Create an environment that drives the culture you want: Coca-Cola VP

When organisations are thinking about building a certain type of culture in their company, they need to understand how to create the right environment.

Tapaswee Chandele, global VP talent and development at Coca-Cola spoke to Digital Nation at Qualtrics X4 about the importance of culture within a workplace.

She said, “Let's create the environment that we want that drives the culture that we need,” she said.

When building the right HR strategy, tools and technology, Chandele said Coca-Cola made it simple as “no two human beings are the same”.

“[This] is the most blindingly obvious insight but sometimes we tend to overcomplicate things and we want to have all the answers,” she explained.

“My big learning from this was, I didn't need to have all the answers, I needed to know where we were going and that felt like the right path. If something didn't work, you pivot, but if nothing has fallen apart, it's fine.”             

When it comes to each individual company’s hybrid work policy, Chandele said each brand does what works for them.

She said, “Every culture is different, every company is different, and every CEO what they say is different. Whichever position a company takes, you will attract and retain a certain type of person and if that works for you, wonderful. There is no right or wrong answer.”

However, she does note that those companies who flip-flop on their working from home policies will end up experiencing problems with their staff.

“If you say what you don't mean that is when the issues start. People are able to see through, see to that quite easily. I think staying true to your values and being authentic and seeing things transparently, it's a good thing when people make their own choices.”

Coca-Cola’s hybrid work policy is led by “principle not policy”, Chandele said.

“We have not put anything out that mandates that you need to do A or B. We've empowered people managers, we've told them to have conversations with their teams to figure out what works best for them,” she said.

“Like every other company, we've also struggled with what should we be doing. We've just gone with our values which is where the best people can thrive.”

Athina Mallis travelled to the Qualtrics X4 conference in Salt Lake City as a guest of Qualtrics.