Coca Cola: a Study of HRM Practices

Running head: COCA COLA: A STUDY OF HRM PRACTICES
COCA COLA: A STUDY OF HRM PRACTICES
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note

1COCA COLA: A STUDY OF HRM PRACTICES
Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Discussion....................................................................................................................................................2
Overview of Coca Cola.............................................................................................................................2
Business nature.......................................................................................................................................3
Mission and Vision...................................................................................................................................3
Goals........................................................................................................................................................3
Coca Cola: HR functions...............................................................................................................................4
Recommendations.......................................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................10

2COCA COLA: A STUDY OF HRM PRACTICES
Introduction
Human resource management is defined as a strategic approach to the effective
management of people in a company or an organization in such a way that they help their
business gain a competitive advantage. Human resource management is designed in such a way
that it maximizes employee performance in service of the strategic objectives of an employer
(Noe et al. 2015). The customary areas of human resource management is engaging, managing
and tackling the people within the organization focusing on the policies and systems. The human
resource departments of the organizations are responsible for looking after employee
recruitment, training and development, appraisals and benefits. The respective paper is a study
and analysis of the human resource management practices of the company Coca Cola. The report
will assess strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges faced by HR of Coca Cola. The
paper is a report of evaluation of effectiveness of the human resource department of the
respective company which would be needed for strategic realignment. The report would also
contain a separate evaluation of recruitment and selection process with recommendations for any
kind of change that can be incorporated in the report.
Discussion
Overview of Coca Cola
Coca Cola, or Coke, is a popular carbonated soft drink that is manufactured by the Coca
Cola Company. The respective aerated drink was first invented by John Stith Pemberton in the
late nineteenth century which was marketed by Candler. Coca Cola became the dominant soft
drink that ruled the market throughout the 20th century. The Coca Cola Company has introduced
other Cola drinks under the pen name of “Coke”. Some of the most common of such names are:

3COCA COLA: A STUDY OF HRM PRACTICES
diet coke, Caffeine free coca- cola, Coca- cola zero sugar, Coca- cola cherry and Coca- cola
vanilla. Coca Cola is considered to be the third most valuable brand across the world after
Google and Apple, according to various researches conducted on its existence and establishment.
The company comes under the rank of 87 of Fortune 500 list of companies. In Hong Kong, the
Coca Cola company comes under the bottler banner of Swire. Coca Cola drinks are very popular
among the citizens of Hong Kong who are fast food savvy and gourmet freaks.
Business nature
The Coca Cola Company is an American multinational corporation, manufacturer,
retailer and marketer of non- alcoholic beverages and syrups. It is a multinational enterprise that
has its business all over the world in different countries. It has factories, offices as well as outlets
in different countries but its headquarter is in Atlanta, the United States. The Coca Cola has
massively dominated the soft drink and beverage industry of the twentieth century and continues
to dominate the industry in the twenty first century too, thereby, creating a monopoly in the
artificial beverage market, despite of all kinds of health related controversies.
Mission and Vision
The mission and vision of the Coca Cola Company is to refresh to world in mind, body
and spirit. The Coca Cola Company strives to achieve moments of optimism and happiness
through brands and actions. The company is committed to create value in the market and society
and make a difference in the world.
Goals
Coca Cola Company aims to increase and maximize their profits and at the same time,
maintain a long term sustainable growth in the beverage industry of the world. The Coca Cola
company harnesses and exploits unique ways to carry out its business in order to put the mission

4COCA COLA: A STUDY OF HRM PRACTICES
of the company into existence. With unique business ideas, the company has the aim to reach its
zenith.
Coca Cola: HR functions
Overview
Human resource management is defined as a strategic approach to the effective
management of people in a company or an organization in such a way that they help their
business gain a competitive advantage. Human resource management is designed in such a way
that it maximizes employee performance in service of the strategic objectives of an employer.
The customary areas of human resource management is engaging, managing and tackling the
people within the organization focusing on the policies and systems. The human resource
departments of the organizations are responsible for looking after employee recruitment, training
and development, appraisals and benefits.
HR practices
PEST Analysis of HRM of Coca Cola Company
Political
1. The company abides by the rules,
regulations and statutes set by labor
laws of different countries while
formulating human resource policies.
Environmental
1. The human resource policies of Coca
Cola company is based on the industry
of beverages and is dependent upon the
industry dynamics of beverage and
frozen drinks.
Social Technological

5COCA COLA: A STUDY OF HRM PRACTICES
1. Population growth rate of the world,
health consciousness, age distribution,
change in taste and buying patterns are
some factors on which HR management
of Coca Cola and job profiling is
dependent.
1. New inventions of applications that
assist in human resource activities, such
as automation, job analysis software,
recruitment software and job portals
can influence the HR management
practices of Coca Cola Company.
Workforce Planning
Coca Cola carries out strategic workforce planning where they utilize human capital at its best. It
employs the candidates who have a hunger for success and doing better in their career. Their
potential is aligned with the strategic business goals of the company. With proper training and
development, employees give premium service to the company. They take the employees as
ambassadors of their company and defenders of their brand.
Recruitment and selection of new employees
As Coca Cola has more than seven thousand associates throughout the world, therefore,
the company needs to think about its human resource practices solemnly and fundamentally. The
human resource management methodologies of Coca Cola are composed by internal and external
recruitments and selection of employees. The Coca Cola company has always maintained a
particular yardstick to uphold the standards of quality of its HRM practices and business
performance. For external recruitment, Coca Cola has always looked for new and latest talent
among the talent pool outside the organization. Coca Cola carries out a plethora of
apprenticeship programs, campus recruitment and LinkedIn job search in Hong Kong to search

6COCA COLA: A STUDY OF HRM PRACTICES
and bring forth the best among the best talents in the country. The Coca Cola Company makes
sure that the employee and his/ her ability suits the recruitment procedures and job title to each
other. The recruitment in the company begins with a plethora of programs, such as, “University
talent program”, “Apprenticeship programs” which identifies, realizes and builds talent from
everywhere to accumulate in the respective company. “Creative and new thinking” fueled by
pragmatic, calculative and business oriented mindset is the new vogue for recruitment in the
respective company (Asis-Castro. and Edralin 2018).
The environment of recruitment is changing where the market is becoming more
“candidate- driven”. In the “candidate- driven” market nowadays, the candidates have the liberty
to select which organization would be better for them in the path of their career development. In
such situation, the Coca Cola Company has integrated a numerous technologies in order to
influence the new generation to think about working in their company (Stone and Stone 2013).
Achievement of high performance among the employees
Every human resource department of all organizations have the target of achieving high
performance from the employees in order to meet the business objectives and increase
productivity and profitability of the company. The Coca Cola Company’s approach towards
achieving high performance among the employees is catered by the reward system it generally
offers to its customers. The reward schemes and policies have a crystal clear definition of
payments, benefits and development programs specially built for particular employees. The
reward systems are also constantly updated with new kinds of motivation and stimulation that
suits well with the ever evolving and changing needs and preferences of the employees. The
incentives provided to the employees by the Coca Cola Company include short term assignments

7COCA COLA: A STUDY OF HRM PRACTICES
avoiding a repetitive work experiences and challenging the employee constantly. The incentives
are relying on the peak performance system, where associates and the managers, where the
associates and managers regularly discuss development, movement and succession in an
interactive atmosphere. The Coca Cola Company has certain basic categorizations of incentives,
which are: Base salary, annual incentives, long term incentives and benefits. The maternity and
paternity leave, sick and compassionate leave, annual leave for vacation purpose are the perks
and discounts that the company is entitled to provide to its employees (Shenkar, Luo and Chi
2014).
Well being of the employees
The well being of the employees is the first priority of the Coca Cola Company. The well
being of the employees of the company ranges from physical, mental, social and financial
support. The company has made certain employee friendly schemes that have benefitted the
employees and reduced the employee turnover to a certain extent. One of the core objectives of
the Coca Cola Company is work platform, workplace health and vitality and the company is
striving to create the best possible setting for the employees to be joyous and content and also
encourage their performance. As collectivism rules the Asian countries, the Coca Cola Company
of Hong Kong has tried to harness the eastern concept of collective social identity by
encouraging the employees to have group meetings and discussions in open spaces and informal
atmosphere rather than in an individual secrecy (Rowley and Cooke 2014). The canteens of the
company bears highly nutritious food and the gyms and workout places of the company provides
every employee to aim for a healthy lifestyle. Keeping collectivism in mind, the company has set
up a “credit union” from where the companies derive all kinds of credit related information, get
financial advice and get easy access to credits. The flexible work arrangements of Coca Cola

8COCA COLA: A STUDY OF HRM PRACTICES
Company for women employees, incentives such as work- from- home, and flexible timings for
employees having family and children are some of the perks employees get when they get
associated with the company.
Rewards and performance appraisals
Performance appraisal of the employees in Coca- Cola Company happens annually. They usually
apprise the employees who align their performance with the goal of the organization. The
different types of rewards that the company provides to its employees are: employee salary
increment, grade jump, designation change, annual incentive plan (AIP), Personal Progress
Report, Monthly turn hall and Employee of the Quarter.
Employee Engagement activities
A positive and optimistic engagement of the employees is more necessary than the
incentives and benefits that the employees might enjoy within the organization. The Coca Cola
Company provides active employee engaging schemes and policies which possess two main
important factors, that are, positivity and commitment. Commitment can be defined as the degree
of acknowledgement and involvement of individuals with the goals, mission and vision of the
organization. Therefore, commitment is considered to be the first step to build an active and a
successful employee engagement plan or scheme respectively. The process or methodology of
creating a unique and meaningful working experience with a sense for bigger purpose for the
employee is called employee building. Employee building is one of the most important
disciplines that fall under employee engagement. The treatment towards the employees of the
Coca Cola Company is fair and respectful which is ingrained to the values on which the
company is standing. The company is more or less flexible when it comes to employee

9COCA COLA: A STUDY OF HRM PRACTICES
management. The company acknowledges respects and harnesses employee diversity as well,
thereby, increasing the productivity of the business. One of the best compensation and
remuneration packages are provided by the respective company and the company also offers
multiple developmental opportunities, such as Coca Cola University and Apprenticeship
programs (Stone and Stone 2013).
Training and development
The Coca Cola Company considers its employees to be the best and their most valuable
assets. The company plays an active role in developing different reward systems to boost the
morale and motivation of the employees. The company provides a favorable working condition
to its employees so that they can showcase and utilize their talent in excelling in various
performances develop their professional skills and finally able to achieve their professional goals
successfully (Maycock et al. 2015). The Coca Cola Company is committed to support, develop
and grow their workers through active learning and development IPO (Individual Performance
Objectives) is utilized to check the performance of the candidates annually that are calculated at
the end to comprehend and determine the total business objectives. On the other hand, as a part
of the culture of the company, the performance outlook is properly communicated to the
employee and it can also make an impact in the company’s reward philosophy (Ali 2013).
The company offers coaching, training and feedback system to the employees who are in desire
to grow themselves as professionals and develop themselves in terms of their career. It also
ensures that the candidates execute their responsibilities in relation with customers and
profession goals. 70 20 10 philosophy is carried out by the company that states 70%

10COCA COLA: A STUDY OF HRM PRACTICES
development of employees come from the designation, 20% from learning and development and
10% from formal training (Asis-Castro and Edralin 2018).
When a professional enters into the Coca Cola Company to start his career, it is considered to be
a journey through which employee progresses through rules and regulations set within the
company, progression not just about getting promotion but also about building experience and
capability. Inside the organization of the Coca Cola Company, the progression might be through
building skills and acquaintance within the role of the employees that might broaden the
opportunities of the employee to go to the next level of career and professional position (Stone
and Stone 2013).
Recommendations
The Coca Cola Company has to rethink about the traditional selection method that it
follows in their recruitment and selection procedures. Selecting people who have equivalent
skills, information and organizational expectations is complex. Often, the recruiting personnel
assume the experienced candidates or the skilled ones to be appropriate for the jobs in their
organization. However, professionals who have been successful in one organization need not be
successful in the other. Therefore, the traditional method of recruitment and selection by the
Coca Cola Company needs to be opening up regarding its recruitment and selection procedure.
The company needs to start experimenting with different new techniques and mechanisms of
recruitment and selection (Sainte-Rose and Schult 2012). There has been a gap in the human
resource department of Coca Cola Company where what needs to be done and what has actually

11COCA COLA: A STUDY OF HRM PRACTICES
been done. The human resource department of Coca Cola Company needs to leverage the
various extra soft skills that the employees of the company actually possess. The human resource
development team of the respective company should carry out certain practices that would
encourage multiplicity of perspectives, approaches and insights among the different employees,
no matter how significant or trivial they might be for the organization respectively. Multi
generational teams should be brought up by the human resource department who would be eager
to be more innovative and creative in their output. The nationalist approach of Coca Cola when it
comes to Staff management is worth the effort in the beginning of its business in Hong Kong
(China), however, the more Coca Cola has turned geocentric, diversity has been acknowledged
and appreciated. However, as the Asian or eastern society is grounded on conventions and
collectivism, the employees of the company need to learn about diversity. The Coca Cola
Company should make attempts to eradicate traditional racism from the minds of the Chinese
employees they hire and employ in the organization for better growth and opportunity (Sainte-
Rose, S. and Schult 2012).
Conclusion
The respective paper concludes to be an overview, study, analysis and in- depth research
of human resource functions of Coca Cola, Hong Kong (China). Human resource management is
defined as a strategic approach to the effective management of people in a company or an
organization in such a way that they help their business gain a competitive advantage. Human
resource management is designed in such a way that it maximizes employee performance in
service of the strategic objectives of an employer. The customary areas of human resource
management is engaging, managing and tackling the people within the organization focusing on
the policies and systems. The human resource departments of the organizations are responsible

12COCA COLA: A STUDY OF HRM PRACTICES
for looking after employee recruitment, training and development, appraisals and benefits. The
report will assess strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges faced by HR of Coca Cola.
The paper is a report of evaluation of effectiveness of the human resource department of the
respective company which would be needed for strategic realignment. The report also contains a
separate evaluation of recruitment and selection process with recommendations for any kind of
change that can be incorporated.

13COCA COLA: A STUDY OF HRM PRACTICES
RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION PROCEDURE OF COCA COLA HONG KONG
Recruitment and Selection
Recruitment is considered to be an overall process of attracting, short-listing, selecting
and appointing suitable candidates for job (either permanent or temporary) within an
organization. Recruitment is considered to be the most important part of human resource
management in a company. It loosely involves the procedures and processes such as choosing
individuals for unpaid roles. Managers and the human resource researchers and specialists are
given the task of carrying out the process of recruitment within the organization. However, in
certain cases, the public sector employment agencies, commercial recruitment agencies,
employment consultants and different firms that carry out human resource outsourcing are often
given the duties and responsibilities to carry out recruitment. Internet based technologies such as
different job portals and consultancy portals have been becoming popular day by day throughout
the world respectively (Ekwoaba, Ikeije and Ufoma 2015).
Recruitment and selection procedure of Coca Cola: Overview
As Coca Cola has more than seven thousand associates throughout the world, therefore,
the company needs to think about its human resource practices solemnly and fundamentally. The
human resource management methodologies of Coca Cola are composed by internal and external
recruitments and selection of employees. The Coca Cola Company has always maintained a
particular yardstick to uphold the standards of quality of its HRM practices and business
performance. For external recruitment, Coca Cola has always looked for new and latest talent
among the talent pool outside the organization. Coca Cola carries out a plethora of
apprenticeship programs, campus recruitment and LinkedIn job search in Hong Kong to search

14COCA COLA: A STUDY OF HRM PRACTICES
and bring forth the best among the best talents in the country. The Coca Cola Company makes
sure that the employee and his/ her ability suits the recruitment procedures and job title to each
other. The recruitment in the company begins with a plethora of programs, such as, “University
talent program”, “Apprenticeship programs” which identifies, realizes and builds talent from
everywhere to accumulate in the respective company. “Creative and new thinking” fueled by
pragmatic, calculative and business oriented mindset is the new vogue for recruitment in the
respective company (SCHEUFELE).
Internal recruitment
The Coca Cola Company recruits source seeking applicants for positions from among the
ranks of those currently employed. The internal recruitment sometimes happens through various
sources, but initially, it starts with the processes such as circulation of job opportunities
throughout the “news” email, the upgradation of the Jobs/ career sections of the intranet of the
respective company and also through recommendations by the already existing employees.
Internal recruitment has helped the company to assess the candidates in a better way but also
allowed partiality to enter into the organizational culture of the company. The internal
recruitment methods have helped the company to save its resources and costs but at the same
time, it has also brought about corrupt ethnocentric practices inside the campus (SCHEUFELE).
External recruitment
The Coca Cola Company compensates the employees for the expenses made by them.
This is a great move by the company as it increases the credibility of the company and makes it
more approachable for the candidates from various fields and walks of life. The Coca Cola
Company carries out its external recruitment through various forms such as taking the help of

15COCA COLA: A STUDY OF HRM PRACTICES
digital media and social media campaigning and also through different advertisement media and
mass media. The external recruitment of Coca Cola Company has helped the enterprise to retain
its diversity, facilitates growth and also shortens the training time subsequently. However, the
main shortcomings of the external recruitment are that the whole process is expensive,
comparatively slower than the other recruitment processes and the external recruitment brings
upon very less reliable data with itself that cannot be taken into account for making high end
decisions among the human resource departments. However, the Coca Cola Company does not
encourage external recruitment. Even though it practices external recruitment, it always
encourages internal recruitment. They only carry out external hiring when they have any need of
sudden recruitment. For any kind of external or internal recruitment, the Coca Cola Company has
an offer to drop resume for any job at their official website which is directly handled by the
recruitment personnel and officers (SCHEUFELE).
The environment of recruitment is changing where the market is becoming more
“candidate- driven”. In the “candidate- driven” market nowadays; the candidates have the liberty
to select which organization would be better for them in the path of their career development
(Cocacola.com.2020). In such situation, the Coca Cola Company has integrated a numerous
technologies in order to influence the new generation to think about working in their company.
The selection processes of the Coca Cola Company are: interviews, group discussions,
presentations, psychometric tests and role-plays. The company maintains a talent bank for
meeting internal hiring needs and preferences according to the needs of the company and the
industry (Kauflin 2016).

16COCA COLA: A STUDY OF HRM PRACTICES
Recommendations
The Coca Cola Company has to rethink about the traditional selection method that it
follows in their recruitment and selection procedures. Selecting people who have equivalent
skills, information and organizational expectations is complex. Often, the recruiting personnel
assume the experienced candidates or the skilled ones to be appropriate for the jobs in their
organization. However, professionals who have been successful in one organization need not be
successful in the other. Therefore, the traditional method of recruitment and selection by the
Coca Cola Company needs to be opening up regarding its recruitment and selection procedure.
The company needs to start experimenting with different new techniques and mechanisms of
recruitment and selection (Sainte-Rose and Schult 2012).
Conclusion
The process of recruitment and selection is an important part of HR management,
especially in a world- famous company like Coca Cola. The above report is a R and S process
reports that provides a detailed analysis of recruitment process of the Coca Cola Company and
certain recommendations about how to make it better in future.

17COCA COLA: A STUDY OF HRM PRACTICES
References:
Ali, N., 2013. The Changing HRM practices through CMP model (A Comparative Case study on
American and Asian Companies). RESEARCH JOURNAL of THE INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS
ADMINISTRATION KARACHI-PAKISTAN, 8(2), p.142.
Asis-Castro, A.L. and Edralin, D.M., 2018. Predictors of Humanistic Sustainability HRM
Practices. DLSU Business & Economics Review, 27(2), pp.130-146.
Asis-Castro, A.L. and Edralin, D.M., 2018. Predictors of Humanistic Sustainability HRM
Practices. DLSU Business & Economics Review, 27(2), pp.130-146.
Coca-Cola Testimonial.
Ekwoaba, J.O., Ikeije, U.U. and Ufoma, N., 2015. The Impact of Recruitment and Selection
Criteria on Organizational Performance.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkauflin/2016/12/02/the-happiest-companies-
Kauflin, J. 2016. The Happiest Companies To Work For In 2017. Forbes. Available from:
Maycock, E.A., Allaputa, E., Waripanye, G.D., Geraghty, R. and Chikafa, S., 2015. PM to
HRM–Rebranding or A New Label?. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 17(6), pp.15-
21.
Noe, R.A., Hollenbeck, J.R., Gerhart, B. and Wright, P.M., 2015. Human resource management.
Gaining a Competitive.
Rowley, C. and Cooke, F.L., 2014. The changing face of management in China. Routledge.

18COCA COLA: A STUDY OF HRM PRACTICES
Sainte-Rose, S. and Schult 2012. Talent Challenges and Solutions in FastGrowing Economies-
SCHEUFELE, P., Assessement of the Coca-Cola Company’s HR-processes in regard of current
trends.
Shenkar, O., Luo, Y. and Chi, T., 2014. International business. Routledge.
Stone, R.J. and Stone, R.J., 2013. Managing human resources. Wiley.
to-work-for-in-2017/
Cocacola.com.2020. Available at: https://www.coca-cola.com/