Coca Cola Beverages is one of the best known international brands in Vietnam and has been recognised as one of the best companies to work for in Asia 2020 by HR Asia. It was also awarded the title ‘Employer of Choice-2019’ by Career Builder. As we celebrate its achievements, what must be recognised at large is the investments they made in their people as they kickstarted their journey of digital transformation with Leena AI. For any organisation to grow and thrive, strategic decisions have to be taken to overcome the ongoing workplace challenges and make space for collaboration and greater efficiency. The importance of AI and automation in aiding this endeavour is well known but what sets apart this journey of Coca Cola Vietnam with Leena AI is the larger cultural vision that backs this digital journey and transformation.

Mapping out the challenges and finding solutions:

With a workforce numbering over 4,000, Coca Cola Vietnam faced multiple challenges in streamlining their HR functions. The significant ones included higher turnaround time for approving employee requests, constant involvement of senior management to approve high value travel requests, navigating a complicated attendance management system, difficulty accessing relevant information about the organization’s policies and involvement of HR professionals even in routine HR tasks. This took away a lot of time and effort from the leaders who could have instead built strategic plans for the growth of the company. Moreover, it became a tedious and time-consuming process for employees as well. Although these tasks were important for a smooth employee experience, there was an easier way to get things done. 

What Coca Cola sought for was a platform that could automate the resolution of queries and other employee processes simultaneously while functioning as a linchpin for the current systems operating in isolation. This is where Leena AI came in as the one platform that not only integrated current systems but made information accessible and interactions easier and more efficient. The platforms that were integrated were SAP SF, local attendance system among other internal software and Workplace by Facebook which was already in place. 

Sustaining and building on the culture of Coca Cola Vietnam:

People are critical to the success of any initiative targeted towards HR transformation. In integrating current systems, Leena AI ensured that there was no need to set-up and train a new application. Moreover, since Coca Cola Vietnam employs both blue and white collar workers, the Leena AI HR Chatbot was made available in both English and Vietnamese. The overall Leena AI platform was designed keeping in mind the local Vietnamese Culture, the company’s organizational culture and Coca Cola’s branding in the country. A training module to learn of the Company’s 150 year old history and story was also made available in the bot. All these initiatives showed how important it was for Leena AI to not just make HR functions easier but also to sustain the culture of the workplace and country where it was in use.

AskMi (the in-house name for Leena AI) functioned as a virtual employee help desk through the use of advanced NLU and conversational AI to understand issues and deliver resolution in seconds. Even the time-consuming travel requests could be approved easily with the use of this platform. From downloading payslips to getting information on tax deduction, from attendance management to reimbursement issues, from onboarding to training, all was made possible through this AI platform.

If one looks at the transformation in numbers, there was a 40% reduction in time for approving employee requests and 50% reduction in employees’ time to access relevant company information. Not only did Leena AI increase the overall organizational efficiency and empowered employees to take charge of their own routine tasks, it also strengthened the company’s culture and values which must be the core for any HR transformation initiative. The leadership also has more time on their hands to pave the road for the HR transformation journey in the future. When the digital agenda is backed by the company’s values and puts its people first, success is bound to be achieved. This is what Coca Cola Vietnam and Leena AI’s journey tell us. To know more, click here.