Coca Cola Hiring Process Unveiled

Recruitment process in Coca-Cola

Question:

Discuss about the Recruitment Strategy of Coca Cola for Recruitment.

Recruitment is an important and crucial part of the company. By the proper and effective recruitment process, companies are able to hire the experienced and skilled employees for the various operation s of the company. The skilled employees are helpful for the companies to make effective operations in the market and they are also important to achieve competitive advantage in the global market (Truss, Mankin, & Kelliher, 2012). Recruitment process in the company is helpful in building effective culture for the work which is beneficial for the company to make better strategies for the business. Effective recruitments are important to operate effectively in national as well as international market (Armstrong, 2008). This essay analyzes the organizational issues in a company while recruiting the employees. The essay identifies the most possible issues in the company and provides the recommendations to overcome from those issues for the better operational activities in the market. For the discussion, the famous beverage company Coca-Cola has taken.

This essay analyzes various types of information which are needed to make informed human resources decisions using the unique example of Coca-Cola. The essay focuses on the recruitment process of the company and also provides the suitable recommendations for the improvement. Further, the essay is also focused on the various analyses i.e. labor relationship of company, training and diversity practices to access the HR policies.

Coca-Cola is the popular and leading beverage company across the world. Company provides various types of beverages such as juice and soft drinks. The company is operating its business in more than 200 countries in all over the world. Company has around 146200 employees across the world who is serving 3500 beverages to the customers. In all over the world, company is serving 1.8 billon customers every day which are helpful for the company to gain competitive advantage in the global market. Further, the Coca-Cola has around 275 worldwide bottling patterns who work together to drive the global success and for the refreshment of the customers. The company has strong portfolio of products in terms of diet and regular sparkling products. Along with this, company is dealing in the fruit drinks, fruit juice, coffees, waters, teas, milk, sports and energy drinks and soya based beverages. The mission of the company is to refresh the world create the value, inspire moments of happiness and make the difference in the products which help the company to attract the customers in operating market. By the employees of Coca-Cola, company always tries to achieve the mission and vision which is supportive for the company to develop the profile of the employees (Coca-Cola, 2012).

Coca-Cola is the famous beverage company in the market. Despite of growth and success, there are some issues and challenges which can be faced by the company at the time of recruitment process. Those challenges are as follows:

There is the strong impact of the supply or demand of labor in the beverage industry. In case of Coca-Cola there are number of substitute goods available in the market. Those substitutes are provided by the competitors of the company. Demand for the employees is the most important factor to consider. The turnover of the staff in the company is rather high i.e. 43% per year. There is the season if work and new technologies. It is most difficult to find out the groups of employees. Along with this, the experts and professionals are less and this is an issue for the company and recruitment team. The qualitative supply of the employees in the company and the beverage industry is exceeding the demand for them (Vilnius, 2008).

Organizational issues in recruitment process of Coca-Cola

In 2006, it is observed that in the food and beverage industry, the employees were hired almost three times more qualified than the professionals. In the employees, there were numbers of students and graduates who join training programs for different trends. There are number of students involved in the higher education and the numbers of graduates from higher education are exceeding the number of vocational training graduates. It means that there is the gap between the supply and demand of the workers and this will continue in the future. The gap between demand and supply can be the cause of serious problems for the business development of Coca-Cola. 

The trends of market are helpful for the company to make more effective e product portfolio. Along with this, this is also supportive in terms of improving the understanding of the employees about serving the products in the market. Proper understanding of the market trends provides the right direction to the company and its employees to build the supportive e culture and environment. Market trends are helpful for the company to take right decisions about the product development and the employee’s development in terms of their lifestyle in the market or in the society. To make informed human resource decision, it is the kind of challenge for the company to collect the information about the competitors in the market (McKewen, 2016).

The food and beverage industry is highly competitive and the company Coca-Cola has to deal with many new technologies to stay popular among the customers. In this industry, the competitors are competing to develop same substitute products for the customers. So, company is feeling dual pressure in terms of recruiting highly efficient employees for the business and the competitors who make the products having lower prices. So, it is the challenge for the company to recruit such employees who can adapt various new technologies to remain competitive in the market. To stay competitive in the market, Coca-Cola has to adopt new technologies. To remain relevant, the employees of the company have to be able to test, prototype and launch new products according to the trends, tastes and preferences of the customers. The processes and technology should be adopted by the employees to automate processing, canning, baking, packaging and freezing while producing healthy products for the company. This can also be issue for the company in the recruitment process to find out the appropriate employees who can adapt the changed technology with the change of time (Gallace, 2016).

In the food and beverage sector, there is the shortage of the manpower. This is the serious issue for the company while recruiting the experienced employees for the business. Due to these issues, there is the poor customer satisfaction and increased salary costs (FICCI, 2015). It is also estimated that the supply for trained employees for the entire industry is only 9 to 12%. This is the large gap which is to be fulfilled. So, this is the issue which is faced by the company while recruiting the skilled employees (Greene, 2015).

Labor relationship of the company

Globalization is the most important factor for the success of the company. It is well known that Coca-Cola is operating in all over the world. Globalization sometimes creates some issues for the company while recruiting the people. There is the challenge for the company to coordinate the activity in the various locations. The company needs to understand the continual change in the competitive international market. Further, there is the challenge for the company to create multicultural HR team before the recruitment process. Along with this, in the global market, company has to bear additional cost for hiring the local candidates of different countries (Roach, 2009).

For recruiting skilled and experienced employees in the company, Coca-Cola has effective and well established recruitment process. The recruitment process of the company is helpful fir the company in defining the job responsibilities as well as job of the employees in the proper manner. For recruiting the people for the various positions and jobs, company follows both internal as well as external recruitment processes which support the company to hire skilled and experienced employees for the job roles. Along with this, the company is following well established recruitment process including advertisement and registration, shortlist of applications, first interview, psychometric testing, second interview and offer the job (Ehnert, 2009).

For recruiting the employees, Coca-Cola always use hybrid technology which supports the company to reduce carbon emission. In this manner, company always uses computer and internet and provides various advertisements related to the job on the internet including registration form. In the advertisements provided by the company, there are detailed information related to the jobs, required qualification and the abilities which are needed in a candidate to assign that job (Laroche & Rutherford, 2012). After receiving the applications of the candidates on the internet, company shortlists the candidates for the purpose of interview. Most of the time company shortlists 8 to 10 candidates only for the single job role. After this, the recruitment team or HR department of the company matches the criteria which are needed for the particular job with the profile of the candidates. In this process, the recruitment team of the company can cut the candidate list by 3 to 5 candidates and approach them for the first round of interview (Nankervis, Compton & Morrissey, 2009).

In the internet recruitment process, company follows various types of resources such as present temporary employees, present permanent employees, and retired employees etc. For this manner, company always uses internet for recruiting internal employees. For the internal recruitment, company uses in house magazines, staff notice boards, internal notice, news letter, meetings and personal recommendations etc (Johari & Yahya, 2009). On the other hand, there is the external recruitment process used by the company to recruit external or new candidates for these job roles. In this process, company uses company website, press advertisements, internet, employee references, placement agencies, educational institutions and labor contractors etc (Price, 2007).

As discussed some organizational issues in the Coca-Cola Company, it can be said that those described challenges can be the serious issues for the company in future. Here are some recommendations for the company which will be helpful for the effective recruitment process.

• There is the gap between the demand and supply of the employees and the supply of the professionals in the labor market exceeds and compared to demand. That is the reason the qualified employees are lacking. It is recommended for the company to review the plans of involving the students in the higher education and training programs of the company.
• To improve the recruitment process in the company, there is the need to add some steps in the recruitment process by the company. in this manner, company should create more effective advertisements so that it can attract skilled employees and labors for the job roles.
• Company should approach to the employees of other companies in the market for the job role. It will be effective and helpful in improving the recruitment process of the company by selecting more appropriate and effective candidates for the job roles.
• The company should design the system in such a way to define the career, recognition and future goals of the employees to improve the performance of the company (Fernandez & Moldogaziev, 2013).
• To insure long-term success in the market, company must strengthen the leadership and capabilities of the workforce at the entry level. Along with this, company should offer career opportunities and training to the employees with the fair, safe and inclusive workplace (Thoo, 2013).

Conclusion

This essay is focused on the recruitment process of the famous beverage company Coca-Cola. From the analysis it is observed that recruitment is the crucial process in any company to find out best candidates for the various job roles. Recruitment includes many processes to hire skilled and experienced employees. Although there are some issues at the time of recruitment process but there are some recommendations provided in the essay to deal with those issues. To fill the gap between supply and demand of the employees, company should provide proper training to the new candidates. Further, there is the need of such employees who can adapt new technologies easily to achieve competitive advantage in the market. Thus, it is important to design the system in the recruitment process to identify and recognize such candidates and their future goals in the job process.

References

Armstrong, M. (2008). Strategic human resource management. London: Kogan Page

Coca-Cola, (2012). Associate Training. Retrieved on 25^th May 2017 from https://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/citizenship/associate_training.html

Ehnert, I. (2009). Sustainable human resource management. Heidelberg: Physica-Verlag

Fernandez, S. & Moldogaziev, T. (2013). Employee Empowerment, Employee Attitudes, and Performance: Testing a Causal Model: Public Administration Review, 73(3), pp.490-506

FICCI, (2015). Unlocking the potential in the food and beverage services sector. Retrieved on 25^th May 2017 from https://www.grantthornton.in/globalassets/1.-member-firms/india/assets/pdfs/ficci-grant_thornton_fb_report_may_2015.pdf

Gallace, N. (2016). On the challenges facing the food industry in recruitment. Retrieved on 25^th May 2017 from https://www.newfoodmagazine.com/news/23510/food-industry-recruitment/

Greene, R. (2015). Effective Human Resource Management Strategies. Retrieved on 25^th May 2017 from https://www.pontifex-hr.com/pdfs/Effective_HR_Mgt_Strategies.pdf

Johari, J. & Yahya, K. (2009). Linking Organizational Structure, Job Characteristics, and Job Performance Constructs: a Proposed Framework. IJBM, 4(3)

Laroche, L. & Rutherford, D. (2012). Recruiting, Retaining and Promoting Culturally Different Employees. UK: Routledge

McKewen, E. (2016). Challenges and Trends Facing Food and Beverage Manufacturers in 2016. Retrieved on 25^th May 2017 from https://www.cmtc.com/blog/food-and-beverage-manufacturing-trends-and-challenges-2016

Nankervis, A., Compton, R. & Morrissey, B. (2009). Effective Recruitment and Selection Practices. Australia: CCH Australia Limited

Price, A. (2007). Human Resource Management in a Business Context. USA: Cengage Learning EMEA

Roach, S. S. (2009). The Next Asia: Opportunities and Challenges for a New Globalization. John Wiley & Sons

Thoo, L. (2013). International HR Assignment in Recruiting and Selecting: Challenges, Failures and Best Practices: International Journal of Human Resource Studies. 3(4)

Truss, C., Mankin, D. & Kelliher, C. (2012). Strategic human resource management. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Vilnius, (2008). Study of Food Products and Beverages Industry: Research report on skill needs. Retrieved on 25^th May 2017 from https://www.kpmpc.lt/Skelbimai/SEK_EN/EN-Maist.%20sekt08.07.30.pdf