Talent Acquisition Process of Avery Dennison

Talent Acquisition Process of Avery Dennison Bangladesh

Avery Dennison Bangladesh is the leading organization in the industry of garments packaging and labeling and it is being serving a huge range of customers for many years. This company is not only providing its best services to the locally but also is an established brand internationally. Behind being a successful company the employees of the organization have been playing a vital role and the company also values its people the most. By working in the Human Resources Division I have came across the whole talent acquisition process, incentive, compensation and benefits system, general services and enormous training facilities that are provided to the human capital of the company. I have analyzed the whole Talent Acquisition Process of Avery Dennison, the rules, policies and procedures of HR department regarding recruitment, and the evolving role of other departments along with the integration of HR department in talent acquisition process and activities of talent acquisition that are practiced in real business world aligning with the organizational strategy. This report is a detailed representation of all the mentioned topics and contains a preliminary discussion about Avery Dennison. This company is the market leader in the packaging and labeling sector in Bangladesh.. In the overview part the vision, mission, core values, objectives, efforts, products and services are described. The Talent Acquisition Process starting from the requisition process to the offer process is described in an elaborate manner. In the finding and analysis part I have discussed the whole assessment of the talent acquisition process from the point of view of the people working in this company. The survey questionnaire includes the answers of the questions in light of what they think about the talent acquisition process, what they want to add or eliminate from it, how it is adding value to the organization and how this process can be make more effective and efficient. Finally, I have tried to give some recommendations from my learning that I have got from my day to day job at Avery Dennison and from my university lectures as well.

Objectives of the Study:

Broad Objective: The Broad or General Objective of this report is to have a thorough understanding about the talent acquisition process and the employees‟ perception over it which is supposed to contribute to the enhancement of the company.

Specific Objectives:

1. To understand current recruitment & selection process
2. To find out the multiplicity of the process imparted to the people in different functional areas of the organization
3. To know the employees view and opinion about the process
4. To suggest some recommendations for the improvement

Paxar/ Avery Dennison:

Paxar Corporation is a global leader in providing innovative merchandising systems for the retail and apparel industry. It is doing business in more than 75 countries all over the world. In Bangladesh it is operating as a subsidiary of Avery Dennison Corporation.

Avery Dennison was originally founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1935 as Kum Kleen Products, a partnership of Mr. and Mrs. Ray Stanton Avery. The name was changed to Avery Adhesives in 1937. In 1946, the company was incorporated as Avery Adhesive Label Corp., and the name was subsequently changed to Avery Adhesive Products, Inc. in 1958 and to Avery Products Corporation in 1964. The name was changed again to Avery International Corporation in 1976, and it became Avery Dennison after the company merged with the Dennison Manufacturing Company in 1990.

Avery Dennison Corporation (Avery Dennison) is engaged in the production of pressuresensitive materials, and a variety of tickets, tags, labels other converted products, and office and consumer products. Some pressure-sensitive materials are sold to label printers and converters that convert the materials into labels and other products through embossing, printing, stamping and die-cutting. The Company operates in two segments: Pressure-sensitive Materials and Retail Branding and Information Solutions. Some are sold by the Company in converted form as printable media, tapes and reflective sheeting. It also manufactures and sells a variety of office and consumer products, other converted products and items not involving pressure-sensitive components, such as binders, organizing systems, markers, fasteners and business forms, as well as tickets, tags, radio-frequency identification (RFID) inlays and labels, and imprinting equipment and related services for retailers and apparel manufacturers. PAXAR/AVERY DENNISON is generating new ideas, creating new products, making sales, purchasing raw materials and components, producing goods and providing service to Paxar/Avery Dennison‟s customer. Within the Distribution phase of the retail supply chain; Paxar/Avery Dennison can handle Global Data Distribution, Security Solutions and Inventory Tracking needs. And to the final sale at the Retail In-Store level, Paxar/Avery Dennison offers Inventory Tracking System, Retail Control Systems, and Pricing Systems to meet the needs.

As a global leader, Paxar/Avery Dennison always comes up with innovative merchandising system for world known retailers. PAXAR/AVERY DANNISON objectives are to compete aggressively but fairly, deliver one-stop shopping to its customers “from concept of check out” and provide value to its shareholder. In Paxar/Avery Dennison everybody is treated as equal irrespective of his or her job responsibilities and designations.

An overview of the Department:

Avery Dennison has different activities around the world however in Bangladesh this company basically operates on the foundation of RBIS (Retail Branding information Solution). All the departments here work based on RBIS. There are several divisions among which the activities of Avery Dennison are divided. The organization follows a horizontal hierarchy for the ease of decision making process and minimization of complexity. Currently the functional departments of Avery Dennison are Commercial, HR & Administration, Finance and IT. The Commercial Division is consisted of five more departments such as Customer Service (CS), Factory Sales (FS), RBO Sales, Global Product Development (GPD) and Technical Sales (TS). For a better overview a précised organogram is given below:

Organogram of Avery Dennison’s Functional Departments

Apart from these departments there are some sub units in each department. On the other hand the organization has three different levels like Top level posts, Mid-level posts and Entry level posts based on authority, responsibility, technical skills, qualifications, functional knowledge, experience, expertise etc. that the position requires. As an Intern I used to work in the Talent

Acquisition and Learning & development under Human Resources & Administration Department. Basically the department has two wings. One is Human Resource also known as core HR and another is Administration known as support HR. The core HR has three different units- Talent Acquisition (TA), Learning & Development and HR Shared Services (HRSS). Besides the Administration itself is an individual unit that looks after the facilities like arranging transports, recreation, sports etc.

Talent Acquisition (TA) Process:

At Avery Dennison, employees are at the heart of the business. The company understands the value of each individual brings to the organization; believe in investing in the best people in the industry. Recruitment philosophy is closely aligned to this principle and strives hard to recruit the best talent for the business. As Avery Dennison is the market leader in the packaging and labeling industry of Bangladesh, it follows a very specific, sophisticated and authentic process in their recruitment. Each and every step in the recruitment process has its own justification and validation. Every step is designed by upholding the international standard and all the steps are required to find out the best suitable candidate to whom the job can be offered. The whole recruitment process of Avery Dennison is elaborated below.

The recruitment process starts with the requisition. When there is a vacancy in the organization because of the resignation of an employee the concern department sends a headcount requisition form to the HR department specifically to the talent acquisition team. The headcount requisition form defines how many employees the department needs and for which level. Apart from the resignation there can be vacancies because of the organizational restructure, departmental redesign, reshape in the divisions, termination of any employees, retirement or any new projects. After receiving the requisition form from concerned department the recruitment process starts. In Avery Dennison the recruitment process varies from different hierarchical levels and the processes are described below.

Vacancy Creation & Approval

In order to hire a new / replacement resource, a requisition needs to be created and authorized. The Recruitment process in Avery Dennison is managed by an online tracking system – Virtual Edge (VE).

RBIS has a distinguished process for Requisition approval. Prior to raising a requisition in Virtual Edge, following approval is needed:

1. Hiring Manager (HM) fills the Manpower Requisition Form and sends it to HRBP with a copy to TA team.
2. HRBP works with HRSS to reconcile the Headcount and validate the requisition.
3. HRBPs work with HM to get Country GM‟s approval and send it back to TA.

Discovery Meeting

Once the vacancy is approved, the TA team meets up with HM to discuss the hiring strategy for the open position in question. The hiring strategy is discussed and agreed (this includes sourcing approach, timelines, mode of interview, interview methodology & process etc) and the requisition is subsequently raised in VE. During the Discovery Meeting, the various competencies to evaluate the candidate for the open role are agreed upon. This is an important step in the interview and selection process as this all applicants would be evaluated against these competencies.

Raising the requisition in Virtual Edge

1. Once the MRF is approved the requisition is raised by TA team in VE. This is done by filling out various details on the VE requisition page.
2. The Approval Workflow is created based on agreed approval process.
3. Once the last approver approves the requisition, the workflow is completed and the requisition status goes from Pending approval to open. This is when the requisition is considered „Open‟ for hiring. The TA team can then open it to various sourcing channels & publish it to different job boards.

Sourcing Process:

Once the requisition is „Open‟ and discovery meeting has been completed, the sourcing efforts are initiated. Based on the JD, TA team starts sourcing resumes from various sourcing channels like – Internal Talent (from within the organization), Employee Referrals, Job Portals, Social Networking sites (LinkedIn, Facebook), Agencies etc. Talent Acquisition function is aligned to the overall strategy of reducing cost for the firm and hire in the most efficient manner. To achieve this, sourcing is initiated through low cost channels for a few weeks before reaching out to agencies. As per the country laws Avery Dennison does not employ anyone below legal age and all the resumes are processed in the system via Virtual Edge.

Process

1. All sourced profiles are checked for duplicity i.e. if they‟ve applied to AD in the past 6 months
2. The source validation is checked and the ownership is awarded to source.
3. All sourced profiles are screened for fitment based on JD by TA team.
4. The screened profiles are shared with HM for their inputs and if shortlisted, the applicant is invited for interview.

Channels

Talent Acquisition function is aligned to the overall strategy of reducing cost for the firm and hire in the most efficient manner. To achieve this, sourcing is initiated through low cost channels for a few weeks before reaching out to agencies. TA function leverages following channels to source profiles:

1. Internal talent pool
2. Employee Referral
3. Job Portal
4. Social Media (LinkedIn, Facebook)
5. Agencies

Once the alternate channels have been exhausted for the role, the TA Recruiter can open the vacancy to Agencies with an approval from TA Country / Regional leader.

Interview & Selection Process:

Once all applications are received and source ownership is established, the applicants are put through the interview process to determine best fit for the open role. The interview process at Avery Dennison is based on competency based assessment framework where an applicant‟s fitment is determined by evaluating them on certain competencies required for the role. These competencies are agreed upon in the Discovery Meeting earlier in the process when the requisition is raised. There are 8 Leadership Principles and 6 Foundational competencies that a prospective employee needs to possess in order to be successful at Avery Dennison.

Leadership Principles:

1. Think Big and Act Boldly
2. Focus on Customers & the Market
3. Provide Vision & Direction
4. Drive Action & Execution
5. Rally & Empower People
6. Collaborate Across Boundaries
7. Build Organizational Capability
8. Model Integrity & Social Responsibility

Foundational Competencies:

1. Adaptability
2. Business Acumen
3. Giving and Receiving Feedback
4. Influencing Others
5. Listening
6. Self Development

Each Leadership Principle or competency is measured by a situation or event that the candidate must recall and describe. The situation or event, and the probing questions that follow, are designed to help the Interviewer, determine how the applicant has performed in some important situations related to the specified Leadership Principle or competency. The candidates are evaluated basis the evidence they present in regards to the behavioral indicators.

Employee Referral:

Avery Dennison‟s Asia Pacific Employee Referral Program (ERP) is intended to identify potential candidates from their existing employees’ social networks. Employees are encouraged & rewarded to identify highly qualified potential candidates and refer these individuals for possible employment with Avery Dennison. When an eligible employee refers an eligible candidate and the candidate is hired, the eligible employee receives a Referral Incentive Award (RIA) under the terms of this Policy and the terms of the referral program that is in effect.

A candidate is termed & qualified as “Referral” when he / she satisfy the following conditions:

• Is referred for an open Professional level position with Avery Dennison Asia Pacific
• Is referred by an Eligible Employee
• Has not submitted an application or resume to Avery Dennison Asia Pacific, including independent submissions and referral submissions, within the six (6) months prior to the date of the job posting or through a search firm within the twelve (12) months prior to the date of the job posting
• Complies with Avery Dennison Asia Pacific‟s on-line application procedures; and
• Within the twelve (12) months prior to the date of the job posting, has not been an Avery Dennison Asia Pacific employee, intern, temporary or leased employee, contractor, or consultant.

If the referred candidate is offered the job and joins Avery Dennison, the employee will get the RIA / referral amount within 3 months after the referred candidate commences employment with Avery Dennison. Referral Incentive Award is USD 300 across all levels under Professional Staff.

“Professional Level” roles are classified under the following Peoplesoft codes.

• Officer
• Non-officer
• Middle Management
• Professional, Technical and Entry Level Managers
• Office/Clerical
• Sales

Internal Job Posting (IJP):

Avery Dennison thoroughly believes in promoting internal talent from within the organization. A framework has been designed to facilitate this process and increase opportunities for employees to advance and develop in their careers. As part of this framework, an online portal called jobs.averydennison.net has been developed which is a platform that offers visibility to all jobs open across different geographies within Avery Dennison.

Eligibility:

Employees who are individual contributors and supervisors must have been in their current positions for a minimum of 18 months and employees who are in manager or higher level roles must have been in their current positions for a minimum of 24 months in order to apply for internal job postings.

Application Process:

1. Avery Dennison has designed a program to increase opportunities for our employees to advance and develop in their careers. An internet based job-posting site called jobs.averydennison.net has been launched.
2. Job.averydennison.net makes it fast and easy for employees to find out about, and apply for, jobs globally within Avery Dennison. This online career centre lets employees see what jobs are available across the firm.

Application Steps:

1. Candidate discuss about his or her interest in the vacancy with the hiring manager
2. Advise the current manager if he or she is interested in applying for an internal vacancy
3. Prepare the cover letter for the role, update resume and submit application for the role by clicking on the relevant job number.
4. The responsible local Talent team member will discuss his or her application and suitability for the role with the current manager and hiring manager and will advise him or her on next steps.

Selection Process:

If a candidate is successful after an initial review of application, He or she will be required to undergo the recruitment process for that specific role. The recruitment process for each role varies but will be similar to recruitment process for an external applicant. The objective of the selection process for a vacancy is for Avery Dennison to assess a candidate’s merits and to select, at its sole discretion, the strongest candidate for the position. Like an external candidate, an internal applicant must meet the role requirements. Role requirements and expectations are outlined in a role’s job description and/or role scorecard. Internal applicants will be assessed on criteria including but not limited to technical aptitude, experience and personal fit for the position. Avery Dennison will also take into consideration:

1. The staff member’s length of service in current role (this must be a minimum of 18 or 24 months, depending on seniority, in order to be considered)
2. Feedback from current manager on the employee and their performance
3. The business implications of the person leaving their current position. In some cases, Avery Dennison‟s business priorities may not justify the person being able to move from their current job.

Notifying Current Manager:

It is important to keep the Candidate‟s current manager in the loop if the candidate is interested in applying for an internal vacancy. Keeping the current manager and the hiring manager updated of his or her interests allows the recruitment process to run more efficiently. There will be no ramifications if the application is unsuccessful. If as an internal applicant the candidate is successful in applying for an internal vacancy, he or she will typically move to the new role within 60 to 90 days. However, the exact date is to be agreed upon by his or her new and current manager depending on the role and the business requirements of both teams.

Finding and Analysis:

A questionnaire was designed to identify about effectiveness of the Talent Acquisition process that Avery Dennison follows. It contains 16 questions which were asked from the employees for getting their responses. As the whole Talent Acquisition process is very confidential, all level of employees do not access to it. As a result the sample population was limited to only 30 people maximum from the top level and some from the mid level. The first few questions and their analysis give an idea about the demographical information about the sample population. The second part of the questionnaire elaborates the information that is related to the employees‟ opinion about the Talent Acquisition process of Avery Dennison and their perception towards the changes they would like to see. Last but not the least the third part of the questionnaire contains some open ended questions that describes the actual suggestions they had stated. These open ended questions will be later on described in the recommendation part. Upon elaboration of the findings the proper assessment of the Talent Acquisition process from the employees‟ perspective will be clearer. All the findings are discussed in tabulation, percentage and graphical analysis and their interpretation. The first three findings of the questions give answers and an overview of the demographical condition of the sample. Interpretation and graphical representation of each finding along with a total demographical analysis has been discussed elaborately below for a better understanding.

Overall demographical analysis of the survey:

Demographic factors not only represent a population‟s different aspects but also possess an impact on how the population will behave towards a specific thing. So for this reason in this research having an idea on the demographic conditions of the sample population is important.

Among many demographic factors three have been given preferences in this research and those are Gender, Age and Working Position of the employees in Avery Dennison. From the finding of the demographical factors we can see that there is a balance of both genders. Though this factor does not have any impact on the evaluation process of the Talent Acquisition system of the company, a record of the gender always becomes the demographical factor in any survey. If we consider the age of the employees we can find that majority of the employees are mid-aged who belong to age group of 31-35. This signifies that Avery Dennison always recruits people who have enough experience to make proper decisions regarding critical issues so that the efficient growth of the organization can be ensured. Because of this reason the major portion of the surveyed employees was from the Top Level as they make the policies and procedures of whole organization.

From this section the analysis of the second part of the questionnaire will be carrying on. The next few questions will focus on the perception and opinion of the employees about the overall Talent Acquisition process of Avery Dennison. The findings are also elaborated with tabulation, percentage analysis, graphical representation and interpretation of individual finding.

A whole analysis of the employees’ opinion about the Talent Acquisition process of Avery Dennison:

The second part of the survey is basically the main part that focuses on the agreement, disagreement and the perceptions of the employees on the Talent Acquisition process of Avery Dennison. These nine questions were asked from the employees on the basis of five dimensions which are Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree. In each and every question among this nine, some people agreed, some disagreed and some remained neutral having no comments.

The first question was asked to know whether the current talent acquisition process that Avery Dennison is using effective and efficient. Here majority of the employees agreed to the fact whereas the second significant portion remained neutral. This states that the majority employees are satisfied with the current recruitment process. But there were some employees who were not contented and wanted some changes in the process. The next three questions aim to discover the fact about the employees‟ perspective about whether the recruitment process should be internal, external or a mixture of both. When the employees were asked about this majority of them denied about the fact that the recruitment process should be either internal or external. Rather they suggested that the recruitment process should be a mixed approach of both internal and external. If we give a look at the statistics of tables we can find out that, 90% employees disagreed with internal recruitment process while no particular employee agreed to this. So here the majority people were against the statement. Additionally, 13% people agreed to the fact that the recruitment process should be external whereas 37% disagreed to this. However half of the employees with 50% people remained neutral. But while they were asked about the talent acquisition process to be both internal and external 90% people agreed to this. It clearly states the fact that the highest portion of the employees suggests that the recruitment process should be a mixture of internal and external approach. The next question was asked to know whether the current media that are being used to vacancy advertisements are enough. Here the larger portion of the employees agreed to the fact that new media should be added along with the current ones with only a few people disagreed to the fact. The following question was asked to know the employees‟ perspective on the changes of the recruitment process in time to time. The table and the chart state that the majority employees found changes in the recruitment process according to the course of time however 63% people remained neutral and 30% agreed. While the employees were asked about the involvement of the respected departments should be increased or not the significant of the people agreed with 86% whereas 33% strongly agreed and only 7% people disagreed. This clearly implies that the employees wants the other departments where the recruitment would be taking place should be involved in the process besides only Human Resource Department.

The next two questions were asked to know about the quality of the recruitment process. The questions were asked on the transparency, cost, length, relevance and time consumption. Here the 55% of the surveyed employees agreed to the fact that the recruitment process is lengthy, time consuming and costly while only 30% people disagreed. But more than half of the people said that the talent acquisition process is relevant and transparent. From these nine questions we can see that there are some limited flaws of the process with some positive sides that Avery Dennison currently follows.

In the following part there will be four open ended questions that were asked to the employees to know about the actual suggestions they provided with. The answers of these questions are taken as suggestions and are stated in the recommendation part.

Recommendations:

The report has been analyzed to get to know the employees‟ perspectives and opinions about the current talent acquisition process of Avery Dennison. This report explains the total assessment of the talent acquisition process that the company is currently following. It has been mentioned before that this process of Avery Dennison is one of the international standards. If we go through the tables, statistics, graphs and analysis we can see that there are both flaws and positive sides of the process. However there is nothing called best hence this talent acquisition process also needs some improvements for which an elaborated list of recommendations has been stated. The recommendations are basically given in light of every finding from the point of view of the employees yet some general suggestions are also stated.

• If we look at the recruitment process of the leading organizations we can see that Assessment Centre is one of the crucial parts. There are many elements like case studies, group discussions, presentation etc. not only help the HR to find the eligible candidates but also make a recruitment process more efficient. While the employees were asked about any changes they would like to suggest majority of the employees said that assessment centre should be included in the current recruitment process for each level of recruitment rather not limiting it to the GOLD hiring process only.
• Another important test that could be added to the recruitment process of Avery Dennison is Personality or Behavior test so that person-job match and person-organization match can be ensured. Though from the interviews with HR and concerned departments both can be known however the personality test gives more authentic result. Moreover this test will also help the organization to determine what kind of training could be given to the employees in necessary situations. Furthermore these results can be used in succession planning of the company.
• Automation of the recruitment process and less paper works should be ensured. The IQ tests, Functional tests etc. can be taken electronically so that paper work can be reduced. Furthermore, the resumes and the interview evaluation forms that are printed for the interviewers in the interview boards can be provided in a computerized way rather than delivering them in printed forms. This will not only reduce the paper works but also signifies the company‟s goodwill, professionalism, efficiency and also reduce cost.
• In Avery Dennison currently multiple days are allocated for taking individual interviews and the time for decision making in recruitment process is lengthy. For most of the positions there are more or less three interviews take place and all these interviews are done in different days with long time constrains. Moreover the decision making also takes longer period of time and sometime for one position the completion of all the steps takes more than one month. So in these cases all the interview of one position can be taken in one day or consecutive days and the decision making of the selection of candidates should made more spontaneous.
• Biasness, reference from higher authority, showoff or eye wash interviews should be eliminated. These are very rare cases however happen sometimes. Because of the reference from the higher authority there remains a chance to overlook many potential candidates. Besides, in case of the internal recruitments or transfers of the employees from one department to another, management has pre-selected candidates. But to follow the organizational policy eye wash interviews take place. These sorts of practices should be eliminated as through this the efficiency of the recruitment process diminishes and impression of the organization on the rejected applicant becomes negative.
• The background check of the employees should be ensured so that the transparency of the recruitment process remains unhampered. It is very necessary for each and every organization to conduct a background check of the newly hired employees. This will not only eliminates candidates with bad past records, criminal records etc. but also increased the company goodwill.
• There should be a proper timing for requisition of recruitment of the employees. The concerned departments should give at least 10 days to HR to announce the vacancy, shortlist the candidates and process the whole recruitment efficiently.
• Apart from only Linked In, other social media can be used for the advertisement of the vacant positions such as Facebook, Twitter etc. There could be a formal Facebook page of Avery Dennison Career where all the external job postings can be advertised as majority of the people use this social media for news updates. This will boost up the efficiency of the hiring process, ensure high potential candidates and will work as a cost effective source vacancy announcement.

Last but not the least another important step that should be added to the talent acquisition process is to provide feedback to the rejected employees. This practice is done only for the top level hiring but for the entry level and mid level there is no such approach. The rejected applicants should be contacted to inform them about the causes of rejection and how to improve the lacking. It will be helpful for the candidates and the company as the applicants would know their inefficiencies and the organization would become more professional.

Conclusion:

Avery Dennison one of the successful multinational companies in Bangladesh that has earned its success in short course of time. This is the leading organization in the Labeling and Packaging industry of the country that is serving millions of customers globally with its level best services. The human capital is the main asset for the company and The Human Resource Division plays an important role in the success of the organization and this department ensures hiring right people for the right positions of each department with attractive remuneration and motivation. In this report I have worked on the Talent Acquisition Process of Avery Dennison. It has been mentioned before that the hiring process of the company is based on international standards for which potentials candidate recruitment and selection is taking place. However, there were 30 employees of top and mid levels were surveyed to have their opinion on the recruitment process.

In the study a notable number of findings were obtained based on which the company can do better in terms of the recruitment process. Here we can see that majority of the employees said that the recruitment process should be a blend of internal and external approach. Moreover they have also said that there could be other media that can be added with the current media used for vacancy advertisement. Additionally they also encouraged the view of involving the concerned departments in the recruitment process. There were many employees who think that the process is time consuming, lengthy and costly however majority of the employees found the process relevant and transparent. They have also suggested that there should be personality test, online tests, less paper work, assessment centre for each and every level hiring etc. and some important information gathering system like background check, reference check etc should be implemented effectively.

Through this study I have been able to understand about the practical knowledge of recruiting people in big organizations and how the employees can motivate the company to change the process positively. This report has helped me to get a thorough idea about working professionally and this will help me to grow in my future endeavor. In brief it can be said that despite of having some flaws in their recruitment system Avery Dennison is following one of the effective ways to recruit people and working on this report has also enabled to discover the actual scenario of the professional environment.