Innocent Drinks appears to adopt an extremely laid back approach to managing

its employees, however behind the scenes the company invests a lot of time,
effort and money in training and motivating the work force on an individual
basis. In order to maintain the fun and laid back approach to work whilst still
remaining an efficient and competitive company, Innocent Drinks must make
sure they hire the right people, who will excel under this ************ style of
management rather than fall behind.
A concept which Innocent Drinks has undertaken in an attempt to develop its
staff is the learning organisation concept. This concept really came under the
light in 1990 after the publication of Peter Senges book The Fifth Discipline. The
concept basically argues that in order to achieve greater levels of diversity,
commitment, innovation and talent management must provide the individual
with opportunities to learn and develop their specific skills which benefit the
organisation. At Innocent Drinks, this is done in more than one way.
Innocent Drinks have invested in their own Innocent Academy which is used
across all levels of the work force. Every employee must attend a two day course
in the academy which will help them to hone core business related skills, such as
presenting, solving problems etc. Employees at manager level or above will
attend a similar course at the Innocent Business Academy, which also includes
gaining a better understanding of the financial side of the organisation. This level
of investment in employees ensures a motivated and knowledgeable work force.
Providing the work force with knowledge can be extremely beneficial to Innocent
Drinks, as knowledge is often lost due to retirement or it is concentrated at the
top of the chain of command, however it seems that Innocent Drinks is working
hard to ensure its entire work force understands the running of the business,
which will benefit the organisation in the long term by producing an innovative
and efficient work force.
As well as the learning organisation concept, Innocent Drinks makes use of other
techniques to increase the efficiency and development of its staff, which is done
on a more personal level.
Upon joining the company, a new employee is inducted via a two week
programme in which they meet with every member of staff to gain a better
understanding of everyones roles and have a better perspective of where they
will fit into the structure of the business themselves. This type of induction on
first glance goes against Innocent Drinks relaxed culture, as it can be seen as
superficial and overly formal in what is a very informal environment. However, to
balance out the conventional induction, the organisation also implements a lunch
time buddy system for the first two weeks at work, in which the new employee
will spend each lunch time with a different new colleague, providing the new
recruit with the opportunity to get to know colleagues on an informal basis.
The informal lunch time chats allow a new recruit to learn the ropes
subconsciously through socialisation, as they can learn more about their job
through observing the behaviour of other employees, without the pressures of a
formal induction in which a new recruit could feel overwhelmed. However, the

formal induction provides a new recruit with a sound knowledge of how the
organisation is actually run, what the organisation stands for and how to go
about doing their job. Integrating these two different types of induction has the
benefit that a new recruit is fully immersed in the Innocent Drinks culture, so any
confusion can be avoided as to what is and isnt acceptable in this unique type of
work place.
Feedback plays a huge role in the Innocent Drinks learning process. Every
employee has a weekly one-to-one chat with their manager to discuss matters
such as achieving targets which are set at the beginning of the year, and twice a
year every employee takes part in a performance review so they can then go on
to develop in any areas which they may be lacking in. The benefits of these
reviews and development chats are enormous. Any desired behaviour will be
repeated or developed if it is rewarded or noticed in these weekly one-to-ones,
whereas any undesired behaviour is likely to be eliminated quickly if the
employee senses that it is not helping to achieve goals or it is going unnoticed or
being frowned upon. Through these simple measures, the organisation maintains
a talented, efficient and competitive work force which is constantly developing
and gaining new skills, which in the long term will help the organisation to stand
strong in the market place.
On the other hand, this much focus on feedback and performance also comes
with stigmas attached. Employees may feel they are being constantly watched
and could feel under immense pressure to achieve any goals which are set,
which goes against the point of Innocent Drinks investing so much time and
effort in their employees- to help employees excel individually in their specific
craft.
This level of attention given to staff education not only benefits the organisation
in that employees will have a wider range of knowledge to contribute to the
company, but they are also motivated to work harder, as the company has
created the image that it cares for the employees needs.
The feedback system which Innocent Drinks incorporates in its learning process
is also part of Edwin Lockes goal setting theory which the company employs to
motivate the individual. Goal setting theory is split into four main sections,
setting challenging goals, setting specific goals, allowing employees to
participate in setting goals and giving feedback on past performances.
Based on Innocent Drinks focus on learning and development, it is evident jobs
are not simple or monotonous, but they challenge the individual, which is why
the individual is trained to think in innovative ways at the Innocent Academies.
Performance reviews are set up twice a year for each employee to evaluate
whether they have achieved their specific goals or not, as well as development
chats, which involve managers and employees jointly agreeing on any
development commitments- which fall under the participation aspect of goal
setting theory. In this manner, employees know exactly what their goals are and
that they are realistic, as they have helped to set them themselves, which also
helps to avoid any confusion as to how to improve performance, leading to high

levels of commitment and performance. The last aspect of goal setting theory,
feedback, plays a huge role at Innocent Drinks. Everyone is encouraged to give
feedback and advice to their colleagues, as well as the formal feedback
procedure which has been aforementioned. Feedback can help to motivate the
individual in that the individual knows which areas of their approach to a certain
task need improvement, which also leads to a more effective approach to work.
Innocent Drinks also use a different approach to motivating their staff,
Herzbergs two factor theory. This theory is split into two factors, motivators and
hygiene. Motivator factors are based on an individuals personal need for growth,
which is achieved through recognition, high levels of responsibility and
advancement. Hygiene factors and more tangible than motivator factors, and
take into account aspects which can cause discontent at the work place, such as
environment, job security, salaries, bonuses etc.
Involving employees in decision making is at the core of Innocent Drinks. The Big
Knit, a national campaign which involves the public knitting hats and sending
them to the company, where the hats are packaged onto the drinks bottles sold,
the proceeds of which go to charity, was thought of in 2003 by an employee and
has been running every winter since then. Company meetings are also held in
the communal area at Fruit Towers where every employee gets a chance to
make an input as well as being told about what the company has been doing
since the last meeting and what will be happening in the six months up to the
next meeting.

Team report:
In the first meeting each of us took on a different role, dividing up the
different aspects of the report equally between ourselves. We functioned
as a group rather than a team, as we each had our own individual tasks,
all of which were then summed up at the end of the project. Weekly
meetings were decided on, which then became more regular as the
deadline came closer. Towards the beginning none of the members of the
group were motivated to work as the deadline seemed far off, so much of
the time in the meetings during the first few weeks was wasted, however
as the deadline approached the limited time period motivated everyone to
work harder so the rest of the group would not be let down. In the
meetings, problems were discussed, for example finding the right sources
to gather information from. Due to our different backgrounds, roles within
the group were taken on naturally. For example, one of us organised
timings of the meetings, someone else booked rooms and notes were
made during the meetings by someone else. The main methods of
communication were email and the social networking site, Facebook, and
meetings were conducted in study rooms throughout the University.
Overall, as a group we were not very efficient, but our separate tasks were
done quickly and with minimal problems; the problems really started
whilst trying to compile our work since finding the time to meet became
more challenging due to different deadlines at the end of term. This
resulted in smaller groups of us meeting, so the work load became heavier
for some members of the group.