cargill performance management case study

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What Google, Adobe, and Cargill Changed About Their Performance Management Strategies

Updated: Jan 7, 2018

• Be a good coach.
• Empower your team, and don’t micromanage.
• Express interest in team members’ success and personal well-being.
• Don’t be a sissy; be productive and results-oriented.
• Be a good communicator, and listen to your team.
• Help your employees with career development.
• Have a clear vision and strategy for the team.
• Have key technical skills so you can help advise the team.

With What Results?

Performance management at cargill.

• Consistent recognition of outstanding performances from managers who exemplify the qualities of good day-to-day performance management practices.
• Recording the experiences and best practices of effective managers.
• Making teams responsible for the daily operation of performance management.
• Building key skills and competencies necessary to succeed at “Everyday Performance Management,” including effective, two-way communication; feedback delivery; and coaching.

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Performance Management Transformation Cargills Case Study Sharon Arad

Performance Management Transformation: Cargill’s Case Study Sharon Arad, Ph. D. Performance Impact Solutions CEB 1

Organizations Want to Improve Performance Management Traditional Performance Management Everyday Performance Management Illustrative Reviews Decisions High Activity Level Goals Activity Level High Low Begin Cycle ■ ■ Focus on process not people Formal and event-driven Separate from work 3– 5% impact on performance Source: CEB 2012 High Performance Survey. © 2015 CEB. All rights reserved. End Cycle Begin Cycle ■ ■ End Cycle Focus on people not process Informal and ongoing Integrated with work Up to 39% impact on performance Source: CEB 2002 Building the High-Performance Workforce Survey. 2

What the Best Companies Are Doing 1 Improve Expectation Setting Stop 2 Build a Culture of Coaching and Feedback 3 Simplify Performance Reviews Stop Setting SMART goals just once a year Limiting feedback to once or twice a year Requiring extensive and complex documentation Start Engaging in more dynamic and flexible goal-setting © 2015 CEB. All rights reserved. Teaching managers to give ongoing, informal feedback Streamlining documentation to the minimum required 3

Cargill’s PM Transformation: Case Study

Aligning PM Approach to Cargill’s Strategic Priorities CARGILL'S COMPLEX EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT WAS CHANGING MORE RAPIDLY AND REQUIRING THE COMPANY TO CHANGE THE WAY WE WORK • Become more agile • Reduce complexity and simplify processes • Focus on creating value to customers and generating sustainable growth 5

Cargill Performance Management Study Key Findings • Major disconnect between PM and daily work • Managers are reluctant to give candid feedback • Managers view PM as an administrative drill Our Opportunity • Simplify Performance Management Process & Requirements • Focus on Everyday Performance Management behaviors & practices • Strengthen Manager Capabilities 6

Adopting a New Mindset Old Mindset New Mindset Annual, backward-looking reviews Frequent, future focused conversations Rule-based; focus on compliance Principle-based; focus on empowerment Focused on ratings Focused on continuous improvement and development Prescriptive processes Flexible, on-demand tools and resources Managers micromanaged by system Capable managers trusted and expected to do the right thing HR-driven process Manager-employee driven

Everyday Performance Management 1 2 Simplified process with fewer administrative requirements and streamlined performance plan and documentation Focus on ongoing discussions between managers and employees; informal feedback, coaching, and goal review and adjustment 4 8 3 Simplified and flexible goal setting with fewer, more dynamic goals aligned to business strategy and tailored to the specific job and businesses requirements No Rating approach with focus on qualitative assessment of the employee achievements, contribution to business success and development opportunities 5 Cargill Leadership Model is the standard for how goals are achieved

Principles of Effective PM THE NEW MINDSET EVERYDAY PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT THAT WAS BUILT ON A FEW FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLES • Effective PM is an ongoing process • Day-to-day PM activities and practices predict the quality of PM • Employee-manager relationships are at the heart of effective PM • PM processes need to be flexible to address different business needs 9

Performance Discussions How often? Not prescribed; real-time, ongoing, and future focused performance discussions between managers and employees. Who initiates? Who’ is accountable? Manager How much structure and standardization? High level guidelines What topics to include? Each discussion should include goal alignment, goal progress, feedback, and goal adjustment. Over the course of the year, managers should provide feedback and coaching and discuss performance goals, leadership behaviors, career aspirations. How much documentation? Documenting conversation comments is encouraged. Use of technology Simplified, home-grown technology that serves as a notes depository for employee's and managers. 10

Integrating the Coach Approach 11

Lessons Learned • Linking the transformation to strategic priorities • Importance of executive champion and key advocates • The power of a successful pilot • Educating and preparing the HR function • Partnering with Compensation Team • Focus on role and capability of managers • Continue to align with changing business and strategic priorities 12

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Cargill is honored to receive recognition for Everyday Performance Management, which represents an industry best practice. Focusing on ongoing one-on-one discussions and coaching ensures continued strong performance from both Cargill employees and teams. Everyday Performance Management enables both managers and employees to be more focused, agile, and aligned with our business strategies creating positive outcomes for all employees and Cargill as a whole.

PROJECT TITLE

Cargill's Everyday performance Management

PROJECT SUMMARY

In 2010, Cargill's complex external environment was changing rapidly, requiring the company to become more agile, reduce complexity, and simplify processes in order to focus on creating value to our customers. In response to these business priorities, Cargill implemented Everyday Performance Management (PM), an evidence-based practice that leveraged extensive internal and external research that pointed at the opportunity to simplify PM, adopt a new mindset, and focus on what really matters.

The design and implementation of Cargill’s Everyday PM followed three key principles: (1) Focus on Everyday PM. Our central premise was that day-to-day manager and employee practices are more critical to effective PM than are annual, event-based procedures; (2) Strengthen employee and manager capabilities. Investing in strengthening PM-related capabilities of both managers and employees enables Everyday PM. These include building trust, effective communication, and effectively delivering and receiving feedback; and (3) Simplify PM Requirements. This principle is meant not only to save time and labor costs, but also to reduce the extent to which PM is viewed as an annual administratively-complex event that contributes very little to individual and organizational performance. The primary focus of Everyday PM is more frequent manager-employee one-on-one discussions throughout the year. The simplified process has less system requirements in order to dedicate more time for collaboration between the manager and employee to strengthen the relationship, build trust, and increase employee engagement.

After one full year, an evaluation of the employee experience and engagement with Everyday performance Management shows that we have successfully streamlined and simplified our PM process by focusing on ongoing employee-manager discussions, reducing administrative requirements and removing ratings. These changes have resulted in increases in both manager and employee satisfaction and engagement.

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Business challenge

Cargill is a global manufacturer and marketer of products and services in the nutritional, agricultural, industrial and financial sectors. One of its major Business Units, Cargill Starches & Sweeteners Europe, operates in a highly competitive market with seasonal and rapidly increasing raw material costs, so it had to become more competitive. As crucial production sites in the European network, two plants in the Netherlands had the potential to significantly improve performance, so Hitachi Consulting was appointed to help design and implement the Catalyst Project, aimed at restoring accountabilities and increasing cost control through aligned processes, increased ownership and genuine behavioral change.

“Closework® approach: the right balance between challenge and support; the Hitachi Consulting team knew how to challenge and support our team in the right way to maximize results.” – Cargill, Procurement Manager

I am very proud to see the whole team go through the change curve and deliver real savings for Cargill. Of course the challenges ahead require more hard work, but when we have everyone pulling in the same direction it’s just a great way to do your job and be part of a winning team

– Cargill, Plant Manager

Hitachi Consulting’s experts conducted a robust analysis which revealed that production output, energy usage, logistics costs, maintenance efficiency and procurement spend could all be improved. So operational excellence and performance management were designated as the key workstreams, with a robust project management structure aligning both plants on approach and best practice sharing.

Following Hitachi Consulting’s Closework® approach, a multidisciplined Cargill-Hitachi Consulting team focused the project’s first phase on designing processes and developing a performance structure. The first benefits, including a 25% time reduction in production bottlenecks, appeared rapidly, engaging all team members.

Hitachi Consulting also worked with the production and maintenance departments to implement a sustainable management approach on plant production performance, aligned with the supply chain function.

Connecting customer demand to weekly and daily production performance enabled the supply chain function to optimize product switches and manage inventory. Hitachi Consulting also guided the restructuring of the purchasing spend, so that improved procurement processes were implemented with a robust vendor management system.

Operational savings worth millions of Euros per year have been achieved from solid yield improvements, energy efficiencies and improved productivity in all operational departments.

A genuine drive for continuous improvement has been installed, driven by clear roles and responsibilities and agreed KPIs from operator level right up to plant management.

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Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, managing change in the face of a pandemic: the case of cargills (ceylon) plc.

Publication date: 28 August 2023

Issue publication date: 2 January 2024

Teaching notes

Research methodology.

This case study has been developed based on the primary data obtained through a series of interviews held with the senior management of Cargills, and the secondary data obtained from the company’s corporate website www.cargillsceylon.com/,annual reports and publicly available sources of information such as newspaper articles.

Case overview/synopsis

This case study focuses on the strategic responses employed by Cargills (Ceylon) PLC – a leading business conglomerate in Sri Lanka – in response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The duration of this case study is from January 2020 to September 2021. The case study particularly examines the key business sectors of Cargills (Ceylon) PLC – retail, food manufacturing and quick service restaurants – which elaborate on the change management practices and strategies deployed by the company in each of these sectors during this challenging period. This study is based on the primary data gathered from the interviews held with the Cargills (Ceylon) PLC team, and the secondary data obtained from the corporate website of Cargills (Ceylon) PLC. This case study is most suitable to be taught in academic courses related to strategic change management.

Complexity academic level

The case is most suited to be discussed with undergraduates (3rd year and 4th year) following business and management studies related disciplines. While the pivotal area around which the case has been developed is strategic change management, covering environmental analysis, strategic analysis and process of change management, the case could also be used in strategic management classes, to discuss environmental analysis, strategic planning approaches and business and corporate level strategies.

Subject code

CSS 11: Strategy.

• Change management
• Strategic management

Acknowledgements

Disclaimer. This case is intended to be used as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a management situation. The case was compiled from published sources.

Since acceptance of this article, the following author has updated their affiliation: Sanduni Ishara Senaratne is based at the School of Information Systems, Faculty of Science, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.

Senaratne, S.I. , Deyalage, P. , Wickremasinghe, H.T. , Navaratne, T. and Piyasena, K.G.C.C. (2024), "Managing change in the face of a pandemic: the case of Cargills (Ceylon) PLC", , Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 93-125. https://doi.org/10.1108/TCJ-07-2022-0128

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited

You do not currently have access to these teaching notes. Teaching notes are available for teaching faculty at subscribing institutions. Teaching notes accompany case studies with suggested learning objectives, classroom methods and potential assignment questions. They support dynamic classroom discussion to help develop student's analytical skills.

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Cargill Connected4Change

Managing supplier compliance consistent with the accountability framework.

The Accountability Framework calls for commodity buyers to work with their suppliers to achieve and demonstrate fulfilment of ethical supply chain commitments. This includes assessing supplier compliance with commitments, actively engaging suppliers to support compliance, and effectively addressing supplier non-compliance. For companies with complex and geographically distributed supplier networks, this can be a challenge. This case study profiles one solution that Cargill is using to assess, monitor, and support progress towards compliance, consistent with the Accountability Framework. 

Download as a PDF

Framework use case

Company: Cargill

Commodity:  Palm oil

Geography:  Latin America

Accountability Framework sections applied

• Core Principles 5, 6
• Operational Guidance on Supply Chain Management

  Scope

Latin America represents 13% of total palm oil volumes sourced by Cargill. 100% of Cargill Latin America direct origination suppliers are engaged through this programme.

  Challenge

Assessing compliance, monitoring progress, and building capacity for a large number of suppliers in an accessible format and in a time- and cost-effective manner.

  Solution

The online Connected4Change platform supports training, self-assessment, and performance monitoring to accelerate action to fulfil Cargill’s ethical supply chain commitments for palm oil sourced from Latin America.

Challenge: Managing a far-reaching supply chain

Cargill is one of the world’s largest commodity traders. The company purchases palm oil globally, and its Sustainable Palm Oil Policy includes a commitment to No Deforestation, No Peat, and No Exploitation (NDPE). In working to implement its sustainability policy for Latin American palm oil, which accounts for about 13% of its palm oil supply, Cargill’s regional procurement and sustainability teams identified several limiting factors. Challenges included gathering accurate and actionable information about the practices of its suppliers, due to limited capacity of the supplier companies themselves and difficulties in monitoring suppliers’ performance and progress. The company needed a new way to collect relevant information from all of its suppliers in order to overcome the financial and time constraints of monitoring in remote areas throughout Latin America. It also needed a way to engage suppliers more effectively to address sustainability issues, considering the limited reach and impact of face-to-face capacity-building programmes.

Cargill needed way to collect information from all of its suppliers in order to overcome the financial and time constraints of monitoring in remote areas throughout Latin America

Solution: The Connected4Change platform

To address these challenges in supplier management, Cargill worked with Proforest to develop a supplier relationship management tool for the company’s Latin American palm oil supply chain. This approach is consistent with key elements of the Accountability Framework's guidance on supply chain management. Connected4Change (C4C) is an online engagement, continuous improvement, and capacity-building platform. It provides Cargill’s palm oil suppliers in Latin America with information, tools, and resources to implement Cargill’s NDPE policy. It also provides Cargill the ability to monitor supplier compliance and progress over time. 

The platform is primarily aimed at palm oil mills in Cargill’s supply base but will expand over time to include refineries and traders as well. Cargill and Proforest developed the content of the platform with support from local experts and worked with multiple software providers to build training, monitoring, and traceability modules. After initial testing and consultation, the full C4C platform was launched in November 2019; as of January 2021, all of Cargill’s palm oil suppliers in Latin America were registered and using the platform. Cargill is considering ways to incentivise enrolment and exploring the option of making participation mandatory. The platform facilitates stepwise engagement with suppliers. First, suppliers self-report on progress and compliance relative to Cargill’s NDPE commitment, including the NDPE Implementation Reporting Framework. Next, Cargill assesses risks based on that reporting, benchmarks their performance across their supply base, and suggests appropriate actions for suppliers to resolve non-compliances. As part of that process, suppliers have access to capacity-building modules and trainings furnished through the platform to support improvement. 

The following sections describe the two primary modules of the C4C platform — supplier self-assessment and capacity building — and explain how they address the Accountability Framework’s principles and guidance on supply chain management. This example illustrates how other companies might similarly apply the Accountability Framework to guide the establishment of effective supplier management systems.

Related Core Principles

Supplier self-assessment and action plans.

Consistent with this Principle, the first objective of the C4C online platform is to assess a supplier’s level of compliance with Cargill’s NPDE policy and identify priorities for improvement. Suppliers provide information through a self-assessment questionnaire covering five topics:

• Company information
• Certification
• Traceability
• Environmental issues
• Social issues 

Components within these topics address the supplier’s policies, processes, and actions. For example, in the section on social issues, the supplier is asked to identify policies for human rights, health and safety, labour conditions, and remuneration, and to indicate whether Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) and Participatory Social and Environmental Impact Assessments have been carried out. In the certification section, a supplier can provide information on internal policies for certification, whether the supplier has an internal team with the capacity to manage certification processes, and whether it has completed certification audits. 

The self-assessment module also includes a mapping component that allows each supplier to securely upload geographic coordinates and boundaries for production areas and processing facilities in its own supply base and analyse them using both global data sets (e.g., Global Forest Watch) and available local or regional spatial data.

Based on the information provided through this assessment, the platform generates a score indicating the supplier’s compliance status. C4C then recommends specific actions, tailored to the identified gaps, that suppliers can take to improve their score and move into compliance. For instance, Figure 1 below illustrates how the platform might guide a supplier regarding the use of fire. In this example, a company with a trained fire control team might score of 4 out of 5 (showing progress towards full compliance) and is advised via the C4C-generated action plan on how to advance to a score of 5 (fully compliant) by:

• completing an annual progress report on the execution of its no-burning action plan; and
• updating it in a participatory manner, according to national and international standards and regulations.

The platform also enables each supplier to view its own performance scores and compare them to the scores of peer suppliers (see Figure 2). This creates an element of competition that can help foster a “race to the top,” especially when suppliers understand the business advantages of fully meeting their buyer’s ethical supply chain commitments.

Data from the C4C platform provide Cargill with essential information about the presence and nature of non-compliances in its supply base, and progress toward compliance. Based on this information, Cargill can then prioritise further action at mills with non-compliances or high risk of non-compliances. This is done through site visits or direct discussions about Cargill’s expectations on fulfilling the action plan generated by C4C. 

Building capacity through online training

In a recent review of the company’s supplier engagement practices, Cargill’s Latin American palm oil team identified challenges in assessing the impact of workshops and trainings provided for suppliers on key sustainability issues. 

The C4C platform helps address this limitation by providing a delivery mechanism for capacity-building modules. Suppliers can participate in online trainings, and Cargill can gauge their understanding of key issues by following their progress in completing various training modules. 

The training materials included in the platform include modules on setting an NDPE policy, waste management, environmental impacts, human rights, social impacts, FPIC, forced labour, fair salary, health and safety, discrimination, harassment, grievance mechanisms, freedom of association, HCV and HCS (forthcoming), and traceability (forthcoming). Each topic module includes an animated presentation, a resource library, a glossary of important terms, and a final evaluation. Through the exercises and evaluations included in these interactive trainings, the Cargill team can identify each supplier’s training and knowledge gaps and take note of suppliers that have not completed the recommended trainings. 

Insights: Driving accountability, decision-making, and progress

The Accountability Framework encourages commodity buyers to engage noncompliant suppliers to drive timely improvements, but also calls for instituting commercial consequences (including suspension or exclusion) when reasonable progress is not made in a timely manner. The Framework outlines a set of factors for companies to consider when determining the appropriate situations in which to retain, suspend, or exclude non-compliant suppliers. 

Companies seeking to make procurement decisions that consider their suppliers’ compliance with or progress toward ethical supply chain commitments need sound information on which to base those decisions. The C4C platform is one such tool to help Cargill better understand supplier performance, compliance gaps, and efforts to close these gaps, beginning with training. As the use of this platform matures, Cargill intends to update suppliers’ scores annually to assess improvement trajectories of individual suppliers as well as its entire supply base in aggregate. Under its palm oil responsible sourcing program, Cargill considers information obtained from C4C, as well as other sources such as direct supplier engagement, collaborative initiatives, and grievance mechanisms, when making procurement decisions. 

"We went from having trainings with suppliers from one mill at a time to engaging over 90 participants from multiple mills at the same time. The platform has really helped them to implement NDPE criteria in their operations."

“The platform allows us to collect information on sustainability performance in a more efficient way, providing real-time feedback on potential actions to close gaps and integrating frameworks like the Implementation Reporting Framework.”

Why use an online supplier engagement platform?

Benefits for cargill.

• Saves cost, time, and efficiency from integrating previously manual supplier assessment questionnaires into one platform for engaging suppliers and tracking their progress
• Gives better visibility and quantitative data on supplier compliance
• Identifies high-priority mills (i.e., those presenting the highest level of non-compliance) for planning field visits or investments in improving practices

Benefits for suppliers

• Allows suppliers to assess their performance across a range of sustainability issues according to a standardised rubric that relates directly to their buyer’s sustainability commitments and expectations
• Enables suppliers to see how they compare with peers
• Provides access to tailored training materials, at no cost to the supplier, which allows them to continuously update their knowledge through theory, case studies, and other relevant documents necessary for meeting Cargill’s sustainability expectations for their operations
• Provides tools and facilitates improvement processes so that suppliers can continue to be eligible to sell their products to Cargill in mutually beneficial long-term purchasing relationships

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Performance Management Case Study: Fossil Group

Jocelyn Stange

February 4, 2021 | 2 minute read

In this blog, we'll share how Fossil Group evolved its performance management process and 3 simple steps.

The Evolution of Fossil's Performance Management Process

Fossil Group was using a complex, 100% paper process for performance reviews and check-ins for more than 15,000 global employees. They wanted to move toward a digital performance management strategy, but knew they needed to simplify the process first.

Fossil Group set up four traditional components that were stretched across three strategic touch points throughout the year. These touch points were supplemented with ongoing performance conversations that could be initiated by any employee, at any time.

As Fossil Group evolved its company-wide performance appro a ch , they were happy to see immediate progress.

92% of employees were participating in goal-setting reviews, setting an average of six goals per employee.

However, when they dug into the data, they found that 35% of individual goals created were misaligned or did not have an impact on the organization and its strategic priorities. They knew they needed to get better at goal alignment if they wanted to meet important business objectives.

Explore the three ways Fossil Group simplified performance management.

1. They scheduled ongoing performance conversations and continuous feedback.

Although the three formal performance touch points in place were working, Fossil Group knew teams needed to have goal conversations more frequently. They implemented informal “check-ins” that could be launched by any employee at any time.

To ensure  adequate time was made for important performance conversations and other performance related activities, Fossil Group implemented "Performance Days" — days strictly dedicated to employee performance. On these days, n o task-related meetings are scheduled, and all work is set aside for the day. Conversations between managers, employees, and teams are all centered on performance.

2. They created intuitive goal conversation templates.

Fossil Group recognized that simply having more performance conversations wasn’t enough — the conversations needed to include healthy dialogue, debate, and collaboration from managers and employees. They created 1-on-1 templates to help guide managers and employees through an effective and productive goal conversation.

Check-in templates could be customized to the needs and work of individual teams and team members. The templates helped ensure conversations were focused on creating clear, aligned, and motivating goals. 

3. They used recognition to keep performance conversations fresh.

Fossil Group wanted to bring performance conversations full circle by recognizing employee performance daily. They created recognition toolkits for managers including fun notecards, gift cards, and employee recognition tips. They  also  launched an online, peer-to-peer recognition program that generated an average of 140 recognition stories each week.

By  taking time to uncover the needs of its employees, and delegating time for managers to focus on perf ormance,  Fossil Group  was able to listen and act on employee voices and evolve their performance strategy f or  succes s .

Download our latest ebook: Making Time for Performance Management to get more tips for simplifying your performance management process.

Published February 4, 2021 | Written By Jocelyn Stange

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