MBA401

People, Culture and Contemporary Leadership

PART B – Individual Report on Costa Group Holdings

Table of Contents
1. Introduction..............................................................................................................................2

2. Performance Related Initiatives Taken By Costa Group Holdings..........................................2

3. Initiatives Taken To Improve the Culture of Costa Group Holdings.......................................3

4. Ways Followed By Costa Group Holdings to Increase the Employee Engagement Rates......3

5. Conclusion................................................................................................................................4

References........................................................................................................................................5
 1. Introduction
Costa Group Holdings operates in Australia to serve the regional and rural communities. It was
established in the 19th century and branches are opened throughout the countries of Australia.
Costa business follows mainly the various principles including the people first[ CITATION Cos19 \l
1033 ]. This value is supported by performance and passion. The main reason for its success is its
people. The products produced by Costa Group include Berries, mushrooms, citrus, tomatoes,
avocados, bananas, and grapes. It is a world leader in producing these fruits and vegetables. It is
the largest grower, marketer, and packer of the vegetables and fruits and it always concentrates
on the quality and safety of the products. Costa takes care of the entire journey from farming to
delivering the products. It's business model developed based on portfolio optimization helped in
addressing the risks with the agriculture market. For the financial year 2018, its revenue is
greater than $1.0 billion, and NPAT $76.7 million. The present report is to analyze the initiatives
taken by the Costa Group Holdings to increase business performance, improve the culture, and
increase employee engagement rates.

2. Performance Related Initiatives Taken By Costa Group Holdings

Costa Group Holdings took various initiatives to improve organizational productivity and
business performance by improving the abilities of the workforce. The initiatives taken include
employee training and development and materiality and disclosure guidelines and promoting the
teamwork concept. The training is organized for the employees and officers of the company by
establishing the disclosure committee. This committee focuses on the training programs to
improve the knowledge on the internal controls and business processes, promoting the guidelines
and policies in the organization to meet the compliance of regulatory organizations, and
supporting the employees in understanding and analyzing the legal laws and rules to avoid reveal
of sensitive information related to products including the fruits and vegetables [ CITATION Rab17 \l
1033 ]. In this way, the confidentiality of trade secrets is protected to avoid reveal of it to third
parties.

Teamwork is another initiative implemented to promote the health and safety working
environment and facilitation of incentives based on team performance. The predefined goals are
clearly established to the teams to ensure their focus towards the production of quality products.
For example, a team working in China facilitated training and development to build the abilities
and aligning with the safety standards of China in running the operations [ CITATION Cos18 \l
1033 ]. More than 300 people in the company are engaged in various activities including
improvement of business performance, achieving alignment between the organizational
objectives and values with people, and professional development activities. These people are
worked under the guidelines of board and directors.

Employee encouragement initiative is considered to focus on the short-term and long-term

benefits generated to employees. Motivation is practicing effectively by Costa to increase the
self-fulfillment and self-satisfaction to produce better results[ CITATION Isk14 \l 1033 ]. Solving of
obligations related to short-term, long-term, and termination benefits to employees. Shor-term
benefits like salaries and annual leave encashment are paid within one year of reporting. If these
benefits are not facilitated within one year, the benefit is determined at the rate of annual cash
flow. Termination benefits are offered to reduce voluntary retirement before the actual retirement
date. These benefits are acting as a key motivational factor for employees.

The key performance indicator considered for measuring the success of the initiatives include
profits, sales revenue, EBITDA and returns on the investment. With the implementation of
initiatives, a considerable percentage of growth including 13% over the sales, 30.1% over
EBITDA, 31.7% over NPAT, and 9.0% over total revenue achieved from the years 2014 to 2018.

3. Initiatives Taken To Improve the Culture of Costa Group Holdings

Costa Group Holdings always tries to identify ways to promote culture. It took various initiatives
such as the establishment of guidelines and programs, building and promoting the organizational
policies, and assessment of the nomination practices to accomplish the gender diversity and
structuring the selection and recruitment processes in every level of the organization. These
activities helped Costa to have a wide variety of candidates in the workplace environment. The
areas and initiatives taken for promoting The diversity of culture include gathering the data
regarding the demographics of diversity and allocation of senior management positions and
board level positions to the women[ CITATION Sul16 \l 1033 ] . Costa also focused on the facilitation
of the information regarding the recruitment processes and utilization of professional recruitment
services. The processes and policies supporting the remuneration objectives are continuously
reviewed to meet the goals of cultural diversity.
Operating principles are also integrated into the culture of Costa including the responsibility
towards the creation of a safe working environment for contractors and employees, adoption of
safety procedures and standards, and building the safety culture [ CITATION Cos191 \l 1033 ]. Costa
is never compromised about its safety and achieving compliance with the regulators in the
enhancement of safety. Safety becomes an integral part of the design, planning, and operations to
improve the sustainability of a business. Costa also undertook the code of conduct initiative to
promote ethical and honest behavior. The remuneration committee established by Costa focused
on the establishment of the objectives to human resources to provide further support to the
accomplishment of the company objectives, retention of existing staff and attraction of new staff,
performance management, and employee development and succession planning to improve the
overall culture of a business.

In improving the culture of Costa, the board plays a crucial role in promoting inclusion
and integrating a commitment to promote diversity. The management is committed to the
development and guaranteeing the diversified environment for the workplace to give respect for
every employee and treating every employee with fairness [ CITATION Cos17 \l 1033 ] . In Costa,
diversity is a pool aspect to focus on various aspects such as finding and retaining highly talented
employees, a better understanding of the employees, and enhancing the brand image of corporate
companies. It considers only the abilities of employees to create an inclusive working
environment. The culture is committed to following the various core values including the
production of high-quality products, determination towards acting decisively, accountability for
delivering outcomes, reacting sincerely in a responsible manner, and treating the employees and
customers with respect.

4. Ways Followed By Costa Group Holdings to Increase the Employee Engagement Rates
Costa Group Holdings have taken different type of initiatives to improve employee engagement
rates. It developed various policies such as equal opportunities policy, diversity policy, human
resources and remuneration committee charter, and gender equality policy for the workforce. The
remuneration committee charter focused on employee engagement by facilitating effective
remuneration policies. It aimed at offering competitive and equitable salaries to its employees.
Incentive schemes are reviewed and approved by the shareholders and awards and payments are
facilitated according to the terms and conditions. The pay structure of Costa has a significant
impact on employee engagement levels as the shareholders took a special interest in facilitating
the various monetary incentives and benefits to employees. These are attached to employee
performance to increase motivation and generate more commitment.

The superiors of the employees are providing equal employment opportunities at Costa to
promote employee engagement. They are further supporting in promoting the growth and
advancement of employee career. Equal treatment and fair practices towards the employees
helped in engaging the employees with organizational goals and objectives[ CITATION Art161 \l
1033 ]. They focused on distributive justice while conducting the performance appraisal and
salary hike by giving the fare ratings to employees based on their performance and commitment.
This led to generate more cognitive nature among the employees towards the business with
greater excitement and motivation.

The policy of workforce diversity also had a significant impact on employee engagement.
Diversified culture helped in easily interacting with the employees with each other that are
belonged to a variety of cultural backgrounds and giving mutual respect to each other [ CITATION
Twi18 \l 1033 ]. A chance facilitated by the human resources committee towards the facilitation of
full access to resources to segregate the responsibilities and roles. Experts and engaging counsel
are involved in employee engagement to gather and provide the information to the committee.
Social differences between male and female employees are removed by establishing the gender
equality policy. These including opinion, race, and class are avoided in facilitating employment
opportunities equally to both genders[ CITATION MCT15 \l 1033 ]. Discrimination practices are
completely removed in the working environment by taking the legalized laws with respect to
equal employment and providing equal opportunities and allocation of the resources to the
female employees equally to men. These practices are effectively integrated into the culture of
Costa to create a flexible work environment for females to avoid discouraging them by
comparing them with men. The key performance indicators considered for the initiatives include
employee attrition rate and individual productivity of employees.

5. Conclusion
Many business firms constantly take initiatives to improve the business in various aspects.
Initiatives are taken mainly in three aspects including the performance-related initiatives, culture
improvement initiatives, and employee engagement related initiatives. The present report
focused on the initiatives taken by Costa Group Holdings that focus on producing the fruits and
vegetables to the Australian community. The organizational performance-related initiatives
implemented include training and development to employees on the disclosure and materiality
policies, teamwork, and employee encouragement. A financial performance indicator is
considered for determining the success of the initiatives. The organizational culture improvement
related initiatives implemented include the establishment of guidelines and programs, building
and promoting the organizational policies, establishment of guidelines and programs, building
and promoting the organizational policies, and assessment of the nomination practices, and
assessment of the nomination practices. Employee engagement related initiatives implemented
include equal opportunities policy, diversity policy, human resources, and remuneration
committee charter, and gender equality policy. These are effectively implemented by Costa to
achieve success in terms of increased business performance.

References
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Chandani, A., Mehta, M., Mall, A. & Khokhar, V., 2016. Employee Engagement: A Review
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Costa Group Holdings Limited, 2017. Diversity Policy, Victoria: Costa Group Holdings Limited.

Costa Group Holdings Limited, 2018. Annual Reports 2018, South Australia: Costa Group
Holdings Limited.

Costa Group Holdings, 2019. Our History. [Online]

Available at: https://costagroup.com.au/Our-History
[Accessed 05 December 2019].

Costa Group Holdings, 2019. Values. [Online]

Available at: https://costagroup.com.au/Values
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