Speaker's Corner March

“Refresh Yourself: Talent sustainability at PepsiCo”

Allan Church, Ph.D.

PepsiCo

Allan Church described how PepsiCo values I/O Psychology and its influence in HR leadership and the reinforcement of PepsiCo’s corporate culture. In 2006, the company’s fifth CEO, Indra K. Nooyi, came on board to take PepsiCo in a new direction. Indra, a “super smart” and personable CEO who tries to connect with employees, strives for a global approach to talent sustainability. Part of PepsiCo’s strategy is to create an inclusive culture that truly “cherishes our people.” Below are the 7 Cherish Principle:.

1. Use existing HR processes properly, or challenge them if they are not working.

2. Be truthful and candid about performance. Indra believes in transparency.

3. Give people a realistic assessment of their career potential.

4. Show you care about the success of your people.

5. Understand people with an emotional connection; they have lives outside work.

6. Be approachable.

7. Bring truth and candor to everything we do.

To this end, PepsiCo is focused on cherishing and developing employees through Talent Acquisition, PepsiCo University, Talent Development.

Talent Acquisition:

Dr. Church emphasized the importance of understanding how the corporate culture will fit for new generations. When PepsiCo and Frito-Lay merged, it was critical to integrate two distinct cultures and brands. PepsiCo’s legacy culture emphasizes change and reinvention, which is reflected in the onboarding programs. Additionally, there is an increased emphasis on searches and on-boarding for executives, recognizing their critical role in sustaining and advancing the corporate culture and business results.

Progress on Talent Management Development:

PepsiCo University is undergoing new strategy and curriculum focusing on leadership transitions, including a CEO leadership program with Yale, a First Time Manager program, and a Cross-Divisional Learning Counsel. The company has also revamped core HR processes. For example, the Performance Management Process (PMP) now weights 50% business results and 50% people skills, adding a new measurement category of People Objectives to reinforce managers ability to create an inclusive culture and engage employees.

Talent Development

The Organizational & Management Development (OMD) group has some lessons learned about implementation of broad-based 360-feedback processes. Instead of using 360-feedback tools across the top 5,000 leaders (which created rater fatigue), they are established a more focused approach, digging deeper with a targeted group of leaders. This focus ensures the development process goes beyond self-awareness to more consistent action planning and coaching. These changes are reflected in executives’ review of the process, where they have noted the impact this enhanced development program is having on their performance.

Reported by: Ashley Busing