The Coca-Cola Company Incentive Plans

Incentive Plans

Incentive plans are imperative to the success of an organization because a well-designed employee incentive plan will help motivate employees to reach high levels of performance for the organization. This paper will analyze the incentive plans offered by The Coca-Cola Company. The paper will also evaluate how the incentive plans help the organization achieve its goals and objectives.

Functions

The Coca-Cola Company is a global company with more than 92,000 employees (The Coca-Cola Company, 2011). The Coca-Cola Company recognizes that its employees are the most valuable asset and continuing to look for new ways to reinforce performance level. To retain talented employees and officers, the company has numerous effective incentive plans designed to motivate employees to reach higher levels of performance. The company has a written policy for its performance incentive plans identifying the purpose of the plans, eligibility, participation, performance criteria and goals, and the method of payments of awards. According to the Coca-Cola Company (2011), the purpose of the performance incentive plan is to promote the interests of the company by providing incentives to employees and officers who contribute to the profitability and growth of the company. The company has different methods of awards such as cash (bonus, merit pay), stock option, and stock ownership. Cash awards are awarded to all employees, however, stock options and stock ownership awards are for salaried employees at grade level 10 and above. Another incentive plan proven successful at the company is called the Red Tag Program. The Red Tag Program is a reward and recognition program that recognizes performances (outside of normal day-to-day duties) of employees by giving redeemable points for merchandise. The Red Tag program is a favorite among employees because not every employee outside of the sales department contributes to gross profit or net revenue. In the program, employees are sometimes awarded for recognizing a potential safety hazard instead of increasing profit. The incentive plans are communicated to employees in writing, face-to-face with managers, and the human resources department.

All performances are documented by department managers in a computer system. The computer system is called the human resources information system (HRIS). The data stored is in the HRIS used to analyze, retrieve, and distribute information quickly (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, & Wright, 2007). HR professionals use the HRIS as a tool to track employees' skill and performance.

Goals and Incentives

The well-designed incentive plans play a critical role in reaching business goals and objectives. Incentive plans at The Coca-Cola Company are designed to attract and maintain key employees, thus, making the company valuable and marketable. According to Noe et al. (2007), incentive pay is tied to individual performance, profits, and other measures of success. The Coca-Cola Company uses incentive plans so that employees will continuously perform at the high level. The stock option and stock ownership incentive plans at the company have proven to be successful because it is based on both company performance and individual performance. The stock option and stock ownership incentives reward employees who significantly contribute to the success of the business. The stock option gives the employee the