Talk with Carmen Nicula about this perspective

This case study dates back to 2007 when Carmen Nicula was the Human Resources Director at FrieslandCampina Romania. During her mandate, 2006 – 2013, Carmen had a strategic role and was a member of the Executive Board. The case study was presented by Carmen Nicula at a conference.

The article written based on the case study was revised and updated in 2022.

FrieslandCampina Romania is the Romanian country’s branch of The Dutch Royal FrieslandCampina with a history of over 150 years and one of the most important dairy companies in the world, with branch offices in 38 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. The company is specialized in the manufacturing of dairy products. At the international level, FrieslandCampina has over 23.000 employees and a revenue of 11.1 bn euros (2020) according to FrieslandCampina Annual Report 2020.

FrieslandCampina entered the Romanian market at the beginning of 2002. The company closed 2020 with a turnover of 469.5 mil. lei, plus 4%, a net profit of 29.7 mil. lei, and 574 employees according to public sources.

FrieslandCampina Romania offers a wide range of products: milk, yogurts, cream, special cheese, ice cream, and desserts. Among the brands in the portfolio: Napolact, Frico, Campina, Milli, Oke, Dots.

Investment in people – a recognized source of competitive advantage

The present case study highlights the impact of FDI on the increased quality of Human Resources Management and the real need of the alignment for the HR strategy to the company’s strategy.

Research overview

The key findings from a survey by Deloitte together with Economist Intelligence Unit (2007), conducted globally, concluded:

• More than 85% of all survey participants said that people were vital to all aspects of their company’s performance, particularly their top strategic challenges.
• The top people’s concerns for senior business executives were: creating a high-performance culture (79%), talent management (76%), leadership development (76%), training and development (63%).
• The vast majority of them (82%) expected HR to be perceived as a strategic, value-adding function.

HRM as strategic integration got support from Huselid’s (1995) research finding that those organizations that link HRM practices to company strategy report higher financial outcomes. The more of the high-performance HRM practices that are used, the better the performance as indicated by productivity, labor turnover, or financial indicators.

Combs et al. (2006) who carried out a meta-analysis of 92 studies on the relationship between HRM and company performance, found that an increase of one standard deviation in the use of high-performance work practices (HPWP) is associated with a 4.6% increase in return on assets (ROA), and with a 4.4% increase in turnover.

The foundation of a value-added HR function is a business strategy that relies on people as a source of competitive advantage and a management culture that embraces that belief. The HRM systems that develop and maintain a firm’s strategic infrastructure should be considered a very important investment.

The role of HRM at FrieslandCampina Romania

FrieslandCampina understood the role of HRM and that the HR system should be based not only upon added value but also on moral values (economic approach & relational rationality); in this way, major benefits could be expected to all parties concerned. People were at the top of the strategic agenda for FrieslandCampina.

There was a clear movement regarding the role of the HR department in FrieslandCampina. In the beginning, the emphasis was on Administrative Expert, Employee Champion, and Change Agent roles, but after foreign investment, the Strategic Partner role was on top, HR professionals participated in the process of defining business strategy, moving strategy to action, and designing the HR practices that aligned with the business strategy.

In order to accomplish that, FrieslandCampina Romania had the support of the “mother” company, FrieslandCampina (especially, Corporate Human Resources), through the transfer of know-how, best practices, participation in multinational project teams, training, workshops on FrieslandCampina Training Platform, coaching and mentoring, etc.

To smooth the progress and the transfer into the practice of the human resources goals, at FrieslandCampina Romania, we measured the extent to which FrieslandCampina Romania’s core values (reliable, dedicated, and vital) were perceived as existing in the organization in our day to day activities and were valorized by our employees (the level to which they considered organizational values as their own values as individuals).

A mission was set for the HR Department: “Becoming a reliable and strategic partner in supporting business objectives and future development needs of our organizations through a continuous improvement of all HR activities, strategic and operational, with direct impact on the quality of our human capital.”

The alignment of our HR strategy to the company’s strategy had as a foundation the so-called contextually based human resources theory (Paauwe, 2004) where the understanding of business and the environmental factors affecting the business was very important in order to set an appropriate HR strategy.

The scheme below explains the process of defining the HR strategy starting with the analysis of Product/Market/Technology dimension (PMT) and the key issues raised by this dimension. Then, we analyzed the Social/Cultural/Legal dimension (SCL) and the key issues for HR. After that, we answered the question: what was the choice? Finally, we formulated the HR strategy as a response for those aspects.

The alignment of the HR strategy to FrieslandCampina Romania strategy

PMT dimension

• Raw material price increase
• Stronger, aggressive competition
• Less brand loyalty
• Innovation, time to market
• Sophisticated buyers
• Concentration of trade
• Price-sensitive consumer

Key issues

• More new products
• Accelerate innovation
• Operational efficiency
• Product quality focus
• Brand awareness
• Selling price adjustments
• Higher discounts

Configuration

• Strong brands
• Decentralized/autonomous
• Wide range of dairy products
• Acquisitions
• Financial health
• Reorganization phase

Dominant coalition

• Managing Director
• Human Resources Director
• Management Team
• Employees
• Unions

SCL dimension

• Health & safety, labor regulations
• Work-life balance
• Trade unions/work councils power
• Competition on labor market
• Mobility of labor

Key issues

• Collective Labor Agreements negotiations
• Unions/Work Councils consensus
• Recruitment & retention of the right people
• Competitive compensation

HR Strategy

Innovation

• Multifunctional teams
• Develop and retain the right people
• Creativity development programs
• Develop/reward innovation systems

Quality

• Stronger mentality towards quality
• Employer branding
• Employee Attitude Survey
• Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs

Efficiency

• Performance Management systems aligned with business goals
• Develop and reward cost efficient initiatives
• Monitor manpower efficiency
• Clear & fair remuneration policy
• Improve internal communication

Further on, there are detailed two HR activities that were in our focus in our HR strategy: first, Develop and retain the right people, part of the Innovation focus; second, Employee Attitude Survey, part of the Quality focus.

1. Develop and retain the right people, part of the Innovation focus

The right people for our organization were those characterized by the three core values of the company: reliable, dedicated, and vital. That aspect was the first investigated during the selection process. We were hiring people with high compatibility between their individual values and our organizational values as that would facilitate a better performance. Of course, we were not neglecting the competencies aspect. The candidates must have had a good level of competencies for the vacant position (in terms of knowledge, experience, abilities, etc.). But what made the difference between two good candidates was the compatibility with our company values.

HiPo (high potential young employees) were part of our “right people” and we developed a special program for them in order to improve their competencies (functional and behavioral) and to create and maintain a very good motivational and retention level.

The “Investing in developing high potential young employees – an important factor in assuring the competitiveness on workforce market” project intended to develop, within a year, the abilities and managerial skills of young employees with high potential for development, so that they can successfully handle a promotion in a management position, on a superior hierarchic level.

General objectives in the project

• Develop management quality and entrepreneurial spirit.
• Increase the competitiveness of the workforce and increase productivity at the workplace in the context of Romania’s integration in the European Union.
• Increase the social and economical potential of the company.

The aim (specific objective) of the project was the development of managerial skills for young employees with high development potential in order to help them successfully handle promotion in higher positions, within a year.

Expected results

• A list of individual needs for development for the 30 employees from the target group.
• Specific competencies developed regarding future needs/expectations for these 30 employees from the target group.
• Management skills developed for the target group.
• Other firms in the region (minimum 20) would be informed about the development model used in the project.

The 30 young employees identified as having high potential were selected through internal evaluations as having a high potential for development, people the company wanted to promote on a high level in future years.

Selected HiPo participated in a series of activities

• Developing needs evaluation (through the method of “development center”)
• Group consultancy for development (an activity in which every participant from the target group established specific objectives for development according to the individual needs identified through the development center and according to the needs of the company and elaborated a plan for development by taking all the steps necessary to reach the objectives)
• Management skills training

During the group consultancy meetings, conducted according to the principles of self-managed learning, the participants were coached to identify their strengths and weaknesses, write down an Individual Learning Contract (a plan of objectives and actions), apply and monitor the actions comprised in the Individual Learning Contract, and, at the end of the period, elaborate a final report comprising their results and evidence to support those results.

Training activities were organized for developing managerial competencies:

• Developing and improving human relationships at the workplace
• Time management
• Delegation of responsibilities. Organizing and conducting efficient meetings.
• Managerial decision making
• Efficient conflicts approach. Primary negotiation.
• Relationships developing at work – Teams
• Managerial decision making in the context of working on a project: Project Management
• Motivation of Employees. Efficient Leadership Style

Next steps

After finalizing the project, the developing high potential young employees model would be replicated in the company that initiated the project (with its own resources) but also in the other companies from the Group.

2. Employee Attitude Survey, part of the Quality focus

For us, the survey represented a Talent Management tool having as a goal the development of people and improving business performance, but also a tool for organizational change (post-survey change process).

About the survey

It was a yearly anonymous survey that took the pulse of the organization. It was conducted for the first time in FrieslandCampina Romania in 2006.

The survey included the personnel with management and execution functions from all the Group’s entities and all the departments, around 30% of the total number of FrieslandCampina Romania employees.

The impact

In the first part of the survey, the employees had to express their perception on a series of important organizational aspects such as objectives, structure, motivation, conflicts, change, communication, and leadership.

The second part of the survey investigated the perception of the employees about FrieslandCampina’s core values, regarding both their presence inside FFR and their importance for employees themselves.

Next steps

After finalizing the project, the developing high potential young employees model would be replicated in the company that initiated the project (with its own resources) but also in the other companies from the Group.

Conclusion

The role of the HR strategy is to support the company’s performance. Only an aligned HR strategy to the company strategy can achieve and demonstrate this role in practice.

We should see the effective strategy implementation of the HR strategy as the key mediating variable between the HR architecture and the company performance.

References

• Combs, J., Liu, Y., Hall, A., Ketchen, D.(2006). How much do high-performance work practices matter? A meta-analysis of their effects on organizational performance. Personnel Psychology, 2006, 59, 501-528.
• Deloitte (2007). Aligned at the Top. How business and HR executives view today’s most significant people’s challenges and what they’re doing about it. The Economist Intelligence Unit.
• Huselid, M.A., (1995). The impact of human resources management practices on turnover, productivity, and corporate financial performance. Academy of Management Journal, 38/3, 635-672.
• Paauwe, J. (2004). HRM and Performance: Achieving Long-Term Visibility. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Would you like to talk about your HR strategy with an expert?

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Talk with Carmen Nicula about this perspective

This case study dates back to 2012. It was written by Carmen Nicula in collaboration with Cristina Nicule. In 2012, Carmen Nicula was the Human Resources Director at FrieslandCampina Romania. The case study first appeared in the HR Manager Magazine.

The article written based on the case study was revised and updated in 2022.

“Mentorship” comes from the Greek story of Mentor, who took care of, guided, and supported Telemakhos (together with the goddess Athena) in a series of life decisions. Thus, mentoring has remained in our language as a method of transferring experience, expertise, and knowledge from those who have it to those who need it for their development.

Many of us know how important it is to have a mentor in our career or personal life. In organizations, many employees would like to have the opportunity to learn from the company’s most valued people – from their expertise, knowledge, and skills. Sometimes, this transfer happens naturally. But too rarely.

The mentorship program at
FrieslandCampina Romania

When we designed the pilot program – representatives of the FrieslandCampina Human Resources Department and consultants from Danis Consulting – we started from the following premises:

• FrieslandCampina’s employee development strategy for the coming years involved a strong focus on on-the-job, applied learning methods to achieve a quick and impactful result. At the same time, as in other companies, we faced shrinking employee development budgets amid the global economic crisis.
• Based on the internal organizational analyses, we realized that there were two categories of employees that were extremely important to the company:
  • People with significant experience in their professional field and/or in management, whose knowledge and know-how represented a “gold mine”. They, more or less, transferred know-how to the less experienced people, but many times this transfer process was an important and non-urgent task, so it was postponed. Also, the transfer was more likely to take place between a direct manager and his subordinate than at the interdepartmental level.
  • People with high potential, called HiPo (“high-potential”), who were constantly on the company’s radar in terms of developing and realizing their potential. Those in the HiPo category had already gone through various skills and knowledge development programs.
• The team had the experience of previous programs, run over about seven years in FrieslandCampina, which gave the advantage of knowing how the company worked, internal rules, and people and teams.

With these premises in mind, the idea of a Mentorship Program came naturally. The need for such a project arose from the following elements: the desire for continuous development of the HiPo employees, the reduced budget for more complex programs, the reprofiling of the parent company’s strategy on on-the-job methods, and the existence of consistent and unvalued know-how of highly experienced employees.

From the very beginning, it was a closed partnership between all the parts involved regarding the concept of the program, the objectives, the steps, the expected results, the implementation, the analysis. The approach took the form of a pilot program in which we would experiment and analyze various aspects of the application of mentorship in an organized way so that later we could decide whether and how to implement a mentorship system in FrieslandCampina Romania.

We analyzed the implementation of the program both during and at the end of it. Mentors and HiPo were continuously involved in reflecting on the process, how the method worked, possible blockers and opportunities, thus obtaining opinions of those who actively experienced the method.

Based on all these analyses, as well as on our, the implementation team, observations, we articulated the following conclusions about mentoring as a method and a program:

• Mentorship is more effective if it is carried out within an organized system or program.

  In an organized context, the transfer really takes place because there is the ownership of the role of Mentor and HiPo, and at the end there is a set of performance evaluation criteria, plus clear planning of mentorship meetings. Outside this context, i.e. naturally, the only ones who are likely to achieve a transfer of know-how are line managers to their subordinates. But even in such situations, planning within a program helps as it allows information to be systematized, extracted, and passed on, facilitating the completion of the process.

  In interdepartmental mentorship (the Mentor is from one department, the HiPo from another), the success rate of handover is very low if done naturally. There can be objective and subjective disincentives to this natural handover, and an organized program helps overcome them. For example, the Mentor’s busy schedule, the HiPo’s lack of courage, subjective perceptions of a mentor’s availability, strained relations with the direct manager, which would become even more strained in the event of mentoring with someone else.

  A mentorship scheme or program can run in annual or bi-annual editions of 4-6 months (we recommend that the number of HiPo being mentored by one person in parallel should be a maximum of 2).

• The effectiveness of the method makes mentorship a key solution of employee development: affordable, fast, with tangible results. The implementation investments of such a program are significantly lower than those of training programs. Development is achieved quickly and is directly proportional to the credibility of the mentors in the eyes of their mentees. Therefore, the personal skills and qualities of a Mentor are prerequisites for successful transfer: honesty (in the desire to help others, to share both successes and mistakes from one’s experience), integrity, the ability to inspire and motivate, the ability to communicate clearly, concisely, and relevantly, the ability to set specific and measurable goals, modesty, passion, and enthusiasm for one’s work.

  Mentors are nominated by the organization (employees) and those with the most nominations are asked if they want to join the project (the principle of “free will” is very important in mentoring). Then, each HiPo chooses their mentor according to what development goal they have set and according to their own wishes.

Mentorship program overview

Running period

February – June 2012

Actual mentorship period

May – June 2012

General objectives

• Leverage existing expertise and knowledge in the company.
• Ensure a know-how transfer from the Mentor to the HiPo.
• Develop and/or strengthen mentorship skills.
• Develop high potential individuals.

Main actions

• Promote the program within the organization.
• Establish the Mentor and the HiPo groups (9 mentors and 12 HiPos involved in the program).
• Allocate mentors and HiPos participating in the program.
• Initial training workshop for mentors. In a half-day workshop, concepts related to mentoring and common confusions with coaching skills or even with the coaching profession were clarified; skills and personal characteristics needed by a Mentor were discussed; simulations for the first meeting were made; agendas, the structure of mentorship meetings, possible obstacles were discussed.
• Organize individual and group coaching sessions during the mentorship with mentors.
• Final workshop to analyze and share results.

Some concrete results of the program

12 HiPo met their development objectives in 3 categories (objectives set and agreed with their direct manager): develop interpersonal and leadership skills, gain technical and expert knowledge, help run the complex projects they were responsible for.

The percentage of achievement of these objectives was variable (on average: 75%). Some objectives were still being worked on because their complexity was much higher than the 2 months of mentorship provided (6 HiPo achieved 100% of their objectives, 4 between 60%-70%, and 2 below 50%).

Example of objectives met through mentoring:

• HiPo: newly hired in FrieslandCampina Romania, 29 years old, with a position that would involve collaboration with all other departments in the company and even collaborations between factories in different countries
• Mentor: Factory Manager
• Objective: to develop persuasion and interpersonal skills with people at different hierarchical levels in other departments
• Achievement: the objective was achieved through the transfer of experience from Mentor to HiPo, the latter actually applying all the advice and examples he received in a concrete, interdepartmental project, where he needed to gain credibility (being a new employee and young), engage people and keep them engaged

6 out of the 9 mentors were pointed out as Active Mentors at the end of the program and promoted in the organization after the end of the program.

The Active Mentor was considered to be the Mentor who, during the program, succeeded in achieving a quality transfer process: the number of mentoring meetings held, evaluation by the HiPo, self-evaluation, degree of achievement of the proposed development objective for the mentee.

The benefits of mentorship

In addition to meeting our main objectives, our mentorship program delivered a set of indirect benefits that we found extremely valuable.

The program created close links between people who normally had little chance of networking, it created bridges of communication between different departments, increased the level of motivation of mentors by having their experience recognized and valued:

• HiPo was not the only category of employees who could benefit from mentorship. In the case of FrieslandCampina Romania, HiPo was the category we chose for the pilot. From the final analysis with all the stakeholders involved in the program, we determined that in the following editions any employee could benefit from mentorship. People from any level or area of the organization could take part in the mentorship program, as long as there was a mentor in the mentorship session willing to accept mentees. The transfer targeted a relevant development objective (the objective was set by the mentee together with the direct manager and was based on the assessments made in the company through the other existing systems, in our case: the Performance Management System and the Talent Management System).

  If such a program was also linked to other systems in the organization, Performance Management System and Talent Management System, then the selection of the learners would be easier.

• The principle of freedom of decision was most useful in setting the participating groups, choosing the content to be transferred, and determining the type of mentoring: intra- or inter-departmental. We found it extremely useful that mentors and mentees were free to choose whether to take on the responsibility of entering such a program where availability and personal openness mattered much more than in classic development programs.

  Mentors also needed to be involved in choosing the mentees with whom they would work, as perceptions of mutual affinity – even if subjective – could play a key role in the success or failure of mentorship. Each Mentor would have his or her own criteria for deciding whether or not to become a mentor, criteria which did not even matter if they were objective or subjective – what mattered was that the subsequent involvement of both was sincere.

  When the process of setting the groups of participants and matching mentors with mentees was realized with everyone’s involvement and in a transparent way, then the chances of success increased significantly.

• The advantages of using external consultants in such a process were linked to the increased likelihood of a successful transfer. Consultants in the area of soft skills development came into such a process with know-how about mentoring techniques and models, which was passed on to mentors. They provided expert support through coaching, helped mentors when they encountered an obstacle or needed confirmation.

  In the case of our program, group coaching, managed by consultants, allowed the sharing of different mentoring experiences and facilitated valuable reflections on the process. It may seem minor, but one of the advantages of an external expert is the external perspective: participants’ openness can be greater during the individual coaching sessions and, by collaborating with external consultants, participants can put positive pressure on the achievement of the objectives.

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