Evaluation of Training Intervention in Coca Cola Company - Case Study Example

Evaluation of Training Intervention in Coca Cola Company Grade (April 22, Table of Contents Evaluation of Training Intervention in Coca Cola Company 1 Evaluation of training intervention: Coca Cola Company Introduction Coca Cola Company is a giant multinational company whose success in unmatched globally. The company was registered in the USA in 1944 and is involved in the production of soft drinks consumed globally (Coca-Cola Company, 2015). This report seeks to assess the evaluation used by Coca Cola in its employees training programs, as a way of continuous improvement of the employees’ skills. Employee training is very important for the Coca Cola Company, owing to the fact that the company has to keep ahead of any development in the soft drink industry, which might threaten its leading position as the global giant serving in approximately 200 countries in the world. It is through the training of its team of employees, most especially its mid-level managers, engineers and customer service employees in all its location globally, which has seen the company remain a dominant soft drink concentrate manufacturer. Mullins (2010) defines evaluation as the systematic process through which an organization can evaluate the impact of the training that its employees have had, and its overall impact on their performance. The Coca Cola Company is build around two major assets. First, the company is build around its brand as a major asset, which has remained dominant globally throughout its history. Secondly, the company is build around its people as another major asset that has enabled the company sustains its legacy for close to two centuries now (Coca-Cola Company, 2015). The most important strategy to the vision of Coca Cola Company is the building of diversity in the workforce, since it is only through diversity that the global company that has its operations in almost every country of the world can fulfill its promise of keeping the world refreshed (Chowdry,. et al., 2009). Thus, this discussion focuses on how Coca Cola Company evaluates its diversity training program, to determine the success of the company’s evaluation of training intervention. Reasons for Evaluating Training and Development The major objective behind the evaluation of the effectiveness of a training program is to establish how well the program systematically modifies the behavior of the employees, to achieve the desired outcome (Kooster, 2007). The effectiveness of a training program for employees in turn improves the overall performance of the organization. Additionally, the evaluation of the impact of a training program is a way of determining the quality of a training preprogram, and the nature of the improvement that requires being done on the program, in order to enhance the chances of the organization realizing its strategic objectives (Dhawan, 2014). The training of employees is an important aspect for the Coca Cola Company; owing to the fact that it is through training that the company can instill its intended and desired objectives as actionable activities of the employees. The possession of highly trained staff is one way through which an organization is able to sustain, pursue and realize its mission (Grobler and Warnich, 2012). Therefore, through the evaluation of the diversity training program of the Coca Cola Company, the company is able to get feedback regarding its effectiveness, as well as the areas that needs to be addressed. Training has been defined as the system through which the employees are influenced to become productive, through approaching the expected challenges of the job responsibilities with more enhanced capabilities (Reid, Barrington, Brown and Reid, (2004). Methods of Training Evaluation The major training evaluation strategy that is applied by the Coca Cola Company is the employee appraisal (Chowdry, et al., 2009). The employee performance appraisal as a system of getting feedback on the impact of the training program is meant to establish whether the content of the diversity training has been fully understood by the trainees. According to Reel (2009), the relevance of evaluating a program does not only lay in the establishment of whether the content of the training program has been internalized, but also in determining the effectiveness with which such content is translated into actual practice. An organization can benefit from its employee training program through having the content that has been learnt in the course of the training transformed into actual behavioral practices of the employees in the course of implementing their responsibilities (Wilson, 2012). The evaluation in the Coca Cola Company is done based on the assessment of how the employees have been performing their roles and responsibilities after the training, based on how well the employees are able to display multi-cultural tendencies and practices in their work. The employees who have been trained under the diversity training are deployed to regions where multi-ethnicity and multiple cultures characterize the business environment, to evaluate how well the employees are able to cope in the new and diverse cultural environments. The need for organizations to respond and adapt to the changing global business environment, where cultural diversity, multi-ethnicity and technological advancement are the new drivers of business success, is now inevitable (Donovan and Townsend, 2004). The other evaluation of the impact of the training on the employees of the Coca Cola Company can take the form of debriefing, in order to understand how well the employees have been able to internalize the content of the training program they have undergone. The relevance of debriefing the trained employees is to seek to establish the actual content of the training program that they have undergone, and then determine whether it is well tied to the overall objective of the organization (Wilson, 2005). Thus, for the Coca Cola Company, the evaluation of the effect of the training program through the process of employee debriefing is essential, in order to determine if the overall content is tied to the diversity needs of the company. Further, conducting a post training evaluation through debriefing does not only help to determine the appropriateness of the training program to the organizational objectives, but also establishes if any gap exists and how it can be sealed through subsequent employee training programs (Salas, 2003). Literature review Chowdry, et al. (2009) have undertaken a study into the effectiveness of the training and evaluation strategies that are applied by the Coca Cola Company under its diversity training program. The result of this study indicated that the employees have different opinions regarding the effectiveness of the training program. The major issue that was agreed by all employees participating in the program is that its main objective was to foster cultural diversity mindset and professionalism among the employees. This was so that the employees are able to embrace, adapt and implement their roles in a culturally mixed environment with greater ease (Chowdry, et al., 2009). Assessing whether the resources that were committed to the training have been used efficiently is a major reason for organizations to seek to get feedback of the training program through post-training debriefing. Further, obtaining feedback of the impact of the employee training program is meant to enable an organization to obtain the necessary evidence required to justify the investment that has been made by the organization in the training program. Sloman (2007) offers that the full understanding of the content that the employees have been learning during the training program is essential, if the full impact of the training is to be felt in the organization. This is because; it is through the full understanding and internalizing of the content of the training, that the employees are able to transform that into effective work behavior for aiding the achievement of their work responsibilities. Discussion and Analysis Taking feedback is one of the ways through which the Coca Cola Company has been able to improve on its cultural diversity objective. Taking feedback remains a major way through which an organization is able to understand whether the training program established by the organization is able to offer its staff the required support (Wilson, 2005). There is a major reason for every organization to evaluate its training program for its employees (Grobler and Warnich, 2012). The Coca Cola Company seeks to foster the cultural diversity mindset and outlook in its employee, owing to the fact that the company operates in approximately 200 countries globally. Thus its employees, especially its specialized middle level managers, engineers and customer care representatives must embrace and demonstrate cultural diversity and multi-ethnic professionalism. This is the only way through which the multinational organization can ensure that its business does not only survive, but also thrives in its multi-culturally diverse business environments (Chowdry, et al., 2009). The evaluation of the diversity training program by the Coca Cola Company is therefore targeted towards establishing how well the employees have internalized the content of the program. This is a way of the Coca Cola Company meeting and caring for the sensitivities of its diverse and multicultural customer base that are situated in different countries. Therefore, establishing the feeling of belongingness for all employees is the major objective of this cultural diversity initiative by the company, which is then to be translated into a feeling of belongingness for the community which the company serves. Further, fostering diversity is a major way of the Coca Cola Company taking advantage of the talents that can be acquired from different communities, since the communities in which the company operates are full of talented human resources (Chowdry, et al., 2009). The Coca Cola Company recognizes that each of the environment in which the business operates, as well as the multi-ethnic employees that the company has as part of its employee fraternity have differences in style, personality, social perspectives and overall world view. Thus, it is the responsibility of the Coca Cola Company to harness all these differences into strength rather than a weakness for the company, through enabling the employees to embrace and practice cultural diversity at their workplaces. Thus, the Coca Cola Company has established three major pillars of fostering the cultural diversity objective of the organization, which are diversity training, diversify library and the diversity speaker series (Chowdry, et al., 2009). Through these three pillars, the company fosters the embracement of cultural diversity among its employees, which then translates into the attainment of the overall organizational objective of refreshing the whole world. Employee appraisal as an evaluation method for the diversity training program for Coca Cola Company seeks to establish whether the employees have been able to internalize all the content of the training program they have gone through. This evaluation method also seeks to establish whether the employees are able to put the content of the training into actionable workplace behaviors and practices. The limitations of the traditional organizational culture have now become too conspicuous, such that organizations must increasingly steer clear of them. Traditionally, the fact that an organization had suitable business strategies and good employees, meant that the business of such a company would flourish. However, in the modern business environment, sensitivity to issues of diversity, environmental protection, corporate social responsibility and ethical business practices have become major external factors influencing the performance of businesses (Office for National Statistics, 2013). This being the case, embracing diversity and ethical business practices is no longer an option for many businesses, especially for multinational corporations like Coca Cola Company, which serves in approximately 200 countries globally. Therefore, training employees on diversity is crucial, owing to the fact that it enables such employees to adapt to any working environment globally, since such employees have been trained on how to be sensitive to different cultures and their needs. Therefore, training employees on the skills of adapting to cultural diversity is one way of making the employees become oriented to the needs of the increasingly digital world (Karakas and Manisaligil, 2012). The strength associated with the strategy applied by the Coca Cola Company to send its employees who have been trained through the diversity program to different cultural business environment is that it enables the employees to learn on their own how to fit into the new cultures, and adapt into the new environments. This is one way of the organizations increasingly moving away from the hierarchical and systematic training that was being applied to train employees traditionally, into a more self-directed and learner-centric approach (Reid, Barrington, Brown and Reid, 2004). Nevertheless, the counter argument has held that training employees on diversity is not fruitful, and it simply amounts to a waste of organizational resources. The argument is based on the premise that regardless of where an organization operates, the needs of all customers are just the same, thus training employees on diversity does not benefit the organization (Gibbons, 2002). Employees should be focused on serving the needs of all customers equally, regardless of the cultures, ethnicities or the nationality of such customers, owing to the fact that the needs of the customers are similar. Another argument that has been put forward against training employees on diversity is that organizations that simply pay attention to training are not learning organizations (Grobler and Warnich, 2012). This is in consideration of the fact that the business environment keeps change very often, requiring adaptability as opposed to training. Thus, training employees on diversity has been regarded as a waste of both time and resources for an organization, since the organization should learn adaptability in the course of its operations, and learn from itself, rather than sending its employees for diversity training. The argument against training employees on diversity is that only the organizations that allow their employees an unlimited degree of self-determination to learn on their own in the process of implementing their work responsibilities, become fully adapted to the business environment (Gibbons, 2002). Thus, through the process of the employees learning in the course of their performing the work duties, they become more reflective on their work, and thus eventually turn out to be more aggressive in seeking the success of their tasks, while also becoming self-transformational and easily adaptive to changing environments (Kirkpatrick, 2007). Thus, the arguments holds that employees should not be trained through training programs, but rather be allowed to learn in the course of their executing workplace duties. Conclusion It is evident that evaluation of diversity training program is present in the Coca Cola Company. The employees who have undergone training are evaluated through both post-training debriefing and employee appraisal, while they are deployed to different cultural working environments. The benefits of the evaluation have also been identified. The major benefit associated with the evaluation of the employee diversity program is that it helps Coca Cola Company to streamline its future training to suit the expectations of the employees, while also aligning with the organizational goals and strategies of the company. Despite opposing arguments that argue against the diversity training of employees, by holding that employees should learn in the process of their performing their work, diversity training is essential to help employees and the organization adapt to the modern business environment. Recommendation The overall implementation of the diversity training and subsequent evaluation of the training intervention for the Coca Cola Company is good. However, to improve on the effectiveness of the evaluation strategy of the company, it is recommended that the employees’ needs that are identified during the post-training debriefing and also in the course of their appraisal be implemented immediately, rather than waiting to implement them during the subsequent training programs. Further, it is recommended that the evaluation of the actual employee behaviors and work practices be included as part of the evaluation methods for the Coca Cola Company. This will help the company to understand whether the employees are able to transfer the content learnt during the employee raining into actionable workplace behavior and practices. References Chowdry, R. et al. (2009). Cultural Diversity - H.R Interventions & strategies- Coca Cola Company Coca-Cola Company. (2015). History-Overview: The Coca Cola Company. Retrieved from http://www.coca-colacompany.com/history/ Dhawan, S (2014) The Systematic Approach to Training: Main Phases of the Training Cycle. Availableathttp://www.topconsultant.com/articles/the%20systematic%20approach%20to%20training.pdf(Accessed: 2nd December 2014). Donovan, P. and Townsend, J. (2004). The training evaluation pocketbook. Alresford: Management Pocketbooks. Gibbons, M. (2002). The self-directed learning handbook. San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass. Grobler, P. and Warnich, S. (2012). Contemporary issues in human resources management. Cape Town: Oxford University Press. Grobler, P. and Warnich, S. (2012). Contemporary issues in human resources management. Cape Town: Oxford University Press. Karakas, F. and Manisaligil, A. (2012), ‘Reorienting self-directed learning for the creative digital era’,European Journal of Training and Development, 36(7) pp. 712-731 Kirkpatrick, J. (2007). Implementing the four levels. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Koster, M. (2007). Human resource development: The limitations of the systematic training cycle. München: GRIN Verlag GmbH. Mullins, L. (2010). Management &Organisational Behaviour. Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall. Office for National Statistics (2013) 170 Years of Industrial Change across England and Wales. Available at: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census/2011-census-analysis/170-years-of-industry/170-years-of-industrial-changeponent.html (Accessed: 18th December 2014) Reel, T. (2009). Program evaluation. Library Association Pub. Reid, M., Barrington, H., Brown, M. and Reid, M. (2004). Human Resource Development. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Salas, E. and Bowers, C. (2003). Training evaluation. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum. Sloman, M. (2007) The Changing World of the Trainer: Emerging Good Practice. London: Routledge Wilson, D. (2012). Program Evaluation Theory and Practice. New York: Guilford Publications. Wilson, J. (2005). Human Resource Development. 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