Solutions to enhance the level of employee recognition in coca cola southeast asia

To find out the real problem of recognition and its causes, and draw the effective solutions for this issue, the author closely works with human resource department and management team,

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business

-

Nguyen Thi Thanh Tuyen

Solutions to Enhance the Level of Employee Recognition in Coca-Cola

Southeast Asia

ID: 22130093

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

SUPERVISOR: Dr Nguyen Thi Nguyet Que

Dr Tran Ha Minh Quan

Table of contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENT 3

Executive Summary 4

Chapter 1: Problem Identification 5

1.1 Introduction of the company 5

1.2 Background of the business problem 6

1.3 Justification of the problem existence 11

1.4 Justification of the problem importance 15

1.5 Potential causes of the problem 18

Chapter 2: The alternative solutions 22

2.1 Justification of the potential causes 22

2.2 Proposed alternative solutions 26

Chapter 3: The Selected Solution 33

3.1 Explanation for selected solutions 33

3.2 Change Plan 40

Chapter 4: Conclusion 47

Chapter 5: Supporting Information 48

5.1 Supporting information of business problem background justification 48

5.2 Supporting information of problem existence justification 50

5.3 Supporting information of problem importance justification 56

5.4 Supporting information of potential causes 57

5.5 Supporting information of potential causes justification 59

5.6 Supporting information of proposed solutions 67

References 69

List of Tables

Table 1: Turnover Rate Comparison from 2013-2015 8

Table 2: Turnover Rate Comparison from 2013-2015 in Coca and Pepsi 177

Table 3: Employee performance in Q1 and Q2 at Coca-Cola and Pepsi 188

Table 4: A comparison of alternative solutions 333

Table 5: Action timeline and objectives 422

Table 6: Questionnaire items and references for problem existence justification 511

Table 7: Interviewee’s Answers for problem justification 533

Table 8: Potential causes and definition 588

Table 9: Questionnaire items and references for potential cause justification (employees) 600

Table 10: Employee’s answers for potential cause justification 611

Table 11: List of questions and answers in justifying the potential causes (manager) 655

List of Figures Figure 1: Reasons for employees’ resignation in 2015 10

Figure 2: A cause-and-effect map of low employee recognition 21

Figure 3: Final Cause –Effect Map 26

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I am heartily thankful to my supervisors, Dr Nguyen Thi Nguyet Que and Dr Tran

Ha Minh Quan, whose encouragement, guidance and support from the initial to the final level enabled me to develop an understanding of problems, solutions and structure At the beginning of the thesis, I had met misunderstanding about the real problems, their

outcome and factors, Ms Que and Mr Quan instructed me to come over the difficulties,

helped me understand the thesis structures, and edited flaws Therefore, I deeply

appreciate their contribution

Lastly, I offer my regards and blessings to all my colleagues, friends and

classmates who supported me in any respect during the completion of the thesis

Executive Summary

On October 2015, the author got the chance to talk to Coca-Cola’s General

Manager in their quarterly meeting, in which he raised some problems whom company

had to face The employee’s turnover rate drastically increased, impacting to the business and raising a large amount of recruitment cost in the company To find out the real

problem of recognition and its causes, and draw the effective solutions for this issue, the author closely works with human resource department and management team, besides,

make interviews with employees and heads of departments to deeply understand the

company situation and acquire their view points, combining interview data, literature

reviews, and company sources to buttress the argument

This thesis includes five chapters, in each chapter; the author analyses collected

data, strengthens the argument by literature, and emphasizes the problem’s consequences and real causes, and seeks for the effective solutions that are applicable to company

problems

Chapter 1: Problem Identification

This chapter includes six sections In the first section, the author makes

introduction that inform company’s general information The following chapter

convincingly shows an interview data that the author makes with employer and human

resource manager to understand the basic background of the business problem The third and fourth sections are the justification of problem existence, and the justification of

problem importance, which clearly indicate the problem’s existence and its’ outcome

Then, the author lists down the potential causes of the problem that closely bases the

literature in the fifth section Finally, the cause and effect map exhibits the whole picture

of the correlation among potential causes, real problems and their outcome

1.1 Introduction of the company

The representative office of Coca-Cola has been established in 1994 with

responsibilities: to act as a liaison office, conduct market surveys, carry out activities to stimulate, and establish co-operation projects of Coca-Cola Southeast Asia, Inc in

Vietnam, act as a communicative office, execute market research, and promotion

activities, and run the marketing campaign and stimulate the implementation of

contracts and agreements in the areas of commerce and investment signed between

Coca-Cola Southeast Asia, Inc and Vietnamese Co-operations in compliance with

Vietnam Law leader in the beverage industry As a global the Coca-Cola Company

offers hundreds of brands, including soft drinks, fruit juices, sports drink and other

beverage in Vietnam particularly and in more than two hundreds countries in general

Coca-Cola is meeting the tastes of people around the globe

In January 2015, the company runs the organizational restructuring to cut cost,

downsize the workforce and open new positions matching to each employee’s

capabilities Besides, many unnecessary positions had been cut to ensure the long term development, reaching to company vision A haft of employees was abruptly

terminated in this period; some people were rotated to the new roles or to the new

working locations After restructuring, there are thirty five employees (ten temporary

employees and twenty five permanent employees) under seven departments, including: Human resource, Knowledge and Insights, Finance, Commercial and Operations,

Technical, PAC, and Marketing

1.2 Background of the business problem

In this step, the author applied qualitative method through interviews, and

collected data from human resource reports Data resembled, analyzed and relied on

the answers whose interviewees are general manager and human resource manager

(section 5.1 in supporting information chapter) and reports were provided from Human resource department (table 1: turnover Rate comparison from 2013-2015, figure 1:

reasons for employees’ resignation in 2015) in this section

In the quarterly meeting, the general manager announced the business

performance at Coca- Cola Vietnam in nine months in 2015 particularly and in three

2015 So, the author made an interview with him and human resource manager, who

deeply understand about company situation The answers have been briefly described in the section 5.1 of supporting information chapter Firstly, the general manager was

asked about turnover rate, which had been stated as a main concern in his speaking

General Manager confirmed that since 2014, crisis global economy in general and in

Vietnam in particular has attacked to business performance in Coca- Cola Vietnam,

many compensation packages have been cut to ensure the profit in each division through the interview For two years, the award and promotion have been limited Besides, after organizational restructuring, many positions have been cut, and many employees’ job

tasks have doubled, workload has been over Many employees have worked over time

and under the pressure to ensure the project run smoothly and match with project

timeline Many of them required to add more assistant positions, causing the cost would

be over budget for 2015 Therefore, General Manager had to reject the request, making

employees unhappy with his decision

According to the Table of Turnover Rate Comparison that is provided from

Human Resource Department, the turnover rate increases 8%, comparing to in 2014,

increases 13.7%, comparing to 2013 So, the cost for recruitment process and training

courses for new employees strongly increased to 53,690 USD in 2015 (table 1) In the

office, the major of staffs in office who decided to quit their jobs are managers,

causing to the recruitment process always takes time to select the suitable candidates

and consequently this process impacts to the current employees who have to cover the

tasks whose staffs were already left

Table 1: Turnover Rate Comparison from 2013-2015

Years Turnover Rate (%) Manager

turnover (%) (%)Rate

Source: Human Resource Report in 2015 (Coca-Cola Southeast Asia)

According to the pie chart of potential reasons (figure 1), all former employees who had been interviewed with human resource department before leaving, Human

Resource Manager stated that 45% of them feel devalued and unrecognized from their managers Because when the job got done, they did not get any compliments from their manager, even they did not understand the difficulties that employees had been meeting

at Some of employees assert that after so many years, they were not promoted because

of the lack of recognition and understanding from their managers Moreover, the

conflicts partly rose from the way that their mangers gave feedback to their concern in

hard tasks As the figure 1 shows in the pie chart of employees’ resignation reasons in

2015, there are more than 30% employees who left Coca-Cola because they got the

better job offers from other companies in the same industries, such as: Nestle, Dutch

lady, and Unilever 17% interviewees implied that over workload is main reason for

resignation Besides, headcount freeze is established to limit cost, so company cannot

offer the permanent positions to temporary employees who work for Coca-Cola more

than five years So, temporary employees feel stress about their career paths when they are not extended their contracts as permanent employees They do not know whether

their contracts can be renewed when it expires, they can sign a new contract or not

There are four reasons, such as: low employee recognition, over workload, other job

offers, and job security which are considered as problems in Coca-Cola However,

there are limitation about timing and budget to plan for the solutions In the interview

with Human resource department, more than 45% of employees confirmed that

recognition is the main reason pushing them to quit the job The author, general

manager, and human resource manager discussed and decided low recognition is key

problem needs to be immediately solved to improve working spirit in the long term

Figure 1: Reasons for employees’ resignation in 2015

Source: Human Resource Report in 2015 (Coca-Cola Southeast Asia)

To explain for the skeptical decision making, first of all, Klubnik (1994) said

that recognition also has the appeal of being appropriated for everyone in the company-

a tool that does not have to be expensive or flow through rigid corporate channels The

low recognition can be solved immediately because it heavily impacts to the employee

turnover rate, the relationship and trust among employees and their supervisors When

the relationship and trust have been negatively broken, they raise the conflict in the

organization and greatly reduce the employee’s productivity In addition, there are so

many campaigns have been activated every year, requiring the cooperation in each

department Therefore, the conflict may effect on the project progress and impact to the business The majority of former employees confirmed that they left the company

because of the low recognition from their manager Secondly, to decrease workload or

increase job security, the process required the experts who deeply understand the

structures and function in each department This process consumes time and cost, and

depends much on Headquarter policy in Atlanta and economic condition, and this

change can impact to Human Resource structure and interacted to the Legal department

In another hand, the solutions that limit the employees from leaving by better job offers, request a competitive Compensation and benefits system that need to be changed and

rewrote, should be approved to the CEO in headquarter So, this plan is impossible if the project should be completed in a year

Hence, the General Manger, Human Resource and the author confirmed that the

recognition improvement is a key strategy that adequately solves the problem in the

short time with the acceptable cost and the plan can be nationally acted However,

testing the existence of the problem in the company, the author made an interview with

employees The data collected from their answers would be justified whether the

problem solely exists in the firm

1.3 Justification of the problem existence

In this step, the author justifies whether low recognition is the real problem in

Coca-Cola The author decides to make an interview that focuses on the recognition

assessment from current and former employees who are under different departments, job grades and working experiences, or submitted termination letters, or who already left

company to deeper understand company’s current problems purposely To understand

Hopkins (1995) define recognition is communication between management and employees which rewards them for reaching specific goals or producing high quality

results in the workplace Recognizing or honoring employees for this level of service is meant to encourage repeat actions, through reinforcing the behavior would like see

repeated The key is not necessarily what recognition is bestowed, but the fact that the

employee is being recognized In organizations, employee recognition is one of the

motivational strategies that are gaining more and more attention from managers

Employee recognition is typically conceptualized as the assignment of personal

non-monetary rewards to reinforce desired behaviors displayed by an employee Feys,

Anseel & Wille (2013) There are two aspects to employee recognition The first aspect

is to actually see, identify or realize an opportunity to praise someone, such as:

appreciation, motivation The other aspect of employee recognition is, of course, the

physical act of doing something to acknowledge and praise people for their good work, such as: promotion opportunities, benefits

According to Henryhand (2009) and Kopelman, Richard, Gardberg & Brandwein (2011) research, the author develops interview questions and the answers that are briefly showed in the section 5.2 The answer data will be confidentially recorded to make sure all answers are not biased and are straightforward There are eight interviewees who are current and former employees in different departments, job grades, and working

experiences to insure that all data are collected, are diversified and accurately reflect

substance of the problem

1.4 Data analysis

Benefits

Four over eight employees answers that their salary has not competitive after the restructuring when their tasks have been doubled The result indicated that employees are still not happy with the company benefits The answers are showed in table 7 (the section 5.2)

Job promotion opportunities

The finance and procurement assistant shared that her contribution was not

recognized and she had not promoted, although she works for 5 years There are three

of eight employees confirmed that they have not promoted for many years, and poorly

asserted that they total unhappy with the promotion system at Coca-Cola, because their job grade should be upgraded for their contributions that they contribute to company for

many years The finance and procurement assistant shared “The promotion chance is

unfair when it just evaluates employees who have good academic records from

university, and do not qualified people who had more experiences and good job

performance” The collected data informed that there is the lack of promotion chances

in the company The answers are showed in table 7 (section 5.2)

Motivation

According to the answers, 50% employees think that their bosses recognize and

motivate their jobs, five over eight interviewees stated that they did not get the timely

compliments or motivation from manager, although they got the job well done For

example: Commercial and operations manager said that “my manager did not give my

any support and motivation for my new position He rejected all my ideas that change

the way to work effectively, so I decide to quit the job” And another one emphasizes

that his boss does not give the feedback because his boss think that they need to be proactive in the job obstacles that they met Therefore, the author can conclude that many employees do not received the feedback and support from their managers The

answers are showed in table 7 (the section 5.2)

Appreciation

The author asked about the appreciation that employees realize Five of eight

interviewees said that they did not felt appreciated when they work in Coca-Cola For

instance: Finance and Procurement assistant said: “I feel unhappy and appreciation in

my contribution, and do not know about the next year when my contract will be expired, whether I can continue working here She think that she contribute to company for many years And then she is assign to be a temporary staff” in table 7 (section 5.2) The result

from data indicated that a majority of interviewees feel that they are not appreciated for what they contributed to the company

Combining the General Manager and Human Resource Manager’s ideas and

primary data throughout interview, the author asserts that low employee recognition

is a main problem happening in Coca-Cola Southeast Asia In the next step, the

author determines the problem’s importance

1.4 Justification of the problem importance

Firstly, the author searches for the impact of recognition to employee turnover

rate in the literature to emphasize and support for the conclusion Saunderson (2004)

also stated employee recognition is still seen as an important part in helping to retain

employees in an ever-changing job marketplace Managers and leaders in the public

sector strongly believe in the importance of giving meaningful employee recognition

correlating with good morale, loyalty and commitment in the workplace The more

recognition employees get from their job, the more they want to be loyalty to the

company Skudiene, Everhart, Slepikaite & Reardon (2013) presented that a lack of

recognition is one of the main reasons why a good employee quits the job Muthuveloo, Basbous, Ping & Long (2013) shared that People like to be acknowledged for their

exceptional offerings and contribution Interestingly, even though a lot of organizations offer formal rewards and recognition programs for employee ideas and contributions,

many employees are still ambitious for more day-to-day informal recognition

Employees who sense they are listened to, supported and recognized for their

contributions are expected to be more engaged He also indicated that the lack of

employee appreciation plays a serious role in employees' decisions to quit the job and

leave their organizations According to literatures and the actual consequences from

Turnover Rate Comparison table from 2013-2015 (table 1), the table shows that the

turnover rate in 2015 is more 8% than in 2014 and 13 % than in 2013 The turnover rate rapidly increases through three years Besides, manager turnover rate steeply rises in

2015 and reach at the peak in three years with 82% as mentioned in the section 1.2 In

addition, the author makes the research about the turnover rate at the competitor; the

record shows that there is disproportionate rate between Cola and Pepsi

Coca-Cola’s rate gets 12% higher than Pepsi’s rate in 2015 (table 2) and the distance is

constantly farther than previous years This negative change faithfully reflects the

consequences of the problems that effect to the turnover rate in Coca-Cola If People are recognized, they tend to commit their career path the company In the contrast, if they

feel that their contribution is not appreciated or is disregarded, they toward to look for

another better place to contribute In the short term, it impacts company’s revenue,

while it has to spend more money to recruit the new employees taking time to learn new things and adapt themselves to the new cultures In the long term, it impacts to the profit and employee development The cost for the recruitment in 2015 reached at 53,690

USD as the result turnover rate increase Therefore, the recognition substantially

influences the turnover rates in Coca-Cola with itself consequences that need to be

precisely evaluated and primarily solved

Table 2: Turnover Rate Comparison from 2013-2015 in Coca and Pepsi

Source: Human Resource Report in 2015 (Coca-Cola, Suntory Pepsico)

Secondly, Mone, Eisinger, Guggenheim, Price & Stine (2011) show that

recognition can be viewed as a form of feedback rooted in positive reinforcement and

tied to an employee’s behavior or accomplishment of a specific goal or task, research

shows that recognition links to employee performance and company success However,

if employees are not recognized for their efforts, they could experience mental and

emotional distress and burnout He also assures that an important component of the

performance management process is the effective use of recognition system and

providing ongoing feedback to employees, improving performance To clarify this

judgment is happening in the company, the author analyzes the performance records of employees in two quarters in 2015 They were made every three months to evaluate the employee performance The records show that there is decrease in objective completion

in Quarter 1, while the competitors get the higher rate at 81% in Quarter 1 and 72% in

Quarter 2 There are significant differences between two companies in the beverage

industry This case shows that the employee performance in Coca-Cola is lower than

employee performance in Pepsi through two first quarters in 2015 Combining the

literature support and records from Human Resource in Coca-Cola Company and Pepsi Company, the author can finalize that recognition relates to the turnover rate and

employee performance in the Coca-Cola

Table 3: Employee performance in Q1 and Q2 at Coca-Cola and Pepsi

Quarter Objective accomplishment rate

Source: Human Resource Report in 2015 (Coca-Cola Southeast Asia)

From the analyses, the author confirms that recognition significantly effect to the turnover rate and employees performance To find out the appropriate solutions, the

author continues to find the causes that influence the recognition by literature supports

and employee interview

1.5 Potential causes of the problem

In this step, the author finds the potential causes that impact on the recognition

Potential causes are listed down with the literature supports that focus on information that related to causes that should be clearly considered

According to Özutku (2012), rewards were defined to include all types of

compensation, from cash payments to working conditions Organizations offer intrinsic

and extrinsic reward to members for the purpose of improving human resources

outcomes An intrinsic reward is a sense of achievement, or a conscious satisfaction

An extrinsic reward is an award that is tangible or physically given to you for

accomplishing something Rustand (2001) also stated that rewards (incentive awards,

performance awards) may be available through the human resources department and

should be used to show employees how much they are appreciated and he concluded

that there is a statistically significant relationship between reward and recognition

respectively

Baker, Perreault, Reid & Blanchard (2013) defined formal or informal feedbacks

as a dynamic communication process occurring between two individuals that convey

information regarding the receiver's performance in the accomplishment of

work-related tasks and make them feel recognized Feedback is used to provide information

on proximal goals and immediate and recent behaviors It is also utilized to inform

members of desirable development and outcomes Lorenzet, Cook & Cynthia Ozeki

(2006) research that the strategies use for providing feedback to employee and for

creating action plans to increase the likelihood that the recognition level changes will

become permanent They also concluded effective feedback with the end of result

increased employee recognition

Masvaure, Ruggunan, & Maharaj (2014) defined intrinsic motivation refers to

motivation that comes from inside an individual rather than from any external or

outside rewards It drives an individual to adopt or change a behavior for his or her

own internal satisfaction or fulfillment Intrinsic motivation is usually self-applied,

and springs from a direct relationship between the Individual and the situation

According to Dar, Bashir, Ghazanfar & Abrar (2014) indicated that intrinsic

motivation has positive influence on employee recognition

Koning & John (1993) stated that benefits are applied to all employees and are

included as part of the employment package They are particularly useful in employee

recognition Benefits include: health care, vacation, sick leave, child care, scholarship

funds, elder care, fitness facilities, and various types of insurance There is a positive

relationship between benefits and employee recognition

Pergamit & Veum (1999) defined promotions involved no change in position or duties, but were simply an upgrade of the current position A promotion is the "prize,"

and the probability of winning it is a function of productivity The winner of the prize

receives the salary and prestige associated with the higher position Consequences of

promotion included increased wages, training receipt, supervisory responsibilities, and increased level of employee recognition

According to the literature reviews, we have five factors relate to the

recognition, including: rewards, feedback, intrinsic motivation, benefits and

promotions In addition, basing on the above research about the real problem and

their impact, the cause- effect map is presented as bellows:

Figure 2: A cause-and-effect map of low employee recognition

Low employee performance Mone, Eisinger, Guggenheim, Price & Stine (2011)

High employee turnover rate Skudiene, V., Everhart, D D., Slepikaite, K., & Reardon, J

(2013)

Chapter 2: The alternative solutions

In this chapter, the author made an interview with the employees to fully grasp the causes that exist at Coca-Cola After collecting and analyzing data, the author searches for the solutions from literature and replies on the requirements from the company to propose the suitable solutions to the existing problem

2.1 Justification of the potential causes

After listing the potential causes from the literatures (table 8 in section 5.4), the

author made an in depth interview with twenty current and former employees from

different departments and job levels to find the potential factors impact to the recognition Before asking, the author clearly explain the definition of each potential causes to help

employees understand the term of each causes, giving the useful answers for the analysis The questions are developed on the research of Kopelman, Richard, Gardberg &

Brandwein (2011) The questions focus on the interviewees’ answers that related to what are the key factors in the list of five potential causes, which are selected from literature

reviews, fifteen employees answered that the timely feedback and reward from their

managers have impacted to recognition

Feedback

Admin assistant said that: “support and feedback make employees aware whether

we are recognized” Or “timely and motivated feedbacks play important role in making

us feel appreciated” Some people confirmed that the feedback from direct managers and

their support impact to employees’ performance and commitment Employees appreciate balance and fairness Interview results have showed that useful feedback inspire

employees to work hard and play an important role in recognizing employees’

performance For instances: the Commercial and Operations assistant answered when

the author asked them why she think that feedback is real cause of the problems “My

former manager always assign the hard tasks for me He even did not support me to

complete it So I think that support and feedback make employee aware whether our

contribution is highly appraised” The feedback and support also help them to clear the

mess, and overcome the problems to work smoothly Brand manager assistant claimed

that she had feel disappointed about her jobs because, she did not get the prompt support

from her manager when she asked for help – “the feedback come late, or even my

manager did not give any feedbacks I feel very disappointed; the feeling makes me

confused about what I should do when I got stuck in the mess So I think that timely and motivated feedback plays important role in making us defeat the trouble” 80%

employees admitted that the feedback from their manager is crucial factor that impacts to recognition

Rewards

Besides, eleven employees agreed that reward is essential factor “reward is the gift that I get after the efforts It shows that all my contributions have been company

recognized”- Management trainee answered Some employees who work for so long time

and their job becomes routine Rewards are an effective way wake them up and refresh

themselves In addition, Office manager asserted: “for the long time, we have tried our

best, but have not gotten any reward as recognition from the company” The more

answers the employee raised about the real problem, the more importance of the problem

are The reward concern have been raised from staffs who work for Coca-Cola for a long

time over five years, they know how the rewards system here do not work This seems to

be a big concern to loyalty employee Because they works for a long time, but the

rewards are not satisfied them In the answers of Knowledge & Insights Specialist –

former employee she said that reward are key factor effect to employee recognition “I

have worked for seven years, my salary increased 15 % every year However, there no

reward or certificate has been issued to recognized employee contributions.”- IT

manager The management team always thinks that they have provided timely and

necessary feedbacks to employees, who get enough experiences and powers to solve their

issues without help from them Marketing manager said: “the international company

always requires employees to be proactive, they should be active to solve the issues

rather than wait for my advices or guides?” And Technical Manager confirmed “all

members are experienced employees So they have enough experiences and power to

come over the difficult situation without my helps” This type of mindset will form the

current situation become worst if the employees always need the helps from their

managers as a way that show them how their performance is good or bad In addition,

management team is totally happy with the promotion systems that always give to them support and chances in getting the excellent moves on their career paths

After analyzing the question answers, we conclude that a small group of people agreed

benefits, intrinsic motivation and promotions keeps the essential roles that influence

recognition level, so they do not impact to the recognition, while others think that “To

me, the promotion is not quite important, because job title do not play a key role in many cases” employees shared In contrast, there are over 80% people confirm that the result

showed that there are two real problems: rewards and feedback that happen in the Cola office, requiring the adequate solutions to solve them accordingly Because after

Coca-years to Coca-years, the issue will become the steady company culture, the problem will

become worse The conflicts among the managers and staffs raise impact to employee

commitment and the performance The lack of feedback can come from the employee

mindset that they think that all their team members can solve the issue by themselves

without their support And the rewards system is not effective

According to the real problems from the collected data, the author narrows the

cause- effect map as bellows:

Figure 3: Final Cause –Effect Map

2.2 Proposed alternative solutions

Combining data that collected from the employees interview and literature review, the author confirmed the real problems that directly impact to the company recognition

level, are the lack of manager feedback and unsatisfying reward policy Finding the real solutions are completely necessary to solve the problems, limiting their consequence The solutions that solve the problem within the internal scope, should met the requirements

from human resource department, such as: the solutions can be applied in the company, it

is easy for employees to participate, and suitable to company culture and the project

should take no more twelve months, no more 20,000 USD should be spent, and the

solutions should change as little as possible in the current business system The author

intends to design the solutions that can improve two potential causes: feedback and

rewards The literature is a source of idea because the scholarly literature and the

Rewards (Rustand, 2001) and (Özutku, 2012)

Formal and informal Feedback

(Baker, Perreault, Reid & Blanchard,

2013)

Low employee recognition

High employee turnover rate (Skudiene, Everhart, Slepikaite

& Reardon, 2013)

Low employee performance (Mone, Eisinger, Guggenheim, Price

& Stine, 2011)

management literature always provide the golden solution concepts and general

information on how to take actions on the plan and why we need to use them

Feedback-Friendly Culture

According to Baker, Perreault, Reid & Blanchard (2013), take feedback to the new level: The Benefits of Feedback-Friendly Culture The culture provides an organization

with a shared set of values, rules and regulations for how to behave and it creates an

identity for its members that is dynamic and can be customized There are three elements that are significant to form the feedback-friendly culture Firstly, building such a culture

is known as the learning series The second element of absolute importance is trustworthy and psychological safety Both the learning series and a trusting work environment must exist prior to implement the third element as they are prerequisites for free-flowing

communication channels and authentic conversation Accordingly, the third and final

element required to shape a feedback-friendly culture is dialogue (i.e., discourse between all levels of the organization) Each element will be considered in the following section to further elucidate their importance in the development of a feedback-friendly culture

According to the employee answers in the second interview, the majority of

employees confirmed that they do not receive feedback from their manager, so with the solutions bellow, if we build the working environment, in which providing feedback is

culture or behavior The feedback will come in nature and manager will think that

feedback is necessary to maintain the company culture instead they think that individual need to complete their job tasks by themselves rather than provide advise feedback to

their employees Baker, Perreault, Reid & Blanchard (2013) stated that the notion of

a feedback- friendly culture is relatively recent and it advocates proactive feedback in the organization as well as shapes a safe feedback-sharing environment When we mention

about the culture, we mention about the behavior that act fluently and naturally It is

identical from bottom down It also creates growth opportunities in various organizations and can be widely applied in most of industries This solution will take a month to

arrange trainer who can deeply inspire the participants, have experiences to persuade

employees about the role of the feedback and two weeks to find the training locations

But the cost spends for this training is acceptable and employees are able actively join the project Encourage employees to try their best to release the good results from instruction

of trainer

360 Degree feedback

Robertson (2008) indicated that a 360 degree feedback a multi-source assessment, where individual’s performance is assessed and feedback is recorded from a number of

people that may include Managers, Subordinates, Colleagues and customers The

assessment in the feedback takes the form of rating against certain performance

dimension In organizations where coaching is viewed as a way to help employees

develop to their fullest potential, 360° feedback reports may be used as a tool to support that process Some companies send select employees to leadership programs conducted

by external organizations where 360° feedback data is collected before attending the

program It enhances two-way communication and increases the opportunity for

employee involvement, and demonstrates respect for employees by showing them that

their opinions count It trains employee to give and receive feedback The organization is asking for their perspective on the behavior of their manager It can help to create better working relationships within the organization and improves the ability of people to work

in teams It enhances awareness and relevance of competencies and awareness for senior management too, as they will get to know their need for development (Garavan, Morley

& Flynn, 1997) 360 degree feedback is popular tool that has been used in many

companies over the world Its effect play important role in enhancing employees

performance from recognizing and improving their weakness or strength In Coca-Cola, employees told that they do not know how their strength or weakness are, because their

manager normally do not provide the comments to their reports or even if they need to

correct their reports, they even do not know why This case happens in many

departments So, this tool will help the employees and their manager will actively

complete their feedback report And both sides can get their involvement in

understanding each other

However the 360 feedback cost quite high for installing, such as: 1200 USD for

the first use, and more than 150 USD for one person who uses The basic cost for this use

is over 30,000 USD for using within first year It consumes time and excessive numbers

of surveys are required of each worker with few tangible results provided to individuals, frank and honest opinion may not be received, stress might be put on individuals for

giving feedback, lack of action following feedback and Over reliance on technology

(Clark & Whittall, 2003)

Cash bonus

Organizations should use cash bonus to reward employees for exemplary

performance that is if they have performed higher or exceed their set targets, this hence

makes them eligible The amount of cash is determined by how high the employee has

over exceeded the set targets or they can also be based on ranks or job groups

Companies use cash bonuses to reward their employees' performance during the year

under appraisal But there is also the unspoken expectation that these bonuses will be a

factor in motivating employees’ performance next year as well and make them feel

recognized when performing well (Njanja, Maina, Kibet & Njagi, 2013)

In some companies, cash bonus has been widely used to appreciate employees’

contribution Especially, in Coca-Cola office, employees confirm that they prefer to

receive cash than gifts Because cash can be used in many purposes but gifts are not

However, according to the Coca-Cola policy, cash gift is unacceptable If the employer

wants to reward employees, they always use gift or vouchers This solution need to be

escalated to the upper human resource department in the Business unit to get approval

This process might take time

A market reward alternative

Hsieh & Chen (2011) stated that a market reward alternative that pays these

individuals at or above the market rate can prove to be a wise investment, especially if

their replacement would be particularly expensive or disruptive This approach ensures

that the firm's pay levels are at least competitive with the labor market This solution will make sure the salary company pay to employee is competitive to the market

These solutions require us to make a market research to find the pay levels at other company in the same industry to make a comparison and make sure company pay are

competitive Because in some answers from the first interview, the former employees

stated that they decided to quit Coca-Cola because they got the better offer from other

companies So the Coca-Cola Company should adjust their pay to match with the market levels It aims to limit the flowing of talent to other pools However, this solution requires the big change in the whole compensation and benefit system if the company’s salary

range is less than others’

Annual Quality Award

Firstly, London & Higgot (1997) set up 3 categories:

Category 1 – teamwork recognition for individuals who perform tasks on a day-to-day

basis

Category 2 – excellent key tasks recognition for individuals who perform their day-to-day activities with a degree of quality on a continual and consistent basis, thereby supporting the company quality policy and logo (quality, continuously and consistently) Successful nominees within this category are expected to demonstrate a good appreciation within the company that encourages not only a team spirit, but also support of the company goals

Category 3 - High achievement in a special project Individuals are sometimes requested

to participate in special process improvement or problem solving teams, or groups which facilitate the company's development or manufacturing activities

Secondly, each category winner is given an award consisting of:

A monetary component, consisting of either a getaway weekend package at a prestigious hotel or a money order to a leading retail store;

A framed certificate from the company

An individual and group photograph (photos are used for publication in the company

newsletter and are placed on a noticeboard in the company canteen; each category winner also receives an individual copy of the photo)

Finally, Quarterly winners of each category also qualify for the Annual Quality

Award

In the interviews, many employees confirmed that the rewards system of company

do not match to employees expectation So we think this solution helps to build the

effective reward strategy completely The employees can have motivation to work hard to get the reward during year It requires the careful preparation for each step to make sure the plan will be follow and release the results on time

Chapter 3: The Selected Solution

In this chapter, the author chooses the solutions can be solved the issues and

combing with the literature to confirm the selected solution is possible The comparison

is made to ensure the choice is suitable to company requirement with many advantages

and can be applied at the company

3.1 Explanation for selected solutions

Table 4: A comparison of alternative solutions

It is identical from bottom down It also create growth opportunities in various organizations and can be apply widely in most of industries

Timing requirements: 1 year

Cost: 18.000 USD

Be suitable to Company culture

No more than 12 months

No more 20000 USD

The solutions

360 Over 30,000 USD in the first year of

Degree

feedback

using

Consume Time in using (1 year to apply

and haft of year for result evaluation

should change as little as possible

in the current business system

cash gift is unacceptable

Costing over 10,000 USD for salary market research, and more than 15,000 USD to reward employee if the reward

package is less than others

From the analysis above, the author recognizes that the feedback culture that

people can behave to give the feedback naturally is necessary tool to bond people

relationship and enhance the employee recognition level in the company Baker (2010)

said that “Monitoring and evaluating human performance is a fundamental aspect of

ensuring a successful organization” Besides, Gberevbie (2008) indicated suitable

reward system is one of the strategy organizations adopts to recognize staff contribution

in the company So, the author decides to combine 2 strategies that can improve the

feedback role and reward system at the Coca-Cola Company in Vietnam The author

creates the feedback-friendly culture and the reward strategy that give the cash bonus and annual quarterly awards to outstanding employees

Create the Feedback – Friendly Culture

First step, when the employees and managers have not recognized the important

role of feedback The training should be held to aware them of the crucial role that

feedback can play and the timing when plan will start This training instructs employees how to supportive or facilitative feedback Feedback is best when embedded in a

sequential process to help employees truly understand the meaning and significance of

their progress Because after the interviews, most of employees and managers do not

entirely recognize the significance of the feedback can bring to Feedback culture must

also be interpreted as active information in order to become a pedagogic activity and this

is most attainable when it is provided sensibly, specifically, and when it is rooted in a

greater company goal This is a significant key to pull the manager to attend managers to give the feedback to their employees Because some of them think that feedback is

necessary and waste of time, while their employees are all experienced and proactive to solve the issue without their instruction This training will restructure their mindset in

giving feedback to their employees

Second step, foster the trust environment to the feedback effect A safe

environment is related to the reception of feedback as it will ensure that negative

feedback is not transformed into relational conflict and it will ensure that levels of

feedback seeking activity increases among employees Trust also enhances the

meaningfulness of feedback because it promotes openness and encourages employees to receive feedback mindfully (Gberevbie, 2008) This step helps create the trust among the