PepsiCo’s ‘Secret Sauce’ For Hiring and Retaining Talent

When it comes to hiring in the AI era, Becky Schmitt, Chief People Officer of PepsiCo, commented that the company is still interested in human skills. 

Discussing PepsiCo’s approach to finding top talent at the Fortune Workplace Innovation Summit, Becky noted there are “a couple things that are part of our secret sauce”. 

“I’m sure a lot of companies would say this, but our people have hustle,” she told attendees. “How do you solve problems? How do you have that internal fortitude to work through it? How are you curious? Are you always asking questions?”

Many businesses and leaders are also looking more closely at human skills as AI capabilities increase – such as Daniela Amodei, Co-Founder and President of Anthropic. 

In conversation with ABC News, Daniela said that she continues to believe “that humans plus AI together actually create more meaningful work, more challenging work, more interesting work, high productivity jobs”. 

“I think the ability to have critical thinking skills and learn how to interact with other people will be more important in the future, rather than less,” she continued. 

Finding and developing talent

According to Becky, PepsiCo is interested in hiring talent it can form a mutually beneficial relationship with – where both employee and employer can support each other’s success. 

“I think that it’s really about, what’s the person’s education – the one they come with, [and] the one we provide? What exposure can we give them?” she said. “How are we modifying our evaluation process so we’re finding these jewels wherever they sit in the organisation? the kind of work all HR professionals really want to do.”

PepsiCo has previously said that developing and supporting its workforce is “essential” to perform well, tying skills and career development to improved retention and employee productivity. 

Its Global Learning Centre of Excellence has been created to embed a culture that encourages continuous learning and development – which PepsiCo leaders work alongside to set priorities for the company’s learning needs. 

PepsiCo’s learning curriculum is organised by three categories: global leadership and management programmes, in which learners solve real business problems and become more engaged in the company’s global strategy, its future-ready workforce portfolio, where learners can build up skills in digital topics, and a functional skills programme, where learners build up knowledge on functional capabilities across business areas such as marketing, supply chain and HR. 

Embedding AI

PepsiCo has been particularly attentive to its workforce learning needs as it rolls out new AI capabilities. 

“We do believe that humans are going to create new opportunities, and we believe in re-imagination,” Becky says. “I think that’s going to come from our people – not just from the tech – and people using tech in the right way. When we roll out simple things, you need adoption for it to work.”

The company has been increasingly embedding AI through its workforce, announcing in April that it was forming a strategic, multi-year collaboration with Google Cloud to strengthen its digital foundation.  

Through this partnership, it is expanding its data and analytics capabilities, further optimising its value chain and reducing manual employee effort. This, the company says, will allow employees to “focus on the work that matters most,” while elevating the overall employee experience.