Human Resources Best Practices: The Hershey Company Essay

Human Resources Best Practices: The Hershey Company

The Hershey Company (Hershey) is a world leader, not only in the manufacture of chocolate, but also in ethical behavior. Employing approximately 13,600 people worldwide, Hershey markets its products in 50 countries, with key markets in the United States, Canada, Mexico, India, China and Brazil (The Hershey Company, n.d.). Realizing the importance of ethics in its worldwide operations, Hershey is pointedly: "committed to being all-inclusive" (The Hershey Company, n.d.), deliberately courting prospective employees across the arrays of age, gender, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation; dedicated to mentoring as a means of enhancing the lives of its mentor/protege teams, their families, neighborhoods and beyond. As a result, Hershey has created a thriving organizational culture benefitting everyone it touches.

Diversity

Hershey's values and the Company's actions to support those values are clearly stated:

"We are committed to being all-inclusive and to realizing our vision of 'Great People Building Great Brands.' Our story of diversity is told through our Great People of diverse backgrounds, ideas and interests. We provide opportunities for our employees to learn, grow and shine in both the work environment and the community. Our Diversity Councils and Affinity Groups provide a forum through which employees may provide and discuss recommendations on increasing productivity as well as the quality of our work environment"(The Hershey Company, n.d.).

Since diversity involves the area of gender, age, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation, that issue theoretically encompasses billions of people across the globe. Furthermore, Hershey manufactures its products in 17 countries and markets those products in 50 countries (The Hershey Company, n.d.); consequently, the company cuts a wide swath across globally possible employees and distributors of every gender, age, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. Operating in countries as different as Mexico and China, for example, Hershey must learn and embrace widely differing values, customs and languages in order to operate as effectively as possible, effectively operating as a microcosm of the World at large.Hershey does, in fact celebrate divergences in gender, age, race and ethnicity by hosting: "an annual companywide Inclusion Day celebration emphasizing the diversity of local communities; 'Lunch and Learn' speakers who discuss topics ranging from new immigrant experiences to personal empowerment for minorities and women; an in-depth website employees can use to find information about a vast array of diversity subjects; diversity email newsletters designed to educate employees on specific aspects of diversity as well as to inform them about why those differences are important to our business" (The Hershey Company, n.d.). Hershey also sponsors affinity groups for Asians, African-Americans and Hispanics, a network for young professionals, "Prism" -- "a resource for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) employees and an alliance for all employees of The Hershey Company," the Women's Council and a Sales Diversity Council (The Hershey Company, n.d.). Through its workplace policies, Inclusion Days, 'Lunch and Learn' speakers, in-depth diversity-rich website, diversity e-mail newsletters, and widespread sponsorships, Hershey captures a huge share of the world's market while benefitting every community in which it operates.

Through its many programs and sponsorships, Hershey encourages its employees to interpret those values and apply them to his/her own function within the company (Denecke & McGuire, 2005). Ideally, an employee should interpret those values to require excellent job performance, not only in the employee's individual performance but also in the employee's dealings with the diverse employee groups encountered in the workplace. Hershey's values should also be interpreted to mean that the employee does not merely value achievement; rather, the employee values achievement with diversity. Hershey's values should also be interpreted to mean that each employee is personally accountable for furthering and strengthening Hershey's values by the employee's actions and speech, both on the job and in….....