​Managing through Culture Change in a Manufacturing Environment: An Interview with José A Barbosa – Engineering Manager at Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company​When you recruit within a certain space over a period of time you tend to start noticing recurring trends and issues when speaking with your clients and candidates. I have been recruiting within Manufacturing and Operations for over two and a half years now and I think the most prominent pain point for the majority of clients that I have spoken with in this time has been their company culture and the resistance to cultural change. It’s fair to say that the world has changed a lot in the past 10 years with the introduction of new technologies along with various political and environmental changes so businesses have constantly needed to try and adapt to this.​For Manufacturing businesses, this change needs to start on the shop floor as these people are the core of your company. A couple of years ago I placed José A Barbosa as an Engineering Manager at Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company, from our first conversation it was very clear that this was someone who was passionate about improving shop floor culture and implementing change. We have stayed in touch regularly since then and I recently caught up with him to discuss his thoughts on managing through culture change in a Manufacturing environment.​​What is your definition of a company culture?​The culture of a company is made of all the practices and beliefs that the members of the organisation experience in a daily basis.​What are the typical cultural issues that businesses face nowadays?​As we are more interconnected, the members of an organisation are exposed to more cultural changes than before. Merging organisations normally find challenges such as matching national cultures, variety of perceptions related to generational differences and groups of people with different levels of technological knowledge, amongst others.​Why do you feel cultural change is important?We are all continuously changing and adapting to our business’ new requirements. To do it effectively, we must be open to change. The more flexible that a team can be to work under high levels of uncertainty, the easier it will fit in future markets.​Have you ever been in a business that was resistant to change?​All businesses are resistant to change in one way or another. In my experience, the businesses where I have worked were always under one aspect of cultural change. In some cases the business was taken over by a foreign company, in other instances the organisations were in a journey to manufacturing excellence, sometimes the change was just a management re-organisation.​In your opinion, how do you actually manage through cultural change?​My personal way to manage a team through change is implementing tools that improve communication. There are frameworks that point us to see a culture (any kind of culture) as if it were formed by layers. Some layers we can see, and those are the ones that I try to positively affect first in order to generate a deeper change in the perceptions and beliefs of the team.​What are the main barriers to change?​The main barriers are those layers that we can’t see. The habits, paradigms, preconceived ideas and beliefs that the team may have. Those are always preventing experimentation and openness to change. In my experience, team members with strong beliefs, those that are more difficult to change, once they buy into the new culture, they become big advocates of it. This only proves that the change is effective if it is for a good reason. ​How does it impact the flexibility of a business to make decisions?​Flexibility is a big strategic advantage nowadays. It gives the organisation the capability to try new things, learn quickly from its mistakes and re-direct efforts and resources to more beneficial activities.​What are the strategic/operational advantages once cultural change has been achieved?​Ideally, the new emerging culture should keep the best of the previously existing cultures. This means that the organisation should be better adapted to compete in the current market conditions. It is not always the case, as everything else in this world, cultural change is also imperfect and some of the bad habits are also transferred into the new organisational culture. However there are many advantages, such as extended portfolios, an influx of new skills into the business, adoption of best practices from the same or a different industry and horizontal thinking.​What part does effective communication play in achieving cultural change?​Effective communication is the base of change. Change starts with clear and honest discussions and nurtures from the team members point of view. Change is implemented through the team members, and a clear message regarding the goals & objectives and what they mean for them on a daily basis is paramount. Clear and honest communication is what holds the trust between an organisation and the people working in it.​As a leader, how do you feel when you achieve objectives and are attributing to company goals?​It is extremely fulfilling. I feel proud of my team and I always praise them, making sure that they clearly understand what they have done and how that translates into company results. Also, I make sure that we see what has been achieved as a team and recapitulate the journey. Where we are coming from, where we are and where we are going together, as a team.​​We really hope that you have found this interview insightful. If you would like to discuss ways to improve shop floor culture and implement change in your company through finding high caliber talent then please send an email to carl.costigan@pod-talent.com​​

​Coty - Case StudyIn 2018, Pod delivered a multi-hire project for Coty, a world-leading beauty company. Within 2 months, Pod filled 35 vacancies based in their factory in Kent, UK. Here’s how we did it.BackgroundCoty were centralising their manufacturing for colour cosmetics into their site in Ashford in Kent, resulting in them needing to double their headcount and manufacturing output. Their talent team had already managed to make several hires across planning, quality assurance, engineering and factory/warehouse, however, they felt like they had exhausted the local market, and time was running out. The factory was behind target on output and needed to make 35 hires within 2 months to get back on track. To add to their challenge, their internal talent team were short staffed, snowed under by admin and didn’t have time to manage everything involved in the recruitment process. Our approachWe met with the HR team to assess their exact requirements and agreed the outline of the project. The roles fell into two areas; 25 blue collar hires (warehouse and factory operatives) and 10 white collar hires (engineering, quality and production planning). Pod were engaged as an exclusive partner to deliver all candidates for these vacancies. Delivery Sourced candidates by managing and optimising job adverts, dealing with job applications, pre-screening candidates, completing a UK wide headhunting campaign (for white collar roles), creating marketing documents and managing additional agency partners Arranged and co-ordinated weekly assessment centres including preparing CVs, coordinating diaries and room scheduling, supporting interviews, checking documents, administering tests and securing at least 10 qualified candidates per week. The pod team were also often drafted in to act as additional assessors. Managed all communication and administrative tasks involved in the offer management process such as delivering and managing the acceptance of offers, allocating candidates to different vacancies and shift patterns, sending offer documentation including PPE forms, arranging contract administration, confirming start dates, ensuring candidates and line managers were equipped for the candidates’ first shift Managed all administrative tasks in general such as updating spreadsheets and creating reports for the Hiring Managers, ensuring candidate feedback from adverts and interviews, sending out contracts of employment etc. The ResultAll roles were filled within a 2-month timescaleInterview-to-offer success rate went up from 25% to 75% The talent team were released to focus on other activities including onboarding and L&DThe factory went from behind target on output to ahead of target and hit customer service level SLAs ​If you have a Supply Chain staffing challenge and would like to explore our solutions, please get in touch with our Managing Director Lucy Morgan on ​lucy.morgan@pod-talent.com or 020 3627 2420​​

Pod were engaged by Kraft Heinz on a number of procurement roles based in the Netherlands. Below is a detailed overview of the project, our solution and the result.BackgroundKraft Heinz (formerly Heinz) had been acquired by 3G, Pod had been a partner to Heinz for many years and due to this their CPO and Head of Talent Acquisition reached out to us seeking a recruitment solution to an employer branding and hiring problem.The problems they were facing included:The takeover by 3G and subsequently the recent merger with Kraft had resulted in a change in business culture, this had affected hiring and retention negatively but the business was unaware of the root cause of this or how to address itThey had 15 vacancies within their procurement team, they were struggling to fill them and needed them filled within 3 monthsThey wanted the best people in the market but were struggling to attract them Our solutionWe did a root cause analysis into their hiring problems and an anonymous survey of Dutch procurement candidates to understand how KH were perceived in the market. We were able to draw the following conclusions:Kraft Heinz procurement had a poor employer brand in the market, they were seen as cut throat, aggressive, driven by cost reduction and not focused on people Hiring managers and stakeholders were not aligned or bought into hiring processes internally There was a breakdown in relationships between procurement, HR and talent acquisitionTalent acquisition were not experienced in recruiting procurement rolesCandidates were left without feedback or had poor interview/offer experiences We then created a solution that included:A Pod employee acting as an implant at Kraft Heinz for 3 months to create collaboration between procurement, talent and HRA marketing campaign was built to target potential candidates. We created an employer branding document which gave an accurate overview of working at Kraft Heinz, meaning it was attractive to the right type of people Creating a standard interview process for Kraft Heinz which included feedback forms and SLAs designed to improve interview experiences for candidates Implementing interview training with all hiring managers Creating tracking systems to monitor progress on a weekly basis The result13 out of 15 roles were filled within 3 months and the others within 2 additional monthsKraft Heinz’s average time to hire was reduced by 25%Interview processes were maximised, 32 candidates were submitted in total leading to 15 offers being acceptedTheir employer branding was improved by the marketing campaign and candidate perception was improved in their target audience, resulting in them hiring people who previously rated them as “unattractive” to work for in the survey If you have a similar Supply Chain or Procurement challenge that can be solved by a recruitment solution, please get in touch with our Managing Director Lucy Morgan on ​lucy.morgan@pod-talent.com or 02036272420 who will be more than happy to talk to you about our different solutions. ​