Fizzing with Wisdom: PepsiCo’s HR Strategies for Success with Andrea Ferrara

This episode features an interview with Andrea Ferrara, 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.

Quotes

*”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.”

*”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, I would say, high caliber change was probably one of the biggest points of differentiation for us.”

Time Stamps

[0:48] Meet Andrea Ferrara, SVP & CHRO North American Beverages and Nutrition at PepsiCo

[4:28] What’s the scope of Andrea’s role at PepsiCo?

[6:55] How does Andrea meet the needs of employees across locations, departments, generations, etc.?

[10:42] How does PepsiCo balance human interaction with automation in the employee experience?

[12:49] How does PepsiCo use digital tools to train its leaders?

[13:39] What data does PepsiCo tune into when it comes to supporting a great employee experience?

[17:00] Who else is critical to talent management at PepsiCo?

[18:47] What is PepsiCo doing right that has kept Andrea there for over 30 years?

[21:25] Does PepsiCo have a framework for its employee experience?

[24:48] What advice would Andrea give someone entering a role like hers for the first time?

[26:10] Where does Andrea find a sense of mental clarity and do her best thinking?

Links

Connect with Andrea on LinkedIn

Learn more about PepsiCo

Thanks to our friends

This episode is brought to you by Firstup, the world’s first intelligent communication platform. More than 40 percent of Fortune 100 companies use our platform to connect with their people, design and deliver personalized communications, and gain engagement insights throughout the employee journey. That’s how they give their employees better experiences from hire to retire. Learn more at firstup.io