Fizzing with Wisdom: PepsiCo’s HR Strategies for Success

”You’ve got to build a change practice. You need to build an organizational effectiveness and a team effectiveness practice. You’ve got to have survey expertise, the ability to really have high caliber change was probably one of the biggest points of differentiation for us.”

Andrea Ferrara is Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer for PepsiCo Beverages North America. PBNA is PepsiCo’s $21 billion beverage business and Global Foodservice with a portfolio that includes Pepsi, Gatorade, Rockstar Energy Drink, and more. Andrea is a 30-year veteran of PepsiCo and currently leads the HR function for their 60,000 employees across 400 locations in the U.S. and Canada. In this episode, host Nicole Alvino and Andrea discuss forming a psychological contract with employees early on, balancing standardization and customization of the employee experience, and building a change practice to agilely meet employee needs.

”Frontline leaders have the high touch every day. [Employees] still want to know that their boss is thinking about them and looking out for them. In the places where our leaders do a phenomenal job, you’ll get super high participation and you’ll get honest feedback. And then we can lean in and course correct.”

• How PepsiCo retains employees for decades
• The importance of engaging employees from onboarding to retirement
• Tips on upskilling employees

”One of the things that I noticed post pandemic was that people’s needs and wants pivoted quickly. Their tolerance for you not making corrections has gone down dramatically. People want more of an immediate correction. We can never take our eye off the ball. You can’t get comfortable.”