In this article We will have a look at why Coca Cola has struggled to capture the market after expansion to the island country of Sri Lanka.
Various strategies using which the company can better utilize their human capital to prosper in the local markets identify the opportunities through which Coca Cola can maximize growth.
So let's dive right in. Since their expansion to Sri Lanka, the global beverage company has struggled to capture the market.
The two main reasons for this are improper management of human resources and community backlash over contamination of a water body. On 17th August 2015, there was a mishap at the Coca Cola plant, which led to a leakage of diesel into a major Sri Lankan River.
Although the management and authorities were quick to take corrective measures, they couldn't shield themselves from the community backlash, this affected the company's reputation and ultimately, their sales in the region.
In addition, the inadequate workforce management was posing a bigger threat to the company.
Let us look at the weightiest issues within the Coca Cola management.
The first is improper communication. The corporate communication framework followed by Coca Cola was flawed, the employees were not able to share their thoughts and opinions effectively with the management. Due to this the workforce and the team leaders' mutual relationship suffers and the company loses the opportunity to utilize innovative ideas.
The next is feedback sharing. The managers and supervisors are unable to convey the job feedback to the employees effectively. This hinders the improvement of skills and increases dissatisfaction among the employees.
Since human capital is an important asset for any company. Coca Cola lost a number of employees, which reduced the rate of production and other important business operations.
The third issue is with motivating the employees. Employee motivation plays an important role in the performance of a business. Coca Cola Srilanka failed to properly motivate their staff with incentives and other employee motivation techniques. This resulted in low morale and employees showed less interest in improving performance, then came adequate training and development modules.
In order to meet the standards of the brand, the employees must undergo regular training and development for peak performance.
However, Coca Cola failed to utilize this important feature effectively in their organizational structure. As a result, the employee retention rate decreased and efficiency was reduced.
The fifth organization issue is improper workforce management. Due to the shortage in workflows, the company collaborated with other firms with their bottling operations. This proved counterproductive as it created an unstable work environment, which led to more resignations.
Does the lack of proper workforce management cause slowdown and performance?
Next is leadership. Good leadership of the workforce is very important for better performance. The leadership at Coca Cola Sri Lanka failed to identify the shortcomings in their organizational structure. And this led to a lot of problems in the production.
The irresponsibility of team members and the management of the company have amplified the doubt among the subordinates. Another issue with organizational behavior is the management and staff relationship.
The company management has failed to build literal communication channels between the employees as well as the team leader inside the company. The management did not arrange meetings in order to discuss the problems of their staff as well as to find possible remedies to resolve those issues. And lastly, the work environment. The management failed to create a healthy work environment that can encourage the employees to give their best output. The corporate situation created obstructions and building a professional relationship between the workers as well as the management of the organization, the employees failed to understand that their improvement was closely related to the success of the company.
These issues cost a fortune to the company.
Hence, an instant countermeasure Coca Cola Srilanka improved three strategies to effectively manage their workforce in the future.
These are induction and communication programs, an orientation program was established for new employees for their proper induction to the Coca Cola workforce. This makes them feel valued and improves employee relations, proper training and development of employees.
With effective training and development modules. The employees would improve productivity and realize their role in the growth of the company. And the most important measure was feedback.
Since employees had no way of conveying the problems faced by them, there was a dire need of establishing a way to hear their problems.
The company set up regular meetings between managers, supervisors, and upper management to ensure that their issues were noticed and resolved.