Approach

We continuously listen to our employees to ensure we are providing the best experience possible. Employee input is ingrained in our core cultural values, known as The PepsiCo Way. The PepsiCo Way is a moniker designed to represent seven key employee behaviors that we believe will help to bolster our mission, drive our vision and help PepsiCo adopt the mindset of Winning with Purpose. In pursuing this strategy, we strive to build a Faster, Stronger, and Better company.

In order to meet these goals, we have established various mechanisms for employees to Voice Opinions Fearlessly, one of the seven behaviors. Each of these channels is designed to provide the opportunity to speak up, landing feedback with those who are empowered to address it. They include:

• Organizational Health Survey (OHS), an annual census survey to gauge employee engagement and commitment to PepsiCo.
• Employee Confidence Index (ECI), a pulse check on employee engagement and confidence through sampling conducted three times a year.
• Life cycle surveys, through which we measure employee experience and engagement at key moments in the employee life cycle.

In addition to surveys, we have other initiatives that are based on employee feedback, such as our crowd-sourcing projects, Have a Say and Next Big Idea.

• Have a Say asked associates to simply Voice their Opinion Fearlessly and tell PepsiCo how they will help to bring The PepsiCo Way to life.
• Next Big Idea is an online business innovation game that allows employees to collaborate with colleagues around the world to generate ideas that will make PepsiCo Faster, Stronger, and Better. Employees can participate in any capacity they choose: entrepreneur, expert, or investor. Rankings are updated throughout the competition, and the top three teams are given the opportunity to present their ideas to senior leadership. One of more than 600 entries, Driftwell was the winning concept from a marketing group in Canada. In a time when people were seeking a little calm and that extra ounce of stress relief, a drink offering safe, science-backed ingredients to help unwind couldn’t have been a better fit. Members of the team worked directly with the innovation team to develop their idea into the drink that landed on store shelves in January 2021 — in less than one year.

We also offer opportunities for managers to understand how they’re individually living each of the seven PepsiCo Way behaviors. Managing the PepsiCo Way, a feedback process tool, helps managers to receive feedback from their direct reports on their strengths as a manager, as well as their opportunities for growth. Managers are rated on the seven PepsiCo Way behaviors and 21 associated actions in order to further their journey in living the PepsiCo Way while helping PepsiCo become Faster, Stronger, and Better. Through this program, employees rate their manager’s impact, transparency, the meaningfulness of their development conversations, and the likelihood of recommending them to a colleague.

Through our global employee recognition program, Smiles, we’re further able to encourage The PepsiCo Way behaviors and impact employee engagement. The Smiles platform allows employees to give recognition to other employees for living The PepsiCo Way or celebrate milestones like work anniversaries.

As we strive to become pep+ (PepsiCo Positive), and to build a Positive Value Chain, we are aiming to provide meaningful jobs and growth opportunities for our people and empower them to enhance their well-being and make a positive impact at work, at home and in their local communities. Driving employee engagement will be a key way to ensure that we can meet our ambitions. We will work closely with the PepsiCo Foundation to identify ways that employees can engage with their communities and with each other.

Progress

Our 2020 internal survey results show that PepsiCo associates feel high levels of pride in working for PepsiCo, are energized by their work and are confident in PepsiCo’s future success. As a result of the feedback we received from employees, we continue to leverage our strength in leadership to set future direction. The PepsiCo Way is ingrained within teams as depicted by our scores and use of our Smiles platform. In 2020, employees sent more than 240,000 smiles on the platform.

What's Next?

In the coming year, we expect to continue the general structure and process of surveys such as our Organizational Health Survey and ECI as well as our Next Big Idea crowdsourcing initiative. We will continue to identify and implement opportunities to improve the employee experience.

To further engrain The PepsiCo Way in employees’ everyday behaviors, additional learnings and new methods are being developed as PepsiCo dedicates itself to simplification and understanding. We are dedicated to improving employee engagement and remedying any gaps identified from the previous years to better embed the PepsiCo Way within our workforce.