Hershey’s Sweet Mission
Recommend the redesign of Hershey’s performance management system to appeal to the diverse.
The redesign of Hershey’s performance management system to utilize the talents’ of their staff is in keeping with the changes in the business arena today. Their current redesign performance management system recognizes the diversity of their staff, and adopts ways to make good use of all the different mixes of talents and ages they have available to them; so they can continue to grow, and proceed to accomplishing their long term goals.
The company utilizes the experienced baby boomers on staff to train the millennials that have similar traits. The boomers and the millennials both want to have a positive impact on the world so this is a good match. This allows the company to bring the new hires up to speed very quickly utilizing the talents of the experienced workers and pairing the skills the millennils have in automation allows for overall production output to progress in a very progressive manner. (Gerhardt, Hollenbeck, Noe, & Wright, 2011). Hershey’s new redesign of their performance management system is a very good one. I do not see where I would make any dramatic changes, except to expand this form of training to other groups were needed, such as; flip flopping it to have the millennials; once they are on board with the flow of the job, to now train the baby boomer in their way of automation technique. This way the company can retain their experienced workers who want to continue to learn new things, and they would be able to adapt better having the hands on mentor in the millennial to teach them what they know as well.
If you were a Hershey’s employee, analyze how you would interpret the values that Hershey embraces in relation to your role. Fully understanding and taking to heart their values system would be very important to embracing Hershey’s culture. The Hershey Company (n.d.) stated values are:
We are Open to Possibilities by embracing diversity, seeking new approaches and striving for continuous improvement, We are Growing Together by sharing knowledge and unwrapping human potential in an environment of mutual respect, We are Making a Difference by leading with integrity and determination to have a positive impact on everything we do, We are One Hershey, winning together while accepting individual responsibility for our result. (p. 1).
As an employee, I would lead by following Hershey’s’ values to the letter, they have proved to be very powerful, their integrity, and openness to reach out to help as many people as they can is touching. The value they place on the baby boomers is one would be embraced in my role; being a fellow baby boomer. I think it is great that they have created this redesign to include the baby boomer. This will enable them to remain on their jobs longer, and will boost morale for them as well as attract new talent that can see they have a real future with Hershey’s as they offer a place for the aging employees. Another way this helps, it adds to their bottom line because they have less change of staff members, which always adds extra expense in doing business.
In terms of the trends identified in this chapter, describe which one may impact Hershey the most.
A trend that will impact Hershey the most is the aging population. As older workers, retire. The challenge becomes how to preserve, and redirect all their crucial knowledge from retiring with them? Most of the experienced workers are now in their 50s-60s. In spite of this vast pool of knowledgeable employees, some companies are choosing this category of employees to let go. One on of the factors being the higher wages they command. However, Hershey’s has taken this new trend and turned it around for the good of their company. By maintaining these highly knowledgeable employees, and using their wealth of knowledge to mentor, the new millennials that come on board, which will allow for a