Case Study:
Employee Engagement at Coca-Cola
The Coca-Cola Company is the world’s largest bever-age company, offering more than 500 carbonated and still beverages to the public. Some of the company’s best-known brands include Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Powerade, and Minute Maid. Consumers in more than 200 countries drink Coca-Cola beverages. To-gether with bottling partners, Coca-Cola ranks among the world’s top 10 private employers with more than 700,000 system associates. The company’s worldwide operations are divided into five enormous zones: North America, Eurasia, Africa, Latin America, and the Pacific. A major concern of Coca-Cola leadership is to keep this far-flung group of employees engaged and in-volved in their work. The lofty goal is to get employees to enjoy their work as much as they enjoy Coca-Cola beverages. Top-level management says that the com-pany’s success depends on motivated and committed employees, and that they should feel that they play a vital part in the business meeting its goals. A challenge in keeping employees engaged in their work is that car-bonated beverages have come under attack by some people as not being nutritious and facilitating obesity. Although approaches to employee engagement vary within different regions of the world, several ap-proaches are common practice. Coca-Cola Refresh-ments, the North American bottler, employs Robin Gee as director of Employee Engagement, who provides direction to employee engagement approaches and programs. The major thrust to attaining engagement is communication with employees about working condi-tions. Every year, Coca-Cola distributes the Employee Insights Survey, seeking employee input on how the company is run and any suggestions for improvement. The survey has found in recent years that employee engagement is about 84 percent.Training and mentoring is also aimed at engage-ment, with the company offering a number of develop-ment programs to encourage and motivate employees. Peak Performance offers continual opportunities for re-warding employees for good performance. Employee performance reviews give them an opportunity to re-ceive merit raises. Developmental forums offer teach-ing opportunities and Coca-Cola University provides online training.One large Coca-Cola bottling unit, Coca-Cola Hel-lenic (CCH), identified four key factors in employee en-gagement and used them in a survey. The factors are listed next with items in parentheses illustrating how the factor is measured: n Part of a winning team (“We work together well across departments.”) n Making a difference (“The work I do makes an impact.”) n Realizing your full potential (“I am given ample op-portunity to grow professionally.) n An enjoyment business (“CCH is a fun place to work.”)
Q1. Does it seem too good to be true that approximate-ly 84 percent of Coca-Cola employees throughout the world are engaged?
Q2. Imagine yourself as a supervisor at a Coca-Cola distributing facility. How would you help a Coca-Cola truck driver feel that he or she is making a positive impact on the world?
Your answer must be typed, double-spaced, Times New Roman font (size 12), one-inch margins on all sides, APA format and also include references.