Coc ca-Co ola's T Thirst for Glob Ta bal alent

Frank Kalma - 2/7/12 an More than 13 years ago Ceree Eberly, senior vice president and chi people officer f Coca-Cola Co., boarded a flight that would change her 3 E e ief for e life. With nothing but a one-way pla ticket, her 3-ye ane ear-old son and so anxiety about living in a foreign country, the singl mother stepped onto a ome n le plane headed for Latin America a. Eberly, who h been working in various human resources position for the beverage company since 1990, was embarkin on a new stage in her had ns e ng career: a role as an HR generali that would put h on the road ev ist her very week to a diffe ferent country. Her mission: Learn the nuts and bolts of the oper d rational side of Coc ca-Cola, and get in the trenches to m and interact w a small portion of the n meet with n thousands of bottlers and emplo oyees who she wou eventually lead in her role as the companys top ta uld d e alent executive. My family, a rightly so, thought I was a little nuts, Eberly said and d. The new job c carried significant personal risk. Ebe said she had n grasp of the Spa t erly no anish language and knew no one in C d Costa Rica, where she would be based. Yet the Tennes ssee native didnt think twice about taking the chance. The door of oppo ortunity was wide open, and, drawin on ng her fathers in nfluence, Eberly sa she wasnt abo to let it close. aid out We always t talked about when opportunity knock are you going t let the door clos Or are you goi to open the doo and go through the ks, to se? ing or door? she sa aid. Eberly spent n nearly four years traveling througho Latin America, acquiring a taste for the companys global talent busi t out , s iness and its opera ations in more than 200 countries. Aside from becoming fluent in Spanish to go with her college mino in French, Eberl said it was throu her Latin Ame h or ly ugh erican journey that she t learned the tru language of peo ue ople, and the value they can have for a global business Further, she said learning to take a manage risks a e s. d and allowed her to embrac the challenges th waited in her c ce hat current role, which she has occupied since December 2 h d 2009. Tasked with l leading a people fu unction that overse roughly 140,00 Coca-Cola emp ees 00 ployees, Eberlys g global experience a armed her with the skills e necessary to i implement adaptab talent program around the world But it all began with that Latin Am ble ms d. merican assignmen She said she ha to nt. ad walk into a co ompletely differen environment and learn to commun nt d nicate in a new lang guage and deal wi customers and b ith bottlers. I learned to b become a global business person, E b Eberly said. That was my first overs seas assignment. A single parent of a 3-and-a-half-yea ar-old, moving to a f foreign country, a one-way plane tick never done the job before inside Coke, and the ab ket, e e bility to be a role m model for women a and other people w were differen Once I mastered that, I would t you that was pr who nt tell robably one of the coolest things Iv done personally e ve y. Hard-Worki Roots ing Coca-Cola ha set an ambitious goal to double its revenue by 20 as s e 020. The company dubs this its 202 Vision, and Eb y 20 berly said cultivatin a ng rich pool of ta alent is among the top drivers essent to achieve the goal. e tial Thats a tall order, she said. If you look at that goal and everything were doing to achieve that th war on talent an anticipating the future t o he nd e needs of wher the world is goi with the econo re ing omy, where were g going with the gro owth in the middle class, where wer going with the w that e re way people work How do we act tually get on the fo orefront of that and be ahead of the g d game? Being proacti in todays war for talent requires an escalated level of professional courage and moxie, traits that people whove worked w ive s l e with Eberly say sh has. he Ceree brings courage to the job, said Jerry Wils s son, senior vice pr resident and chief customer and com mmercial officer at Coke and a longti ime colleague. C Courage to do what right, courage t challenge the sta quo, courage to think about wha we need to do even if the challeng to ts to atus at ges get there are v very high.

Coca Cola Thirst for Gl as lobal Talent

He said Eberly is also ambitious. Ambitious to be the best in class when it comes to people engagement, people motivation and people development. The ambition began at a young age. One of seven kids, Eberly said she learned early the value of hard work. Her first job came at age 13, and she worked two jobs throughout high school. Eberly also worked her way through college at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where she majored in biology with plans to attend medical school. But when college ended she put the notion of medical school on hold. I ended up not going for a number of reasons, she said. From the standpoint of financial, to not getting into the school I wanted to get into. She said she decided the best course of action was to take a year off, re-apply and get into the next years class. During that year Eberly became a chapter consultant for the sorority of which she was president, Phi Mu, and she was asked to do recruitment. I found I absolutely loved recruiting, Eberly said. I was traveling out of a suitcase for a solid year going to college campuses and recruiting chapters and alumni and [doing] public speaking. To go back to medical school was going to be a huge financial commitment for me, and something that I started having reservations about. Next, Eberly took a job with a small check printing company as a recruiter. I decided to try it for a year to see if I wanted to stay in a professional environment or really go to medical school, she said. Free from the confines of seemingly endless studying, Eberly said she discovered a passion for corporate recruiting. This led her to Coca-Cola in 1990. It was a great opportunity for me to go global at that point in time in my career, she said. Yet her first embedded global assignment didnt come right away. First there were opportunities in staffing, as a generalist, and a number of stints in global talent management before she moved into the operational role in Latin America in the late 1990s. When her time in Costa Rica ended, Eberly took on a large customer-based assignment with Coca-Colas McDonalds business. She then accepted a position in London, as the HR director for the companys European Group. After her son Tyler, now 17, finished his first year of high school, Eberly moved back to the U.S. permanently to work out of Coca-Colas headquarters in Atlanta. She still commutes overseas, both for business and to visit Tyler in London. The Globe Trotter Talent management at Coca-Cola is viewed as an outgrowth of its overall business strategy and the companys people, Eberly said, are the secret weapons that keep the engine churning full speed. The companys business is separated into two sub-groups: the concentrate side focused on marketing and branding, and the bottling side. Each side brings its own talent, from front-line manufacturers and bottlers to entry-level roles, middle management knowledge workers and C-suite executives. Eberly said this diverse combination requires that the people function keep up with the changing values of certain talent sub-groups to obtain and retain the best talent. To do this, Eberly said talent management partners with Coca-Colas consumer insights and marketing group, delving into mountains of data that can lead to insights on what makes each employee demographic or generational cohort tick. [We] look at it from all perspectives, she said. What are their consumer behaviors? How are they as shoppers? If theyre employees, whats important to them? We partner with marketing to look globally at the differences between baby boomers and Generations X and Y, millennials. Thats proved to help us set a baseline for whats important to baby boomers thats different from a millennial. Weve actually changed a number of our pension plans around the world to be more contemporary [and] relevant across a wide segment. She said making these retirement plans more portable for Coca-Cola employees has grown more valuable to the younger generations in its workforce. But, as the companys global footprint has increased, accommodating the best talent doesnt stop at age. Each country where Coca-Cola operates is viewed as a unique subset, which means Eberly and her staff have to drive various engagement and retention efforts.

Coca Colas Thirst for Global Talent

Accommodations for working parents might vary by country or location. For example, the company offers paternity leave in Germany, whereas in Spain there are best practices around bringing children to work. Or, an on-site cafeteria or exercise facility might be an important benefit in some locations but not in others. The organizations policies address whichever segment of the population is driving a particular need. Coca-Cola is also testing programs that enable flexible working arrangements and telework. Eberly said the idea is for the company to recognize the needs of a country or locale before they become obvious, which maximizes the likelihood it can keep the best talent happy. Then, employees can stay focused and ahead of the curve in their respective specialties. A Love for People The talent efforts Eberly and her team have put forth around work-life balance and engagement seem to be working. The companys global retention rate in 2011 was 92 percent, and similar retention measures taken for high-potential employees came in at 98 percent. Coca-Cola also has invested in employee development. Eberly said these programs drive employee retention and keep the company on the fast track in the global war for talent. The Catalyst program, which has been running for about five years, pulls from Coca-Colas high-potential talent pool globally and has participants work for about six months on special team projects that address business problems identified by senior leadership. Last years projects were focused on business issues in Morocco, Europe, Latin America and Mexico. Eberly said business units within the company compete to have these teams try to tackle their problems, and the experiential learning aspect often occurs outside of participants daily roles. At the end of six months, each team is brought in to present to the companys operating committee and senior leadership team. Chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent also attends the presentation. Those recommendations are taken back to those businesses and implemented, Eberly said. Were finding that its great exposure for them to senior leaders both in those operating geographies as well as our senior leadership team. These kinds of programs help to maintain a critical connection between talent and the business. Ceree brings a tremendous blend of hard-line accountability, Wilson said. She holds herself and her people accountable for delivering the expectations in these roles, and driving the performance of our company. As the global war for talent becomes more competitive, accountability for future expectations will retain a high value premium. A strong sense of constructive discontent for the status quo isnt all Eberly requires of her staff; foresight is also mandatory. How do we build plans today that address 10-year, a 15-year outlook and start getting ahead of the game in some of those high-growth markets, such as India or China or Brazil? she asked. Eberly said in todays business climate these types of business challenges require additional perspectives as well as a never-ending passion and understanding of what motivates top talent to fire on all cylinders. At heart, Eberly said her no-nonsense approach to the people business is driven by just that her love for people. Its what wakes her up every day. Thats what makes my job so much fun, she said. Im accountable at the end of the day to be the steward of the people in my organization; if were not worrying about the organization at night or looking at whats right for the people, who is?

Coca Colas Thirst for Global Talent