HR strategies at Coca Cola Company

Coca-Cola Company was started by John Pemberton, an Atlanta pharmacist in 1886. The company was sold to Asa Candler at an overall price of $ 2,300 thereby setting Coca Cola to its path of success. Asa embarked on marketing campaigns so that the products of the firm would be highly accepted. By 1895, the firm had opened new plants in Chicago, Los Angeles and Dallas, Texas. Coke later changed ownership in 1923 when the company was sold to Woodruff Ernest. Later, the brands of the firm began to be sold throughout the world. The firm hit the 1 billion sales mark per day for its products (Coca Cola, 2012). The firm has a portfolio of over 3,500 beverages which range from regular to diet, sparkling and still beverages. The firm also produces fruit drinks, fruit juices, energy and sports drinks, coffee and teas, water, soy and milk based beverages. The firm seeks to create healthy, diverse and safe workplaces where the human rights of the workers are respected. In 2010, Coca cola has a total of 139,600 employees manning the firms operations throughout the globe. The report is about the human resources strategies that have been employed by the Coca cola Company. Recruitment and selection To be able to achieve the goals that they have set out to meet, Coca Cola needs ambitious, highly skilled and experienced individual who can be able to think strategically towards the goals and also bale to work as teams. The recruitment at Coca cola begin with the job analysis and design so that the duties and the levels of skills required for each job can be noted. The firm designates clear job description and job specification for all the jobs that they want to fill. This information is very important for the selection and recruitment at the firm (Coke, 2011; Torrington, Taylor and Hall, 2007). The recruitment process at Coca Cola is both external and internal. Adverts calling for applications are placed in newspapers, public places and in the website of the company. Upon the receipt of the application with the relevant documents, the applicants are invited for interviews which contain a variety of other elements such as group exercises, psychometric tests, situational exercises or playing out roles and presentation (Madura, 2007). The presentation is done to test the ability of the applicants to communicate to a group of people. The group exercises are meant to test the ability to work as a group. Role plays test how the applicants react to different situations while psychometric tests are meant to measure the potential and the ability of the applicants. The interviews help the applicants to understand more about the roles while also giving the HR persons an opportunity to know more about the employee and their experiences. The employees who are successful are recruited by the firm. The firm also keeps a record of the documents o the applicants who are not successful so that when new opportunities arise which they are qualified for they are invited for interviews by the firm. The recruitment process mentioned above has in some occasions been carried out by human resource consultants at the cost of the firm, Coca Cola (Kurtz and Boone, 2009; Coke, 2011). Training and development Once the employees have been recruited into the firm, they undergo a training which is meant to teach them the procedures and the way the work is done, the regulations and rules that are followed by the employees. This will help the employees to make the transition from the firms where they were working before their engagement, to the Coca cola way where equality is stressed and the employee initiative is highly encouraged. The training will also been done on the employees regarding the various equipment that they will use in the course of carrying out their duties. This will ensure that there is high efficiency of the employees thus reducing any possibility of errors that may lead to injury of the employee or endanger the lives of the other employees that they work with. All this is done at the costs of the firm and the employees are remunerated during this period which usually last for 3 months (Coke, 2011). The training of employees at Coca Cola takes four forms. The first is skill training where the employees are taught bout the operation of the company as well as the basic skill they will need for instance selling, public speaking and presentation skills. This is to increase the job satisfaction and productivity of the employees. The firm also carries out technical training of the employees so that the employees can be efficient and to prepare the employees for promotions (Price, 2007). There is also leadership training where skills are developed for future leaders while also developing the skills of the incumbent leaders for instance management skills. There is also functional training which is usually carried out through partnerships with learning institutions (Pride, Hughes and Kapoor, 2010). The firm also promotes the development of the employees through mentorship programs which hl the employees to establish relationships with each other thus allowing the employees to share experiences and knowledge (Foot and Hook, 2008). The employees of the firm are also aided by the firm to establish their career goals, analyse their strengths, areas where the employees want to develop and make plans which would help in their personal development. The development plans ensure that the skills of the employee are matched with the roles that are available, project opportunities and training interventions. The talent management at Coca Cola allows the employees to grow in the current roles that they have as well as an opportunity to explore new opportunities (Coke, 2011). Equal opportunities and managing diversity The firm is highly committed to provide an all inclusive employment environment where all the employees of the firm are treated equally without any discrimination in terms of gender, race, choice of sexual partner etc. (Coca Cola, 2011). “Coca-Cola Company I a model employer for diversity and inclusion…its leadership on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality in the work place… [and]…its principled support of anti-discrimination legislation [for all workers]. [This would prevent the employees] from being judged on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity” (Coca Cola, 2011, para.1). Diversity is ensured during the recruitment and hiring process where the employees so that people from different nationalities and backgrounds can be incorporated into the workforce of the firm. This is done so that the firm can have a diverse talent pool thus a better customers service levels and an increased beverage sales. The culture of the firm encourages the placement of value and respect between and within the employees regardless of the differences that the people may have. This has highly led to the realisation of the potentials of the different employees. The teams that are established in the firm must be all inclusive to reflect the diversity at the firm (Cornelius, 2002). The manager also ensure that the remuneration, promotion, rewards and recognition of the employees is done depending on the potentials of the employees and not about the differences that they may exhibit from the managers (Coke, 2011). The diversity at the firm is also managed through timely resolution of issues that may affect the relationship between the different employees of the firm. The firm also has talent acquisition specialists, who ensure that once a person has been identified then they follow up on the hiring of the employees. The firm also focuses on the inclusion of women in the workforce of the firm as they make up a significant number of the buyers of the firm. The firm has removed any age discrimination as away to treat employees different. The employees of the firm are only gauged according to skill levels and the employees of the firm who are passed the normal retirement age can continue to work as long as they still have the requisite skills and abilities (Coca-Cola, 2011). Conclusion The work force of Coca Cola Company is a best practice where there is a great focus on the well being of the employees. At the firm, focus is on the skills and the abilities of the employees without any other focus on the differences which they may have with the others. The human resource practices employ a competitive model where skills and ability is paramount. Bibliography Coca Cola 2011, Workplace: Diversity [online] Retrieved on 20/01/2012 Coke 2011, Corporate Responsibility Review 2010/11 [online] Retrieved on 20/01/2012 Coca Cola (2012), Company history, [online] Retrieved on 20/01/2012 Cornelius, N. 2002, Building workplace equality: Ethics, diversity and inclusion, London: Thomson Learning Foot, M. and Hook, C. 2008, Introducing Human Resource Management, Harlow: Longman. 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