Human Resource Management into the Coca Cola Company - Essay Example

TITTLE: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Introduction The coca cola company is a world leading producer of beverage and non alcoholic syrups, which take part in manufacture, marketing, retail and trade of its products around the world. It was founded in 1886 by Asa Griggs Candler and has its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia US. It currently offers more than 500 brands of its products in over 200 countries where it has its branches. Coca Cola Company is a franchised distributor since it produces syrup concentrate which is then distributed to its various vendors who bottle and sell it for consumption. The company is a house hold name in beverage production and has since got many acquisitions of juices from several countries. The company also has a wide range of industries that use its trademark or is licensed by coca cola. The Company was set up to oppose the initiatives of the citizens about production of beverages Discussion Coca cola and its Mission The company has its mission, vision and values that form a strategy network for them to deliver quality products to its consumers. Its vision is to become the best and undisputed leader in every market in which the company competes. Its mission is to refresh, partner with its customers, enrich and uplift the lives of the local communities and reward its various stakeholders. The company holds values that propel it towards its future success which include; winning its customers, power of working together, caring, investing and empowering its people, learning, excellence and authenticity. The company is headed by Muhtar Kent who is the chairman and chief executive officer. There are several other directors who head the company branches in several countries. The company has its own challenges that it has to rectify so that it can be successful. This includes health effects that could be caused by its products since it has a lot of calories and causes acidity and tooth decay. Use of contaminated waters in making of the coke and amount of water needed makes the aquifers dry hence posing serious environmental problems. The company has also been accused of bribery cases to dentists. The company also has opportunities of opening up new franchises in different countries as a trusted global leader in beverage production. Its strengths lies in its ability to integrate small juice companies and make them part of their acquisitions. The company boasts of 146,200 employees who are spread out across the world. The company has many directors across the world that is headed by an overall chairman. The company also has a board of governors that coordinate all the functions that take place within and outside the company. They also pass information and decisions from the board to the directors across the world (Ulrich, 34). Recruiting and staffing Staffing needs in the coca cola company are established by having a personal relations officer in each branch to whom complaints are given. An individual or group of persons with any complaint forwards their problems to this officer, who then forwards it to the managers and director or head of the branch. These problems are then forwarded to the board that discusses and comes up with solutions. The company also has an employee website where employees log in with their work numbers. This site provides an opportunity for all the staffs and executives to interact and air their views openly, which will be discussed in the board and solutions made (Mayo, 74). The company does a job analysis of its workers and new employees once every two years. New employees are recruited through rigorous interviews that are done to eligible applicants. The interviews contain important elements such as group exercises, psychometric tests, situational exercises and presentations that take various forms. Interviews are posted on the company’s website which can be accessed by all members of the public so that the affair may not be deemed biased. Interviews are done by the board of governing members or directors in the specific countries. The documentation records of those who do not pass the interview are kept so that when a position that they are eligible for arises, they are invited for interviews. The organization has faced challenges in its staffing areas and at one time, it was sued for practicing racism on some of its employees. The charges that it faced include biased work assignments where in some countries some people from a certain race were given more hard assignments than the rest. This was not fair at all since all employees contributed to the success of the company. Allotment of working hours was unfair as others worked more than others based on their races and color. They were also charged on the grounds of unfair discipline, retaliation and an unfriendly working condition especially in the US where its workers are made up of both blacks and whites and blacks were discriminated against. In one way or the other, the charges proved to be a turning point and lesson to the company as it used this weakness to develop and enhance their working environment to become one of the best employers across the world. Through the time, it has also developed policies and guidelines, which protect all employees regardless of their status, color and background. Training and development The company has its orientation procedures for new employees to inform them of the expected from the management so as to meet the organization’s goals and objectives. Orientation process is done on the first day that a new employee reports to the company. The head of department takes them through a step by step process on how everything is done, policies, goals, objectives and the other workmates. Once employees have been recruited, they undergo training to teach them what goes on. This helps the employees to transit to the coca cola way where employee initiative is high. All the training stages in Coca Cola Company are specified and tailor made to equip the employees with requisite skills and knowledge. These can be done in form of seminars or on job training whereby the employees are required to perform specified roles and functions with the supervisor guiding him. This is one of the best methods of developing the employees as their mistakes, and talents are easily noticeable at the first stage and procedures put in place to develop them effectively. Coca cola being a multinational company and a potential employer embraces all forms of employee development to ensure that they are satisfied and knowledgeable to perform different roles and functions in different organizations. They therefore provide both physical and monetary support to all employees who request to seek higher education at both levels. Through this, they are able to maintain a set of employees who are highly knowledgeable and motivated as they believe that their hard education will supplement their penetration through the ranks. The training period takes three months at the expense of the company. The organization also carries out training for all its employees to prepare them for product promotion and build their leadership skills. The training process is carried out by managers, directors and other training staff who are usually committed to training for the whole of that time. The training is done for all employees regardless of their position in the company (Brien, 12). Training and development is one of the main strategies that coca cola company has embraced in maintaining a highly productive and motivated team as well as minimize wastages of resources, which is a result of unequipped and ill informed employees. Conclusion Any organization must have a functional human resource management department that acts as a strategic business partner and takes part in planning and organization of the company. The organization also has a proper well laid out compensation plan for its employees depending on their positions. The human resource department is one of the crucial areas, which have to be aligned well so that the organization runs well. Other departments in an organization have to comply with this department so as to make the company successful and be able to achieve its target, objectives and mission. Resolving of problems, issues and grievances is a must by the human resource department so that the company does not experience an economic downfall. Global issues also came into place, it being an international company. Works cited Brien Michael. Human Resource Take on the Office. New York. The Wall Street Journal. 2010. Print. Mayo Elton. Human Resource Management: Coca cola’s Success. Boston Harvard Business School Press. 2011. print. Ulrich Dave. Human Resource Champions: The Next Agenda for Adding Value and Delivering Results. Boston, Harvard Business School Press. 1996. Print. Read More