Title of Post: Smiles Make Hershey’s a Sweet Place to Work
Organization Name: The Hershey Company
Industry: Food Manufacturing
Web References: Globoforce , The Hershey Company , CNBC
It’s not tough to argue that The Hershey Company is one of the world’s most recognizable brands. Since its inception in 1894, Hershey’s has become North America’s largest manufacturer and distributor of chocolate and non-chocolate confectionery as well as chocolate-related grocery products. Today, The Hershey Company has over 22,000 employees across 17 countries and has made many top lists including Forbe’s 2011 list of “The World’s 100 Most Innovative Companies” and this year was number two in Deloitte’s “Exceptional 100” list of companies.
The Hershey Company has always strived to be a one of the best places to work, but after a 2012 & 2013 employee survey, the company began looking for new ways to engage and recognize its employees around the globe. The company hired Globoforce to implement a social recognition program in 2014 they called Hershey Smiles.
The Hershey Smiles program enables employees from all over the world to recognize one another for their hard work and dedication to living the Hershey values. Whether in sales, manufacturing or at head office, all employees are able to participate in the global Hershey Smiles program. All of this recognition is done in a dedicated online environment created exclusively for the interaction of Hershey’s employees around the globe. Employees have access to it from desktop computers or mobile devices 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
Now, just one year into the program, it’s already proving to be a success. In a recent interview with Sarah, Payne from Goloboforce, Hershey’s Director of Compensation Global Functions said “We have 50,000 recognitions—that’s something great. 60% of our population has received at least one recognition and almost 70% of leaders have delivered recognition. So they are really helping to increase the leadership, productivity, and engagement. And I am most proud of the engagement survey, which increased by 11% versus the previous year. We achieved all that in one year.”
In addition to the Hershey Smiles program, Hershey employees are a part of the “Total Rewards” program that focuses on four main areas – total well-being, total compensation, total inclusion and total growth.
Total well-being
A full health and wellness benefit that helps employees better balance work and life.
Total Compensation
Hershey’s offers its employees completive salaries, bonus programs and recognition awards.
Total Inclusion
Hershey employees are encouraged to volunteer and get involved in the community, in particular, with The Milton Hershey School.
Hershey also has business resource groups that represent the diverse people in the organization. These include The African American Business Resource Group, The Asian Business Resource Group, The Hispanic Business Resource Group, The Network of Young Professionals, PRISM (A resource for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender employees), The Women’s Council and The Veteran’s Business Resource Group.
A New Building Brings Better Opportunities for Collaboration
The Hershey Employees recently moved into a new, state-of-the-art building, which was a big change for many. Below is a video that illustrates how this change has impacted employees and howtheir new building helps bring departments together and encourages collaboration.
Lessons for Others
No matter how successful an employee engagement program may be, it needs to constantly evolve to keep employees happy and engaged. Companies need to be open to adopting new technologies to help them better interact with their employees and for their employees to better interact with one another.
Submitted By: Danielle Bozzo
To contact the author of this entry please email at: daniellebozzo@gmail.com
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