Incentive - September 2008 - (Page 41)

Employees at Coca-Cola Bottling Company Consolidated’s office in Charlotte, N.C., now have new and improved, companywide incentive programs The Sweet Taste of Success By Alex Palmer Coca-Cola’s leadership restructured its incentives from a hodgepodge of awards to a centralized program, and now they can see—and measure—the results T he Coca-Cola Bottling Company has been a big believer in incentive programs for decades. Incorporating rewards, including gift cards, Coca-Cola logoed merchandise, and tickets to sporting events, Charlotte, N.C.–based CocaCola Bottling Company Consolidated was pumping plenty of resources into encouraging its workers to do their jobs well. But there was a big problem: Nobody was tracking these programs. Almost all of Coca-Cola Bottling’s incentives were run at the local level, with a jumble of ini- tiatives in effect across its 65 office, distribution, and production facilities and dozens of teams. With little direction or oversight, most of these programs were basing awards on what had been done in the past, or what the local leader wanted to do, versus what might be in alignment with corporate strategy and/or show a greater returnon-investment (ROI). “It was a hundred years of, ‘We’ve always done it this way and no one knows why,’ ” says Chris Ceravalo, senior manager of compensation and recognition for CCBCC. “We really didn’t know how much we were spending and what exactly we were spending those dollars on…pretty much anybody could come up with an incentive.” According to Ceravalo, the uncoordinated programs seemed to make more of an impact on employees’ sense of entitlement than on their sense of engagement. The workers simply expected the awards regardless of performance, and managers were effectively held hostage by what they had given out in the past, more worried that they would hurt morale by taking anything away than interested in how they could boost performance by introducing something different. This began to change when Coca-Cola’s chief human resources officer assigned Ceravalo the task of determining how much money was being spent annually on incentives throughout the company. incentivemag.com | September 2008 | Incentive | 41 http://incentivemag.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Incentive - September 2008

Incentive - September 2008
Contents
Editor's Note: The Best of Times and...
Headlines
Cover Story: MetLife Rethinks Recognition
Incentive Interview: Russ Edelman
Case Study Orkin: The Presidential Treatment
Coca-Cola Bottling: The Sweet Taste of Success
Keep Cash Off the Hood: Auto Incentives
Handle with Care: Motivating After Layoffs
Start Spreading the News: PR Incentives
Planning: Got Lemons? Make Lemonade
Industry Veterans Speak: The President Slept Here
Motivation: Action! Start Teambuilding Now!
Incentive Primer: How To Reward Well
Motivation@Work: The Character Connection
Travel News: Where To Go and What To Do
Top Undiscovered Destinations: New Territory
Field Report: South Africa In Style
Field Report: Golf's Pilgrimage
Potentials Here and Now
In-Room Gift Ideas: Pillow Talk
Shopping Sprees: Shop Till You Drop
Gift Cards: Plastic Is Perfect
Advertiser Index
Last Word: Outsmart! Author James Champy
Special Supplement: Mexico

Incentive - September 2008