Research Korner: Employee Engagement

Policies and Practices of Employee Engagement in Multinational Cooperation – A Case Study of Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd.

Policies and Practices of Employee Engagement in Multinational Cooperation – A Case Study of Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd.   The Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd. company developed with roots firmly planted in local communities in India. This heritage favors the firm today as consumers prefer brands that recognize local identity and markets, and company growth is anchored on the solid relationships between Coca-Cola bottlers, customers and communities.[1]   The Hindustan Coca-Cola company has 7,000 local employees, 500 managers, over 60 manufacturing locations, 44 bottling operations and 29 contract packers. The company’s thrust of thinking and acting local has resulted in 37% and 24% growth rates in rural and urban India respectively. The Coca-cola values that employees are expected to uphold include leadership and initiative in driving the team, innovation in the continuous striving for progress and thinking and acting like owners at all levels.[2]   The Coca-Cola Company’s Workplace Rights Policy derived from international human rights standards ensures that all employees are valued and inspired to be the best they can be. Coca-Cola respects the employees’ right to form and join a labor union without fear of reprisal and is committed to constructive dialogue and bargaining with its representatives. The company forbids the use of all forms of forced labor and follows minimum age laws including the disallowing of child labor and of persons under 18 years of age to work under hazardous conditions. The firm is committed to equal opportunity and maintenance of workplaces that are free from discrimination based on race, sex, color, national or social origin, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, and political opinion. The criteria for acceptance into the company are skills, performance and experience. Company compensation is based on industry and local labor market rates, and complies with applicable work hours and benefits laws. Coca- Cola is likewise committed to providing a safe, healthy and secure workplace for employees.[3]   Hindustan Coca-Cola is committed to engaging with stakeholders in communities in  which it operates to address business-related issues within its sphere of influence because such matters are best dealt with at the local level. It also believes in initiating  measures that will create economic opportunity and goodwill in these communities. Employees are also encouraged to communicate with local Management, Human  Resources, Legal Department or Strategic Security with regards to any company- related questions, issues, conflicts or violations.[4]   Coca-Cola improves the quality of life in the communities it operates in by addressing water, climate change and waste management issues. It also employed The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS in partnership with other groups, and  pushed for higher education as a vehicle for individual and community development. The company believes that for every direct job it provided for its 7,000 employees, 30- 40 more were generated in the supply chain. Hindustan Coca-Cola’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives include environmental surveys and impact assessment before acquiring land and starting operations, compliance with environmental regulations, providing of waste water treatment facilities at bottling plants and conserving energy.[5]   India reportedly has the fastest-growing market for Coca-Cola in all of the 200 countries where it is sold. However, issues have been raised on the adverse environmental impacts of Coca-Cola’s operations in the country in 2004. It is claimed that its production practices are siphoning huge amounts of public groundwater and causing water shortage and turning farming land into virtual deserts. The company’s indiscriminate dumping of waste water has reportedly also polluted the scarce ground water that remains.[6]   Coca-Cola has responded to the issues by constructive engagement with an Ethical and Environmental Committee, wherein dialogue will be maintained on issues in question, shareholders will be briefed on developments and guidelines will be prepared on the company’s next contract. Coca-Cola has since been proactive in providing new information, consulting on crucial areas of work and negotiating on solutions.[7]     	   	 		 		 		 		 		[1] Anuradha Nayak, “Hindustan 		Coca-Cola Beverages Private Limited – An Internship Report”, Scribd., 		 		pdf, April 2007, <http://www.scribd.com/doc/21878345/Hindustan-Coca-cola-Beverages-Private-Limited> 		 		[accessed 9 June 2011] 		  	 		 		 		 		 		[2] ibid 	 		 		 		 		 		[3] “Corporate Governance”, 		Coca-Cola India, 2008, <http://www.coca-colaindia.com/aboutus/aboutus_cgovernance_hrs.aspx>  		[accessed 9 June 2011] 		  		  	 		 		 		 		 		[4] ibid 	 		 		 		 		 		[5] Jennifer Kaye, “Coca-Cola 		India”, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, pdf, 2004, <http://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pdf/2004-1-0085.pdf>  		[accessed 9 June 2011] 	 		 		 		 		 		[6] “Coke’s Crimes in India”, 		KillerCoke.org, 2010, <http://killercoke.org/crimes_india.php> 		 		[accessed 9 June 2011] 	 		 		 		 		 		[7] “Frequently Asked Questions 		About Coca-Cola”, nus services limited, pdf, 14 January 		2008, 		<http://www.nus.org.uk/PageFiles/491/CocaCola_FAQs.pdf>  		[accessed 9 June 2011]

Policies and Practices of Employee Engagement in Multinational Cooperation – A Case Study of Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd.

Policies and Practices of Employee Engagement in Multinational Cooperation – A Case Study of Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd. ...

Success Story of British Telecom PLC in Strategic Employee Management

Success Story of British Telecom PLC in Strategic Employee Management Globalization in the midst of developing trends in internet technology users inducing a paradigm shift in employment practices in the corporate workforce. Most companies, in particular corporations, focus to meet their allotted budget limits motivate the added concerns in downsizing company costs. Recent years witnessed the debilitating effects causing drastic increase in unemployment in the course of the global crisis. To effectively respond towards minimizing unemployment as the strategic approach to mitigate these debilitating effects and for companies to survive for their existence operating within their respective financial bounds implemented payroll cost cutting as a primary mechanisms to meet budgets for medium to large companies. To an effect payroll cuts allotted to employees even in the biggest firms effectuated a degenerating trend for the employee workforce. The impact these trends generate surface financial issues in addressing family needs while entrapped to meet social responsibilities with limited income and a constrained lifestyle that affect their children’s social welfare to an extent. Studies show a solution customized to save company costs surfaces the idea of telecommuting among the workforce yielding a chunk to cost savings and save the costs of stress to the environment by eliminating commutes to the workplace and meeting work efficiency. This also enables companies on their part to help their employees mitigate the increasing complexity of meeting family needs if otherwise commuting daily to work. Resolving family issues of employees contingent on corporate decisions whether to adopt the trend of telecommuting as a reliable solution attributes to the growing difficulty in filling family needs that challenge them in a unique way should they have minor dependents below a threshold age. In addition due to the economic effects of a globalized economy, acquisition of human resources entails high cost for the purpose to aid employees in caring their children while away, for example, should employees work in the conventional workplace remains a challenge. The wide angle swing of globalization constitutes has impaired to an extent the work-life balance and the less burdened lifestyle employees use to be accustomed to.  New life trends that result from these given circumstances still demand social responsibility of parents while working to meet financial needs of families at a reasonable margin, is evolving to be in a substantial risk. Thus it is imperative to address the work-life balance needed to maintain corporate social responsibility by meeting effectively with mechanism family needs while maintaining corporate governance integrity through a changed environment employing new work practices of the employee workforce in the corporate hierarchy. This is the goal precisely British Telecom PLC employs to strike a fine balance for employee sustainability while giving the incentives to employees to reap benefits of a comparative, paradigm work environment improved to efficiency. The company finds success upon implementing this evolving strategy into policy to achieve work-life balance while capitalizing human resources for corporate success. This ability attributes to the migration towards new work practices into a breakthrough enabling internet and mobile technology implementation (Quillinan, 2004,p 2). Liberalization of internet, voice and data communication technologies at increasing affordable cost margins and usage enable the feasibility of change to new forms of work environments. Derivative technological solutions from the Internet proliferate to the extent security mechanisms and enhance to more complex features resulting to a high capability enough to encrypt communication channels and transmit real time electronic data delivery with less sophisticated methods to set up. With this feature as a critical corporate asset, the added value draws the flexibility to shift the trends to install communication and security networks in virtual places without the necessity to perform work in conventional office spaces and to advance towards a more pervasive diversification but adopting with more cost effective solutions and reducing cost margins. Solutions like Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Personal Data Assistants, WiFihave deployed real time stream data to scales like those installed in office spaces showing evidence of technological advancement enabling to comply the demands corporate structures require. Developed facilitation for Local Area Networks and Virtual Private Networks enable businesses to interact flawlessly as network medium enclaves in the course of information flow and exchange at global scales employing these communication solutions. Being able to acquire and access the same pool of information at high speeds sought from the exogenous character of the Internet enable the possibilities to generate diverse exchange and download software platforms by Internet to access streamline media to promote unlimited information sharing and dissemination in workplace environments which usually require a complex connective network is employable now with efficiency-sized gadgets simply integrated in any virtual location. This encourages the flexibility to accommodate telecommuting by set ups which do not require a complex wiring network. Wireless solutions facilitated to address these problems eliminate office space needs then subsequently minimize overhead costs like rent is needed and set up data and voice communication solutions through broadband access. It only takes a virtual space to have it all for an office set up (British telecom, 2008,p.7). In addition internet technologies facilitated their capabilities further by derivative breakthrough features they naturally possess in terms of their magnanimous impact to generate real time data access among other business segments altogether that function through voice and data communication solutions on a global scale at a fingertip touch for corporate decision-making purposes. An example best illustrates this apply to technological solutions by Bloomberg software downloadable by Internet that employ all critical and time sensitive financial and company information at few steps to install that financial analysts rely on to extract and analyze data critical to the decision-making process in investment banking on  minute update intervals in the markets.

Success Story of British Telecom PLC in Strategic Employee Management

Success Story of British Telecom PLC in Strategic Employee Management Globalization in the midst of developing trends in internet techn...