Candy making is a fun business, and so it is no surprise that it is fun to work at the Jelly Belly Candy Company of Fairfield, California. Although this company has cheesecake, buttered popcorn, orange sherbet, and jalapeño on the menu, they are most known for making jelly beans—fifty “official” flavors, with new and sometimes startlingly flavored (and named)
versions introduced periodically, such as Chili Mango. The company’s other products include gumballs, gummies, and sour candies in Jelly Belly flavors. Its more than 100 confections also include candy corn, sour candies, jellies, novelty candy, chocolates, chocolate-covered nuts, cinnamon confections, and licorice, along with seasonal offerings. Jelly Belly’s candy is sold in more than 70 countries worldwide. In addition to making candy, the company dabbles in retail. It operates half a dozen retail Jelly Belly candy stores in California, as well as a visitor center/warehouse (with tours) in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin.98 Jelly Belly Candy Company is dedicated to producing the highest-quality confections, delivering superior customer service and creating a reliable and enjoyable product line to the consuming public. They seek to be a responsible corporate citizen and to ensure high quality and safety standards. They expect their consumers and business partners to have confidence in the products bearing their name and that their products are manufactured in accordance with a guiding code of conduct. Jelly Belly is committed to conducting business with ethical business standards and asks its vendors, suppliers, and licensees to conduct themselves in the same manner.99 Given this family firm’s commitment to maintaining high operating and ethical standards, there is no “sugar coating” employee performance and job satisfaction. Like almost every smart company, Jelly Belly also recognized that employees are more likely to stay with their employer when they feel connected and recognized for their efforts. Programs for managing and evaluating employee performance are critical to aligning corporate and employee values and priorities. Therefore, when Jelly Belly decided to overhaul and automate its antiquated employee performance and talent management process, it was looking for a serious solution to help give its employees across the United States fair, accurate performance appraisals.
Jelly Belly’s search for a new employee performance and talent management system began when two branches of the family business were reunited into a single company. One branch was using an outdated performance management software program. The other was doing its employee performance appraisals manually, using paper forms. The task of updating and consolidating the performance management process fell to Margie Poulos, HR manager of Jelly Belly’s Midwest operations. She and a small team of Jelly Belly HR staff were charged with finding a single automated system that could be used for all of Jelly Belly’s 600 employees in three locations.
The driving factor behind Jelly Belly’s performance management was the belief that thorough, accurate reviews help employees to better understand what is expected of them, so they can set clear, measurable objectives.
That translates into higher employee satisfaction, said Jeff Brown, Jelly Belly’s director of human resources. “When employees feel they have gotten a thorough and accurate review, it boosts their morale,” Brown said.
It also leads to improved talent management and makes it easier to retain valuable employees, which management experts know is a key factor in corporate growth and market leadership.
Under Jelly Belly’s old system, employees conducting reviews started from scratch once a year with new performance journals. They wanted a new system that would let them log notes throughout the year and regularly update their online appraisals. Employees could then use one consistent employee evaluation form to add comments and to sign their appraisals. A Web-based product would help remote and traveling managers maintain access to the forms and the data they needed to evaluate their staff. “In our old system, a few folks in Chicago would have access to the system.
However, we have managers in California with Chicago subordinates. It is important that they can share the same forms across the board. And we have folks who are on the road a lot or are working out of home offices, so having them be able to access this is a huge point for us,” Brown explained.
To meet their strategic goals, Poulos and her team drew up a list of the criteria that a new system had to meet. Top on the list was ease of use.
“We didn’t want to end up with a system that is so complicated that the managers wouldn’t use it,” Poulos said. A new system also had to save time and had to be flexible, easily incorporating core competencies into different forms.
Once the software was selected, about 50 managers received a crash course in using the software and then used it to complete annual employee evaluations. Jelly Belly’s HR team then customized the software to include competencies that are more relevant and to respond to comments from managers and staff on the new system. The new automated employee appraisal system completely formalized and organized Jelly Belly’s employee evaluation process. “It allows us to standardize competencies across job classifications, add signature and comment sections to make our process more interactive, and increase accessibility for remote managers,” Brown said. Organizing and automating the appraisal process results in performance appraisals that are more accurate and fair, Brown noted. “This is important because, after all, an employee appraisal is a legal document,” he said.
The new system is helping Jelly Belly track training requirements and development in its staff, Poulos added. “We’ve always had a separate training manual. Now we can go in to the evaluations and more easily monitor employees’ skills development, see what training individuals need and check the due dates for training and renewal. That makes it much easier for us to keep track,” Poulos noted.
The new employee performance and talent management system has proven to be a big time-saver for Jelly Belly’s HR team. “Since this year was the first time using the new system, it took us a little longer than it will next year. But the process was a whole lot faster,” Poulos said. “It has already saved us a lot of time, and we got everybody’s appraisals done in one shot.” The new system is also helping Jelly Belly to better align employee goals with the company’s business objectives.
“The feedback has been really positive, from both managers and employees as well. Some staff said this was the best appraisal they’ve had,” Poulos said, “They felt the evaluations were fair and realistic, and supervisors had the scope to provide more relevant and legitimate comments than they could before. Rather than just clicking on a bunch of canned comments, they were accurately reviewing the employee.”100 

Questions 

1. What is performance management, and what is the driving force behind Jelly Belly Candy Company’s performance management approach?
2. What is performance appraisal, and what are the key features Jelly Belly Candy Company wanted in their new appraisal system?
3. What is the performance appraisal process, and how does Jelly Belly Candy Company’s new appraisal system incorporate those processes?
4. How did the question of performance accuracy affect the development of Jelly Belly Candy Company’s automated appraisal system?
5. Why did Jelly Belly Candy Company redesign their performance appraisal system?
6. What does Jelly Belly Candy Company evaluate when they conduct employee appraisals, and why are they using that approach?
7. Who is assessing training performance at Jelly Belly Candy Company?
8. What trends in performance appraisal are affecting Jelly Belly Candy Company’s appraisal system?