Tata Tea group of companies, both Indian and foreign, that include Tata Tea, Tata

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Coffee, Tetley, Good Earth Corporation and Eight O’Clock, among others, have brought in a new human resources and compensation strategy. The aim is to infuse a small-company like entrepreneurial culture, and create adequate incentives by way of performance-related variable pay and fixed pay across the hydration business that the group operates in.

A top official in the Tata beverages business group, familiar with the development, said all the human resource team heads around the world now report to Nalin Miglani, the new chief HR and communications officer. “We have put in place a new integrated global reward strategy, which offers a consistent basis to measure performance across all our constituent entities,” said the official.

Miglani has also been charged with the task of managing the culture change as the organisation tries to define a new set of company values.

“We want to put in place a responsibly irreverent entrepreneurial culture that will set us apart from some of the much larger competitors we are fighting in the global marketplace. This culture, which is similiar to what one may find in a smaller company, will allow us to be agile and think differently to take on the competition,” said the official.

In the tea business, the Tatas are squaring off with Anglo-Dutch giant Unilever in many markets around the world. In the longer term, as the group widens its focus, the Tatas may even go head to head with giants such as Coco-Cola and Pepsico, say industry experts.

The new compensation structure involves a fixed and a variable component with the ratio of the two being made consistent across the globe. While it takes into account local regulations regarding wages in each market, the system gives a larger weightage to the performance of the unit/team, as the seniority level of the employee increases. A larger percentage of an employee’s variable compensation is tied to individual performance, for those who are lower down the hierarchy.

“Miglani’s role also is to ensure that where necessary we support talent with training, development and mentorship to allow them to take on larger responsibilities and develop into new roles,” said the official.

To help put in place a new human resources system and a global finance function the group has just hired Julia Warrack to the newly created position of group chief information officer based in the UK. “We are using the virtual merger of the groups beverages businesses to make our processes more efficient across the globe. This gives us a precise consolidated view of our operations and allows us to act swiftly,” said the official.