9 Ways the Coca-Cola Company is Putting HUMAN Back into HR

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Editor Coda
Dec 16, 2014

Human Resources: it’s a term that, in recent years, has become more associated with process and administration than care, and the employee’s journey. However, as companies increasingly examine the treatment of people outside their corporate walls – their customers – and their experience at every point of engagement with the company, so are leadership teams scrutinizing the employee experience, and looking to ensure their “internal customers” are on a similarly joyful path.

For the regular shared services organization, sometimes there is confusion over who the customer is – is it the payee of the shared services bill (ie the country CFO or the Managing Director of a business unit), or is it all employees that have a touch point with the SSO? Shared services globally have begun to register the importance of the internal “customer journey.” But so far it seems especially to be the companies that have made or are making the transition to Global Business Services that really get the importance of the concept and know how to deliver on it.

This article examines how shared services and Global Business Services can get better at enhancing not just the internal customer experience, but the employee experience as well, when engaging with the GBS on HR matters.

At a recent sharedserviceslink event in Atlanta, speaker Patrick van Hoegaerden, Global Director of HR Operations at The Coca-Cola Company, illustrated the steps taken by the company’s Global Business Services to look specifically at the employee’s journey, to see that an employee is treated with compassion, care, thoughtfulness and consistency.  

Here are the nine recommendations that Patrick shared with the audience:

1. Start with the end user experience in mind.

When mapping out ideal processes, we often start in the weeds, without asking ourselves, “What is the intention of this process? What does the end result look like that shows us we have been successful in this process?” Start with the end, and build your process from there. For The Coca-Cola Company, this has meant that the Global Business Service organization has gotten as close as possible to what a company associate would want to experience when engaging with HR. This means a Global Business Services needs empathy – they need to walk in the shoes of their employees, and be sensitive to the emotional state that an associate might be in at a particular HR moment.

2. Avoid the “cold experience.”

We are all aware when we are at the receiving end of a cold experience but sometimes unaware when we are creating one. Being empathetic when looking at your HR strategy at a macro level, and then in the thick of an HR moment at a micro level, is key. Always check in with yourself – are you listening? Do you understand? Are you showing care? How would you feel in their shoes right now? Are you letting the process dominate this experience, or are you showing real thoughtfulness and consideration?

3. Move away from scripts.

When we talk to someone who is obviously reading off a script, we feel as if we may as well be speaking to a machine. Care never comes from reading a script. Care relies on thoughtfulness, not script-following. This may mean you will require a different calibre of person in your Global Business Services center. But if you start with the end in mind, you may be recruiting a different type of person anyway.

4. Decide which HR experiences to insource and outsource.

The Coca-Cola Company initially outsourced tier one HR activities, but decided to insource when employees started to experience coldness, and as a result stopped calling in. The outsourcer relied on scripts, so the experience was bound to be cold. When starting with the end in mind, and then drawing up the ideal process, be clear on who is best placed to manage which part of the process, based on your key requirements. You will likely end up with a blended approach stemming from outsourced and captive services, but you need clarity on who is really better at what, for each step in the process.

5. Standardize and consolidate as much as you can

...While being sensitive to local cultures and habits. The Coca-Cola Company came from a place of complex systems, where it had eight hundred benefit programs, and over one hundred payroll providers. This complexity meant programs and providers could potentially become unmanageable. By standardizing and consolidating, you are introducing efficiencies which the employee will certainly benefit from. The Coca-Cola Company now has a reduced number of benefit programs and two payroll providers, globally.

6. Deal with the employee, not the request.

This is a key tip, and Patrick talked about the big difference this approach made. By focusing on a request, a service agent can think “job done,” when they haven’t really understood the context of the employee's problem. The Global Business Services team has moved away from a task-focussed perspective, to being clear on what success looks like – a happy and cared-for employee.

7. Use a CRM tool and run reporting off it.

The Coca-Cola Company uses salesforce.com and by ensuring all information is captured in the tool, they can recognize any inconsistencies in its service. The Global Business Services organization offers twelve services per associate, but by reporting off salesforce.com, it would be able, for example, to see that in a given country it only offered six. Data, tools, and analytics can deliver this information, and enable you to respond appropriately.

8. Watch out for your language.

Patrick talked about having a high awareness of what language you use when talking with the associate. Within HR, certain terms and language are used which can be confusing to anyone outside the function.  Move away from the jargon, (however non-jargony it seems to you), and talk like a regular person. See that you are communicating in terms that don’t leave the associate feeling confused or isolated.

9. Look after your new joiners.

We all remember our first few days at a company. And we certainly remember the glitches, like desks not being assigned, our lap top not being ready, no induction taking place. At The Coca-Cola Company, the Global Business Services center has one person looking after each recruit, and seeing that all onboarding steps are started, finished and completed. This means the new joiner is essentially account-managed by one person through this sometimes tense experience.

The HR results have been impressive for The Coca-Cola Company’s Global Business Services.

  • The service level agreement is now 97%
  • The HR part of the Global Business Services is increasing its scale, and taking on more HR services  
  • The customer satisfaction score stands at 4.8 out of 5

And every good story ends with a twist. Patrick leads the HR part of the Global Business Services, but here’s the rub: this is the first HR role he’s had.  He joined The Coca-Cola Company in 1998 as CFO for Egypt, and became Finance Director for larger markets and, most recently, Finance Transformation Director for Europe. The message is this: with Global Business Services now encompassing finance, HR, procurement and other chief back-office functions, finance processionals, who make up the majority of Shared Services Leaders, need not be daunted by the prospect of leading a multi-functional Global Business Services organization.

With thanks to Patrick van Hoegaerden

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