on the method used in a particular recruitment process, the company uses different advertisement methods to ensure that the information about recruitment has reached the majority of the people to ensure that the suitable applicant is hired for the vacant position. The internal recruitment involves filling the positions with the existing or former employees of the firm (Gupta 2006). Moreover, to fill the vacancies in the organization, the company can choose to use the internet recruitment process where the advertisement is made through the web through the employer website, the cyber agencies among others. There are other methods that an organization can use to bring employees on board which includes the use of external agents which include government and voluntary agents, temporary employment agents and advertising and recruiting consultants. Organizations can also hire the fresh graduates by having links with the schools and colleges. About this, they can sponsor students in colleges and later employ them in their organization. Employer branding is another critical term that is essential to an organization when it is recruiting. According to Mosley & Barrow (2013), employer branding involves creating a favorable image that ensures that the organization competes effectively in the labor market. Moreover, employer branding helps in the recruitment of the potential employees in the organization while retaining the best at the same time. At Coca-Cola Company, the hiring process starts with the creation of a pool of eligible candidates with the human resource manager in collaboration with other managers in other departments. The recruitment process at the Coca-Cola Company is well established and starts with the advertisement of the position at the company website and the daily newspapers. Once the enterprise receives the application documents, the shortlisting is done, and the interviews are done, and finally the new candidate is hired. After hiring of the new candidate, the candidate is taken on a probation period where he or she is observed on how well is skilled in working with the company. If the enterprise gets satisfied with the work of the worker, the employee is finally confirmed to work at the business. Recommendation to the Coca-Cola Company The Coca-Cola Company has some factors that it should consider while hiring the employees so as to ensure that the hiring process attracts the potential employees and the recruitment process is not expensive. The first recommendation to the company is to consider when internal and external recruitment methods are required. The company should not hire from within the organization when new knowledge is needed. Also, the company should not consider using other recruitment methods to bring new employees to the organization like using the agents so as to minimize the cost of the hiring process. In addition to this, the right image of the company should be retained, and this will help the company in attracting good employees in the enterprise. By doing this, the company will get potential employees at minimal costs. Theme 2: Selection and On-Boarding Selection of employees can be made through the classic trio which involves the traditional activities that are used by the employers to select the new workers. Some activities in the classic trio include the application form, the interviews, and checking of the references in the CV. However, the classic trio approach has been criticized, but there are some reasons why it is used. About this, the method does not cause stress and anxiety to the applicants, and it is not costly to compare to the psychological approaches (Solidstaff.com 2017). Shortlisting helps in reducing the volume of applicants, and this can be done by having an online test to sieve those who won’t succeed in the test. Once the candidates are shortlisted, interviews can be done on the phone at first and later face-face to those who passed the phone interview. Other advanced methods can be used in employee selection which includes ability tests, personality tests, bio-data analysis and the use of assessment centers. The ability tests include the general knowledge tests while the personality tests include analyzing the individual based on his or her characteristics (Lussier 2008). On the other hand, bio-data analysis involves using the questionnaire to get the information about the candidate, which might give a prediction of the needs. Assessment centers help includes analyzing the behavior of the individual in a work environment. After the candidate is selected, there is an agreement that is created between the employer and the employee which might be oral or in the form of a letter. In addition to the employment contract, there is a creation of the psychological contract between the employer and the employee. What follows is the induction process which includes welcoming of new hires in the organization (Hor & Keats 2008). During the induction process, the organization may offer a mentor to the new employee. Recommendations Being a large organization, Coca-Cola company can receive a lot of application is and therefore some strategies might be used in shortlisting. There is a proposal to the Coca-Cola Company that while selecting the candidates, to limit time spent in shortlisting the many applications, an online test can, therefore, be used to restrict the number of applicants. Consequently, hiring process in the company will be easier. Theme 3: Succession Planning, Turnover, and Retention Succession planning involves the preparation of when the top management holders will leave the office. According to Rothwell (2010), the plan ensures that there exist some individuals who have the knowledge of facts about the company to make sure that they can succeed those at the top management level once they leave the organization. However, succession planning has to be done in a careful since it can lead to conflict in the leadership of the organization. The organization, therefore, has to ensure that the succession planning encompasses all that are in the organization and a fair selection process is used. Employee turnover occurs in the form of resignations that might not be formally triggered by the organization. According to Raines (2013), employee turnover refers to the rate at which, the employees join or leave the group. Employee dissatisfaction is one of the primary reasons that force the employees to exit the organization. Moreover, this occurs when the managers abuse their positions and become so much self-centered while at the same time fail to deal with the grievances at the institution. Employee turnover has adverse effects on the organization which occurs when the company is doing another recruitment to fill the position which might be costly (Raines 2013). However, the turnover might reduce the costs that reduce the redundancy costs that might be involved in the resignation process. The rate at which, the employees leave the organization can, however, be reduced. Some strategies can be developed in the body to decrease the rate of employee turnover where one of them include job enrichment. Job enrichment involves allowing the job to provide opportunities for self and career development, offering positive feedback on performance and providing appropriate workspace characteristics. Recommendations The Coca-Cola Company has to make ensure that the succession plans on the institution do not bring conflicts. Therefore, the preparations to have new management to replace the old top level management have to include everyone who has the potential of leading the company. Strategies like having assessment tests before selecting the successors can be used to ensure that elimination is done in a fair way. Also, to ensure that the rate of employee turnover goes down, the human resource management has to put strategies to make sure that the employees are satisfied. Therefore, the company has to ensure that the employees’ benefits are so attractive to prevent the workers from leaving the organization. By adopting the two recommendations, the Coca-Cola Company will have avoided conflict that might arise due to poor succession plan and also prevent employee turnover. Theme 4: HR Development, Talent Management Strategies and Future of Work The HR practices in an organization must be developed in a way that the practices will fit with the overall goals of the company. Therefore, strategic objectives of the company must be in line with the practices of the human resource (Chelladurai 2006). For instance, the objective of Coca-Cola Company is to be the leading company in beverage production. Consequently, the organization has to ensure that the goals of the organization are in line with the practices of the HR. The reason why they must align is because the employees are the one who will help in the achievement of these objectives. In addition to this, the practices of the HR are the one that is going to determine the satisfaction of employees in these areas. Talent management in an organization involves the efficient administration of the employees who are believed to help in making a difference in the enterprise. According to Lederman (2007), there must be a controversial approach that must be using to ensure that employees that are highly talented are recognized in the organization. Moreover, to ensure that these employees are retained in the team, the company has to make sure that these employees receive special treatment like offering them lavish perks. Also, these talented employees can be considered during the succession plans. The world keeps on changing, and the future practices of the human resources might be affected by these variations in the future. The economy is growing, and this means that more job opportunities will be created and there will be a change in the power relationship that exists between the employer and the employees. Many of the human resource strategic issues will be resourced in the future. The technology will also change the human resource practices in the future (Patil & Bhakkad n.d). Also, competition in the labor market will increase globally since companies will now have to hire globally since the technology is bringing the world closer. Also, the government’s pace of regulation and policy will reduce. Due to the change that will occur in the future, there will be an increased need of emphasizing on ethical awareness of the human resource management. Recommendation The Coca-Cola Company has to ensure that the human resource management practices are in line with the overall goal of the organization. About this, the company has a goal of becoming the best manufacturer of beverages by 2020. Therefore, the human resource must be developed in a way that it will motivate the employees since the employees will be the one that will help in the achievement of this goal by 2020. Also, the talented employees in Coca-Cola Company must receive a special package to motivate them to stay in the company. For instance, those who know the chemical formula of manufacturing the sodas might fall into this category. Conclusion The image of the business is determined by the quality of products and services in the organization. Moreover, the quality of goods and services is determined by the employees that are within the organization and how satisfied they are through the practice of the human resource. Therefore, the human resource practices play a crucial role in the determination of the nature of products and services that will be produced because hiring unskilled workers and maintaining a poor working environment for workers will reduce the productivity of employees and in turn production quality. In short, organizations have to structure the human resource practices in a way that the practices will contribute to making better the organizations to the employees and finally making better the image of the organization through the provision of quality products and services to customers. References Ali, 2017, Strategic human resource management at Coca Cola beverages pakistan L…. [online] Slideshare.net. Available at: https://www.slideshare.net/saad216/strategic-human-resource-management-at-coca-cola-beverages-pakistan-limited [Accessed 11 May 2017]. Chelladurai, P, 2006, Human resource management in sport and recreation. Leeds, Human Kinetics. Gupta, R. N, 2006, Business organisation and management. New Delhi, S Chand. Hor, J., & Keats, L, 2008, Finders keepers: how to attract and retain great employees. Sydney, CCH Australia. Top of Form Lederman, G, 2007, Achieve brand integrity!: ten truths you must know to enhance employee performance and increase company profits. Rochester, N.Y., B@W Press.Bottom of Form Lussier, R. N, 2008, Management fundamentals: concepts, applications, skill development. Mason, OH, South-Western/Cengage Learning. Mosley, R., & Barrow, S, 2013. The employer brand: bringing the best of brand management to people at work. Hoboken, N.J., Wiley. http://rbdigital.oneclickdigital.com Patil, D. and Bhakkad, D, n.d., Redefining management practices and marketing in modern age. 1st ed. Raines, S, 2013, Conflict management for managers resolving workplace, client, and policy disputes. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10641846. Rothwell, W. J, 2010, Effective succession planning: ensuring leadership continuity and building talent from within. New York, AMACOM. http://www.books24x7.com/marc.asp?bookid=34153. Solidstaff.com, 2017, How to retain your employees in hospitality industry |Vital for boss's. [online] Available at: http://www.solidstaff.com/data/mvh-study.php [Accessed 11 May 2017]. Read More