This summer, I worked as a Human Resources intern at the Asia-Pacific Headquarter of Dow Chemical in Shanghai China, for about 2 months. I’ll write about my experiences during my internship at Dow, and especially the ones that could link with contents that have been mentioned in this course.
Dow is a huge multinational firm, so its organization structure is quite complex, with different functions operating towards the same goal set by the central leadership team. Operating functions include the following: Research & Development, Manufacturing & Engineering, Marketing & Sales, Supply Chain, Human Resources, Environment Health Safety & Sustainability (EHS&S), Public Affairs, Finance, Legal, Purchasing, Work Place Services, Operations, etc.
Since I interned in the HR department, I had the chance to have a closer look at how HR department is structured, both globally and locally. The HR function is divided into different sub-functions, including Workforce Planning, Talent Management, Compensation & Benefits, HR Site Services (denoted as HR Business Partners in other firms), Mobility, HR Information Systems. There are a few more sub-functions in the global headquarter, which includes Diversity & Inclusion and Engagement, Organizational Effectiveness, while in the local practice they are merged together with other sub-functions. The department is headed by the Asia-Pacific HR Director and the Greater China HR Director, together with 1 leader and 3-5 people in each sub-function. It is not a huge department, plus the team has a flat structure, so communication was smooth. I am able to know and meet with HR leaders, and even get the chance to sit and talk with regional directors, which was really a good experience.
Employees in the HR department collaborates with other business functions, as well as global HRs in other geographic regions to meet the company’s common goal. The company’s mission is “to passionately create innovation for our stakeholders at the intersection of chemistry, biology, and physics”. Not only the Research & Development department is delivering innovative solutions for scientific challenges, but the other departments are also working hard to achieve this goal. During my internship I participated in the “iLead Innovation” project, during which the HR department promotes the “innovation is from everyone and everywhere” mindset through a series of events, encouraging people from all functions to work innovatively. One more collaboration example is that HR site service leaders (HRBP) provides consultation to function leaders from the employee perspective, and also attends function leadership meetings and participate in key decisions.
However, a lot of the times cross-function collaboration was not that easy and the information flow in such a huge firm is pretty slow. A single change/action requires communication with relevant functions and also agreements from several different functions, and actions are usually unable to take place immediately. One of my internship projects is the “New Hire Orientation Revamp Project”, which requires me to develop a revamp plan for new hire orientation and onboarding through employee satisfaction measurement and real need analysis. I studied the real needs of employees and identified the possible improvements areas, but the proposed action plan was not able to be implemented immediately. Because HR department does not have the power to force other functions to follow us and take actions immediately based on our action plan. A good orientation program that has a high satisfaction level among new hires requires collaboration and efforts from all relevant stakeholders. So we have to spare time to communicate with other functions about the purpose of our project, why we planned to revamp the current orientation and onboarding process, and also ask for their inputs if any adjustments should be made in their perspective. We need to communicate with functions that provide training for new hires and functions that participate in the preparation of the orientation program (HR/EHS&S/IT/Admin/Public Affairs) on how they need to adjust their training and services and why so. We also needed to communicate with line managers and supervisors to increase their attention in new hire orientation, explaining their importance in helping new hires to adapt and integrate into the organization, which ultimately contributes to a lower turnover rate and higher productivity. All these communication and adjustments take time, consumes manpower and also resources. I believe this could count as internal transaction cost to carry out a project. Through this experience, I learned the importance of cross function collaboration in large organizations, but also realized that pushing forward a new project in large organizations is not that easy and could sometimes be very time-consuming.
Another thing I experienced and also studied in this course is collegiality. During my internship, people are always helpful, no matter colleagues in the department or employees in other functions (when doing the employee satisfaction measurement, I needed to work with people outside my function), offered support and advice to me even if I am just an intern and had nothing to do with their own work or performance. I do have a few internship experiences before, and there are companies that do not have this kind of culture. Dow promotes this kind of culture and encourages their employees to help each other, collaborate with each other, and drive for superior results, which is one of the four core competencies of Dow. They also promote the appreciation culture, which enhances these kinds of behaviors. Right after I left, the HR department launched the "Appreciation Week" project, during which they promoted the appreciation culture.
Another thing I experienced and also studied in this course is collegiality. During my internship, people are always helpful, no matter colleagues in the department or employees in other functions (when doing the employee satisfaction measurement, I needed to work with people outside my function), offered support and advice to me even if I am just an intern and had nothing to do with their own work or performance. I do have a few internship experiences before, and there are companies that do not have this kind of culture. Dow promotes this kind of culture and encourages their employees to help each other, collaborate with each other, and drive for superior results, which is one of the four core competencies of Dow. They also promote the appreciation culture, which enhances these kinds of behaviors. Right after I left, the HR department launched the "Appreciation Week" project, during which they promoted the appreciation culture.
A few more words about transaction cost. Dow Chemical acquired Dow Corning, its subsidiary company, and completed the transaction in June 2016. Dow have also announced to merge with DuPont at the end of 2015. These merger and acquisition actions are intended to achieve synergy, increase revenue while cutting cost. While generating more revenues, these changes generate transaction cost as well. During my time in the company, they were right in the process of integrating Dow Corning. A series of work was carried out in HR department, and I believe are still in the process currently. Including compensation and benefits integration, a roughly 3000 staff cut down globally, redesign of the organization structure, reassigning job positions, and several other related integration projects. The Asia-Pacific HR director was also transferred to the US headquarter as the Dow Corning global HR integration director, which led to a change in the leadership team. Several HR staff are assigned to work on the integration project, and these work take a large amount of time, which means that their time on other projects is largely reduced. I think the human cost, time cost, money, plus the opportunity cost invested in the integration project can all be seen as transaction costs to reach the ultimate acquisition goal.
Overall, I had a really good internship experience. I feel being valued, and I was given enough autonomy on my work: working on real projects designed for me instead of routine and mechanical tasks. I was lucky enough to have the chance to learn about the organization from inside while gaining some practical experience in the field that I’m interested in for my future career.
My younger son interned with Dow Agro, in Indianapolis, after the summer of his sophomore year. This was a computer programmer. Dow also has a presence in the Research Park on campus. My son did a different internship there as a junior and senior. Ultimately, however, he found work at a different company that was much smaller and in a different line of business.
ReplyDeleteIt was unclear reading this whether you hope to work for Dow after you graduate and even if not whether you hope to work in HR.
As it turns out, my wife works in HR for the University - she does labor relations and negotiates with the various unions on campus. So I know a little about HR from her work. I also know some from my own employment and administrative experiences.
At the university there are 3 types of employees - faculty, academic professionals, and civil service. The way they are hired and trained varies with their classifications. There are also different offices to regulate the different types of positions. Because the university is a public organization, it has various regulations that influence hiring and employment practices which it must obey. It may be a little different with a multinational like Dow, yet I'd expect some similarities with the university, as research scientists and engineers are like faculty, while business function, such as marketing is more like academic professional work. Do such distinctions exist?
The merger activity you refer to is quite interesting. I hadn't realized that Dow Corning was an independent venture. When I was a kid I thought of Dow and Dupont as the two biggest chemical companies in the U.S., so that they would merge would have never been conceivable because of antitrust laws. That it is happening now shows how much the world has changed since.
I was interested to hear about the appreciation culture at Dow. Since you mentioned other internship where that did not happen, were you able to determine why Dow embraces this approach? When there are some companies that do and others in similar business who do not, there is an interesting question of whether both approaches are actually viable. If so, then one wants to know what determines which will prevail at a particular company.
Thank you professor Arvan for your comment, and sorry for the late reply.
DeleteI didn’t mention whether I hope to work for Dow or work in HR in the future because I thought that this didn’t have much relevance to the topic. I enjoyed my time at Dow, Dow has a very good firm culture, lots of opportunities for employee development and career advancement, and also a very professional HR team, which makes it an attractive place to work. But since I’m planning to do grad school, I’ve still got some time to experience some other firms and industries through internships. So I would see Dow as one of my best choices after graduation. I do hope to work for Dow, but I am also open to other possible opportunities.
About whether I hope to work in HR. With my background in IO (Industrial and Organizational) Psychology and Economics, plus my internship experience, HR would be a safe choice for me. However, I’m also interested in other areas in business, especially marketing research and consumer studies, so I would like to decide after grad school in business which specific career area in business to get into.
So do not see my time at Dow an opportunity to secure a full time position, but an opportunity to gain experiences and learn about real world practice.
About the distinction among different kind of employees, I don’t see much difference. What I have observed is that R&D do have some specific training that is offered only to R&D, and only R&D employees have access to the research labs. They have lab safety trainings, scientific research forums, research conferences, and many other training and learning opportunities that other functions do not have. These resources are aimed to make them better perform their job. Except these trainings in function specific knowledge, all other aspects are quite similar. General learning and training opportunities are offered to all functions, and employees in different functions are treated similar. And I don’t think the compensation and benefit differs a lot among different functions. Dow also offers cross function job opportunities, so there are also a lot of opportunities to switch function, for example an internal employee in HR could apply for a position in Marketing if they believe they have relevant qualifications.
It was originally a 50:50 joint venture between Dow and Dow Corning, and after the merger Dow will become the 100 percent owner of Dow Corning. About the Dow DuPont merger, I was quite surprised at first too. But it was stated that although they are the largest chemical firms in the U.S., they target different market segments, therefore they do not have much overlap in the market competition and does not cause much competitive harm. Both firms are facing challenges due to the downturn of the manufacturing and agricultural industries, a merge would help them reduce cost and increase revenue. However, the merger action is remaining controversial, there are still others that believe they are strong enough to hurt the market competition. And I believe that as well.
Thoughts about appreciation culture
DeleteI feel Dow is an employee centered firm, and strive to satisfy, and attain their employees. They believe all the innovation and solutions that drives research and business success comes from each single person in the company, and employees are their most valuable asset that brings them competitive advantage. That’s why they promote appreciation culture, and also provides all kinds of employee benefits. By doing so, they make Dow as a great place to work, motivates their employees, and attracts the best talents in the industry. My other internship firm that I don’t feel they have an employee centered culture is in another industry. It’s an advising firm, one of the largest advertising and marketing agency in the world, with roughly half of Dow’s employee number. I think the difference is due to different strategies of these firms, and the industries they’re positioned. The advertising industry is a much more fast-pacing industry compared with the chemical industry, it is project based with high personnel fluidity. They have a much more aggressive culture and embrace a different way to attract talents. They do it by building strong and fancy company brand, which is actually effective for creative talents. So it’s all about industry background, target talents, and how companies view their employees. From the HR perspective, I prefer my experience in Dow much more than my experience in the advertising firm. In Dow, based on their strategy, HR is placed at an important position and being seen as a trusted business partner. While in the advertising firm I feel like HR is merely about recruiting and payroll service.
I’ve found an Employee Appreciation Campaign Video by Dow in the past for your reference:
https://www.behance.net/gallery/15245565/Dow-Chemical-Employee-Appreciation-Campaign