HR practices in Traditional and HPWS

companies.
By Salvador Garcia-Wigueras. Sep 2014.

Traditional
Culture

There is not a
Company Culture.
There is a mix of
practices and rituals
coming from people
with different
backgrounds and
interests.
Values and Principles
are not clear or used
in daily life.

Recruiting

Traditional recruiting.
Just a quick screening
to check skills.
Leadership and values
are not checked.

Promotions

Most vacant positions

at operator level are
covered internally.
Top management
positions are often
covered with external
people.
Promotion system is
closed and normally

RESTRICTED
DATA.

HPWS
There is a Company/Site
Culture based on Values
and Principles. Plant
manager is the keeper of
the Culture. Values and
Principles are clear and
really used for the
everyday corporate life.
Satisfaction Surveys are
used to detect
opportunities in the
Culture and set remedial
action plans.
It is a formal process to
check individual skills,
including leadership, team
working and personal
values. Idea is to ensure
individual will succeed into
the Company Culture.
Process includes several
tests and interviews.
System is similar for
Managers and technicians.
All vacant positions are
covered with internal
resources most of the
time. Thanks to a
Development program
there are enough internal
candidates in the Talent
pipeline to cover most of
positions.

bosses select the

candidate without
following clear criteria.

Work and
Development plans.
Career Paths.

No formal plans or
regular feedback is
given to individuals.
People are not clear
about what to do to
align with Company
objectives.
People are not clear
about how good they
are doing or their
opportunities to
improve and grow. No
clear Career paths.

Succession
plans/Talent
pipeline.

There are not

processes to define
succession plans.

Promotion system is open

and transparent. Best
candidates are the ones
getting the job.
System is similar for
Managers and technicians.
There are formal
processes to define annual
Work plans and
Development
opportunities for
everybody. Informal
feedback is given every
time is necessary. Formal
feedback is granted at
least once a year.
Everybody knows clearly
how is perceived and
his/her growth
opportunities. Formal
Feedback is a 360 degrees
process.
All Work plans are aligned
with Plant CBN.
There exist Career Paths.
System is similar for
Managers and technicians.
There is formal Succession
plans to identify future
candidates for all key
positions. There is a Rating
criterion to identify
Outstanding collaborators
and develop them in a fast
way. Every Plant has a
succession plan and Talent
pipeline and this
information is used in
Category/Regional/Global
basis to determine the

On Boarding.

There is a quick onboarding process of 12 days focused on

Safety, Quality Basics
and some ways of
working.

Training.

Site training is mainly

focused to Safety,
Quality and Operation
Basics. For Managers
is about the same.
There are some
Corporate trainings
provided each year.
Most of training is in
classroom and
normally does not
include qualification
tests. Training is a
PUSH activity.

best candidates to be
promoted.
There is a system also for
key technicians.
There is a formal Onboarding process for both
new manager and
technicians. Process
consists of about 1 week
of theoretical trainings and
about 1 month of practical
ones. PLT members
participate in the On
boarding training. New
members are assigned a
sponsor/mentor and there
is a formal qualification
test at the end of training
in front of the PLT.
System is similar for
managers and technicians.
Training is a key and
constant activity. There
are Skill matrices for every
individual. Most of training
is 20% theory/80%
practical and there are
formal qualifications at the
end of it. Everybody is a
trainer. OPLs are the main
tool to provide training at
floor level. PLT participates
actively providing different
trainings across the year.
Most of training is elearning and individuals
practices Self-training.
Training is a PULL activity.
Corporate trainings follow
the same model than Site

Rewarding and Pay

system

There are some

rewarding
celebrations,
developed by HR,
focused mainly on
people happenings as
birthdays, years of
anniversary with
Company, punctuality
and so on.
Sometimes there are
monetary rewards to
recognize a special
effort as launching a
new initiative or
completing a special
maintenance or
getting a specific
result. These rewards
often create
corruption.
Sometimes Overtime
levels are too high and
people get used to
them considering a
kind of recognition
too, or part of Pay.
Sometimes pay is too
much or too few and
there is not
comparison with
community. Retention
is mainly based on
pay.

ones.
There is a special
Leadership training for all
individuals.
System is similar for
managers and technicians.
There is a formal
Rewarding process,
developed by the PLT and
HR, to celebrate all IL6S
results and behaviors, at
individual, line and Site
level.
Most of rewards are nonmonetary but meaningful
for the people, as
Recognitions in front of
everybody in the Annual
Site meeting, diplomas,
Plant manager letters, and
so on.
Overtime is kept at low
levels.
Pay system is fair and
competitive. And it is
based on Contribution or
Skills. There is a Pay
difference for a better job
performed.
Outstanding contributors
are rewarded. Repeated
Below average ones are
not kept in the company.
People retention is good
and based mainly on
Company Culture/values
and then in pay.
Pay system is simple with
just 4-5 levels, and all
positions covered within

Discipline

Union relationship

Pay is based on job

description without
any differentiator for
the good or bad job
performance.
Normally there are too
many pay points and
system is complex.
It is mainly applied
according to Law and
internal regulations.
Managed by HR with
little involvement of
other Site managers.

It is managed by the
HR manager.
In many occasions the
relationship is not
good and It is
tolerated this way,
considering a normal
one. During Collective
contract bargaining it
is normal to have
serious conflicts and
be close to strikes.
Also it is customary
that Union asks the
workforce to slow

them.

It is based on Values and

Principles. Managed by HR
with high involvement of
Plant manager and PLT.
There is a gradual
discipline depending of the
fault severity. Sometimes
there is a Discipline
committee formed by
Managers and Technicians.
Serious faults to the
Values and Principles are
reasons to cut the job
relationship. Since Safety
is a Value, repetitive
violators are also ceased
of the job.
Plant manager is the main
responsible to keep a
heathy relationship with
Union, always supported
by the HR community.
There should be always a
constructive relationship
based on Company values
and Principles. Conflict
might exist but is
managed without affecting
Company operation.
Company performs annual
Union risk assessment
studies to avoid conflictive

down, or not
supporting some
Company initiatives,
to create more
pressure during the
negotiation process.
Sometimes Union
leaders follow
personal interests and
not really represent
the desire of workers
community.

Union leaders/issues as
much as possible.
Contract negotiations are
managed by HR but the
key and final
negotiator/grantor is the
Plant manager. The Plant
manager is the one and
only maximum authority
at the Site.
Union is trained in IL6S/
HPWS to understand that
Company and they have
common objectives.

Rotation

Most people have

fixed positions. There
are not rotations as
part of a program. This
decreases workforce
flexibility and creates
certain favoritism in
people who do not
rotate shifts.

Contractors

There are a lot of

Contractors in every
part of the Site. They
are used to lower the
cost, without any

There is a Rotation
program to get flexibility
and have people flowing
to the need.
To avoid favoritism
everybody rotates shifts.
People rotate internally in
the team and also
externally to get new
skills. People move out of
Core for 2-3 years
assignments, and then
return to the Core.
Promotions only occur at
Core.
Managers also rotate
positions at same level to
increase their flexibility
and as part of their Career
Paths.
Use of contractors is
limited, especially in
Operations area.
Contractors in Core never
exceed a 30% of total Core

balance in Site culture. population and normally

they execute the simple
and repetitive jobs of
secondary or tertiary
packaging.
Contractors in non-Core
operations are limited to a
minimum possible.
Contractors are not part of
HWPS Culture and due to
their high rotation are only
trained in basic Safety and
Quality subjects. Too many
Contractors create tension
on the HWPS Culture.