Human resource MBA Interim assessment on

Strategic Workforce Planning on

Coca Cola Company

Submitted By:

Word count: 1963

Deadline: 07 September 2019

Executive Summary

Although Coca-Cola was first formed in the United States, wherever it traveled, it rapidly
became famous. The company's first global bottling facilities were launched in Canada, Cuba
and Panama in 1906, and much more quickly followed to other countries. Coca-cola is producing
over 300 products today. More than 70 percent of the company's revenue originates from outside
the U.S., but the true reason it is a truly global company is that everywhere its products satisfy
consumers' diverse flavor preferences. Nevertheless, future subjects need to be constantly
evaluated and applied throughout the entire organization. This report studies the changing
workforce demographics and how strategic workforce planning is related to new expectations for
the company with new emerging technologies like 'Coca Cola Clear' in 2018. All of these
initiatives prove to have an effect on the labor demand and supply analysis with new emerging
human resource management challenges. The company has gained a competitive edge over its
competitors and has maintained the happiness of its staff. Due to this, TCCC reaches a score of
3.9/5 on Indeed based on 6,076 assessments in the last 6 years with 28 percent providing a score
of 5 stars. Hence coca-cola managed to create a suitable work platform, wellness and vitality in
the workforce that has lately become a key growth indicator for its business to generate the finest
possible environment for its staff to be pleased and promote their efficiency.

2
Table of Contents

Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
The systematic process of strategic workforce planning.................................................................4
a) Environmental scan..................................................................................................................5
b) Labor demand forecasting........................................................................................................5
c) Labor supply analysis...............................................................................................................6
d) Balancing demand and supply..................................................................................................6
Current and future challenges of the organization for getting the optimal workforce....................7
Competitive edge for the organization............................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

3
Introduction

Strategic Workforce Planning HR management is a basic undertaking for the Coca-Cola

Company that is working with a network of over 700,000 employees globally. It all started with
John Smyth Pemberton, a pharmacist, who first launched the Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) in
Atlanta, Georgia in 1886 when he cooked a three-legged brass kettle in his backyard (Shetty,
2016). He first "delivered" the item to Jacob's Pharmacy by bringing it down the road in a jug
and clients purchased the beverage at the soda fountain for five cents. Carbonated water has been
combined with the fresh syrup, either accidentally or otherwise, creating a beverage that has been
declared "sweet and enjoyable", a theme that remains to resonate wherever Coca-Cola is liked
today (MWENDWA, 2016). This research report provides a comprehensive Coca-cola brand's
strategic workforce planning account. It begins by examining briefly the brand's background to
see how it becomes the biggest beverage business in the world. The research report further
presented different strategic workforce planning approaches employed by the business in
carrying out its activities. The study demonstrates the company's organizational perspective
along with Human Resource Management planning. The study includes the coca-cola strategic
HRM viewpoint that illustrates the requirement of good workforce planning that contributes to
bringing beneficial business effects.

4
The systematic process of strategic workforce planning

The system consists of inner and external workforce management recruitments through which
The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) has developed a common method and structure for
maintaining quality standards at a certain stage. Coca-Cola is always looking for fresh talent in
the internal quest or for the skilled hiring process; the company has a graduate-level University
Talent Program. Because recruiting a worker for an open position costs an average of up to
$4000, the recruitment process must ensure that the individual and his skills fit completely into
the empty place (Rice, 2015). The HR process remains one of the essential factors among the
success factors of the company. As outlined in the 20-year-old McKinsey Quarterly Journal's
evaluation of 'battle for talent', businesses have already suffered from a shortage of corporate
talent and this contest for fresh talent will intensify. The schematic process of strategic
workforce planning includes the techniques of environmental scan, labor demand forecasting,
labor supply analysis and balance the demand and supply of the new recruitments. They are
discussed in the following sections.

a) Environmental scan

Since the 'fight for talent' will not be less intense in the future among business officials, it is
essential that TCCC retains the picture of an appealing employer by promoting creative buildings
and distinctive job possibilities through in-depth environmental scanning. However, the only
barrier recognized is not just finding and recruiting the correct individuals. The main is the
appeal and retention of the workers. The business must, therefore, offer the worker the chance to
refine its value proposition and generate it. Hence the company needs to generate and perpetually
refine methods for understanding the employee value proposition to attract and maintain the
individuals it needs (Ladia and Gupta, n.d.). Coca-cola has to focus on how to hire excellent
talent, and lastly grow and develop them to excellent human resources. Until today, these
concepts have not become outdated. This task will examine the Coca Cola Company's strategic
workforce planning activities and assess them against the latest developments and benchmarks.
The mission statement of Coca Cola includes three main points of refreshing the universe,
inspiring times of optimism and happiness and creating value and making a distinction.

b) Labor demand forecasting

Coca-Cola provides its staff with intelligent salaries that are competitive and truly meet their
labor requirements through the process of demand forecasting. They are supplied with plenty of
equipment and amenities along with the salaries. In short wage systems such as blue-collar
employees and marketing, persons are provided salaries along with commission but the white-
collar workers are the agents and managers draw and some quantity of salaries which is really
competitive. There are grey collar workers who work as labor staff and are provided with lower
salaries (Fritz, Kaestner, and Bergmann, 2010). As well as being honored and valued in the
5
present one, an increased work experience involves possibilities to enhance the personal situation
in the business. Through ongoing teaching possibilities and a deeply integrated culture of
growth, companies with vibrant career designs outperform their colleagues. TCCC implements
the 'Ability to Grow' slogans approach and 'Grow from within' that put a great deal of effort into
developing its present staff. This involves, among other things, the inner Coca Cola University
(CCU), which offers a range of physical training and courses to enhance particular abilities or
create understanding within the company about other business areas.

c) Labor supply analysis

The hiring begins by attracting talent and candidates. TCCC achieves this through multiple
projects and a straightforward declaration to staff tensions that it is composed of a shared-value
society and that it is a worldwide local business with a distinctive culture and a well proof plan to
meet the requirements from within (Lloyd-Jones and Worley, 2018). This implies a fresh worker
is completely incorporated and has a range of growth programs to gain experiences from big
events like the Olympic brand ambassador or FIFA World Cup. TCCC also brings a lot of
thought into acquiring fresh talent as it supports learners in the 'University Talent Program' or
creates fresh platforms such as the 'All Women Hackathon', to name two. The recruitment
process of internal candidates by Coca Cola Company also follows a particular multi-step
procedure, where they want to discover the perfect applicant who mixes the characteristics of'
creative and new thinking that work with a sense of collaboration-pragmatic and business
mindset.

d) Balancing demand and supply

TCCC's aim is to construct a digital job brand on a specified approach that is identifiable and
transparent in order to profit from the socialized internet setting where there are specific and
balanced individuals to share experiences and are governed through the process of demand and
supply. TCCC's strategy to a high-performance setting builds on a rewarding system with a
straightforward concept of programs for payment, advantages and growth which are the
indicators of high supply (Pesambili, 2016). The approach is to distinguish a convincing set from
the industry, which is constantly updated to provide fresh motive and stimulus that fits the
demand of the staff. While incentives and advantages are certainly needed characteristics at
coca-cola, the company's general achievement is strongly correlated with employee engagement,
particularly in enhancing these two variables owing to a favorable behavior and commitment. As
strategic workforce planning is defined as the degree to which people identify and engage with
the mission, principles and objectives of their organization, it is the first phase to recruit people
and create a powerful HR asset for the company (figure 1). Employee and labor Branding relates
to the full method of establishing a distinctive and meaningful work experience with a feeling for
the employee's larger intent.

6
 Figure 1: Recruitment process of coca-cola (source: SCHEUFELE, 2017)

Current and future challenges of the organization for getting the optimal workforce

The evolving atmosphere of innovation of new products and advanced HR practices for moving
towards a more candidate-driven industry is required to be understood by coca cola's strategic
workforce planning HR department. The recruitment process must use surveys to determine
whether the business fits in with new employees and their lifestyle through the key subjects that
pressurizes businesses to adapt. Coca-cola needs fresh digital and cognitive techniques such as
VR and youtube to address the fresh generation of talent in order to react to this growth. In the
coming years, platforms such as LinkedIn and Glassdoor will gain even greater significance and
are essential to employee search. It also involves short-term tasks that avoid repeated job
encounters and constantly challenge the worker. The coca-cola rewards are based on the Peak
Performance System, wherein interactive atmosphere partners and their executives discuss
growth, motion and succession on a regular basis.

The lately launched Paid Parental Leave system, which was established by the internal group
'Millennial Voices', can be identified as an example of advantages within TCCC, taking care of
the interests of the staff and putting forward creative ideas to expand the facilities of the
company. Only 30-35% of big U.S. companies provide paid parental leave, which provides
TCCC a certain benefit in the sector. This is TCCC's slogan depicting the culture of the business,
where each worker can create a distinction with thoughts and their creativity to create the
business better every day. TCCC generates a sense of belonging among its staff, combined with
Corporate Social Responsibility operations to promote local efforts and protect the ecosystem
(Kaur and Aggarwal, 2012). Moreover, the values represent another layer in order to find
common ground for the actions and behavior of the employees.

7
Competitive edge for the organization

TCCC depends on a truly worldwide society with its activities in the other 200 nations, which
can be seen as both a challenge and a competitive edge for the organization. Bringing such a
variety of cultures provides the organization with a tremendous capacity for development and
local expertise, which is naturally combined with great attempts to balance these different factors
with the culture of the business. As the company encourages its website, being a component of a
truly varied strategic workforce planning team and a skilled workforce healthy atmosphere are
some of the TCCC's key elements. TCCC's present recruitment process incorporates all of a
global player's characteristics to ensure that the correct individual for the role is found and can be
considered extremely efficient. Through the popularity of its products, the development of a
corporate culture that values every place, and the establishment of several projects, TCCC can
also generate significant attractiveness for fresh candidates.

However, a global company takes these principles of strategic workforce planning more or less
for granted and lacks some degree of uniqueness. A study among U.S. staff in 2015 discovered
that 79 percent of respondents would prefer extra or new advantages or advantages to a rise in
salary. Thus, TCCC took an introspective view of its health and wellness products, spanning
physical, mental, social, and economic assistance. In the event of TCCC, it begins with
distinctive Co-Working offices that provide accessible areas in an unofficial atmosphere to
improve community gatherings and conversations. Nutritious & new meal options coupled with
projects in the canteens and free in-house gyms give workers every opportunity to have a good
environment. TCCC even set up a credit union to address any of the employee's issues, providing
financial advice and simple access to loans.

8
Conclusion

TCCC recognizes worldwide HR-management problems and can generate a broad variety of
responsive actions and projects. The rewarding incentive scheme and atmosphere combined with
the powerful "ONE" company culture guarantees a good employee relationship, motivation, and
engagement. Nevertheless, fresh workers' constantly evolving trends and attitudes challenge the
company's strategic workforce planning process to adapt and break up the ancient process of
workforce management practices. Coca-Cola did not make it into the Top 50 in the recent
Forbes-list of the happiest businesses to work for in 2017, while it was ranked among the Top 10
in 2012 (Oduwusi, 2018). The business requires addressing several difficulties in order to catch
up again with the sector rulers. One chance will be the change of decades where Generation Y
and Millennials will occupy three-thirds of the workers until 2025, which implies that TCCC
wants to more specifically align its HR management with their requirements. The present
inflexible compensation/incentive systems in specific are not well received by the fresh
generations, as the sabbatical year, for instance, corresponds to one of today's significant choices.
Optimizing procedures and buildings in the direction of these skilled generations can
considerably enhance the company's general efficiency in the coming years.

9
References
Fritz, K., Kaestner, M. and Bergmann, M., 2010. Coca‐Cola Enterprises invests in on‐boarding at
the front lines to benefit the bottom line. Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 29(4),
pp.15-22.

Kaur, H. and Aggarwal, G., 2012. A paradox on corporate social responsibility-Case study on
Coca Cola. International Journal of Physical and Social Sciences, 2(9), pp.264-274.

Ladia, S. and Gupta, S., IMPACT OF ORGANIZATIONAL RETENTION STRATEGIES ON

EMPLOYEE TURNOVER. [ONLINE] Available at:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/34296702/research_paper.pdf?response-
content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename
%3DIMPACT_OF_ORGANIZATIONAL_RETENTION_STRAT.pdf&X-Amz-
Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A
%2F20190907%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20190907T114016Z&X-
Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-
Signature=11b19d42f08608c16805bddf1265f30076d69c6a0f904b46b86958a5c246f91e

Lloyd-Jones, B. and Worley, J.A., 2018. Intergenerational tensions in the workforce. In Diversity
in the Workforce (pp. 190-213). Routledge.

MWENDWA, K.F., 2016. Factors influencing strategic change management practices at Coca
Cola company in Kenya. Unpublished MBA Project). University of Nairobi, Kenya. [ONLINE]
Available at:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/e5c3/b56fbfd927c28dfb3122e3959c9de596e131.pdf

Oduwusi, O.O., 2018. Succession Planning as a Key to Effective Managerial Transition Process
in Corporate Organizations. American Journal of Management Science and Engineering, 3(1),
pp.1-6.

Pesambili, K.R., 2016. The Relationship Between Employee Retention Strategies and Employee
Turnover: A Case Study of Coca Cola Company Kwanza Ltd, Dar Es Salaam (Doctoral
dissertation, The Open University of Tanzania).

Rice, M.F., 2015. Workforce diversity in business and governmental organizations. In Diversity
and Public Administration (pp. 104-127). Routledge.

SCHEUFELE, P., Assessement of the Coca-Cola Company’s HR-processes in regard of current

trends. [ONLINE] Available at:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Philipp_Scheufele/publication/320730537_Assessment_of_
Coca_Cola_HR-
process_in_regard_of_current_trends_2017/links/59f85b65aca272607e2dc1f2/Assessment-of-
Coca-Cola-HR-process-in-regard-of-current-trends-2017.pdf

10
Shetty, S., 2016. HR Strategies of Multi-National Companies (MNCS) in India (Top 5
Companies). [ONLINE] Available at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?
abstract_id=3000901

11