PepsiCo

Amplifying women’s voices

Jane Wakely, Chief Consumer and Marketing Officer, PepsiCo

Amplifying voices that have been overlooked, dismissed or absent from the conversation is part of being a great leader.

Without women in the room, we are only holding ourselves back. Advocating and advancing gender parity at every level is essential to PepsiCo’s vision for helping to build a more equitable and inclusive workplace and world.

The value of attracting, retaining, and advancing women goes beyond PepsiCo’s walls. Having female leaders in positions of influence inspires the advancement of other women. This representation ripples outward into society, positively impacting pay equity, helping to improve policies that benefit all genders, and further advance attracting and retaining diverse talent. We aim to drive this forward by doing the following:

Providing flexibility through benefits and policies such as on- or near-site childcare at select locations around the world, parental leave policies, and enhanced work flexibility; Creating paths to leadership roles through development programs;

Providing mentorship and sponsorship opportunities to create networks that spur career growth; pep+ is the future of our organization where it is our ambition to catalyse positive change for people and the planet. As part of pep+, within the Positive Value Chain pillar, our global goal is to achieve 50 percent women in managerial roles by 2025. We’re progressing toward this goal; as of 2021, 43% of women hold management roles globally.

Helping to create economic opportunity for women to thrive in their communities.

At PepsiCo, our vision is to Be the Global LeaderinBeveragesandConvenientFoods byWinningwithPepsiCoPositive(pep+).

As industry leaders we can all shepherd these changes with bold goals and commitments. Transparency and accountability will continue to be critical to inspire action across our industry. PepsiCo is transparent on how we’re tracking against our gender parity goals with reporting our employee demographics bi-annually, as well as capturing progress against all of our DEI goals in our Annual Global Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Report.

As shared, one of the ways we continue to build on our progress is through training and development. Our leadership training programs offer mentorship, practical experience and stretch assignment opportunities globally to support the development and retention of female talent throughout our ranks.

One of our development programs is the TransformationalLeadershipProgram . This robust global development program equips women with the tools they need to elevate their business impact and achieve career fulfilment. Since launching in 2015, we’ve witnessed an overall retention rate of women who have participated in the program to be nearly 80%. Moreover, PepsiCo’s unique learning culture has helped develop four of the 46 women CEOs at Fortune 500 companies. A proven model that creates a domino effect, which in turn, helps to broadly level the playing field.

Aida Babalola, Vice President

Employment Law, shares her experience with the Transformational Leadership Program:

TLP creates a community of strong women who are encouraged to step into leadership roles and support others along the way. There really is nothing quite like it.

“TLP was an amazing experience for me.

I attended the program in 2019, just months before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. This turned out to be a pivotal point in my career, although I didn't know it at the time. In addition to the personal impact that we all faced, the pandemic brought about massive changes for me at work as I became our team (employment law) lead on the U.S. COVID-19 Taskforce.

That work gave me a great sense of purpose, as well as exposure to several senior leaders across the organization. The skills and techniques I honed in TLP increased confidence, strategic thinking, effective influencing, and resilience — are what helped me to navigate times filled with incredible uncertainty. In fact, I became our team's COVID-19 lead because of what I learned in TLP. I saw problems and spoke up with ideas for solutions, without being asked, and that's what led to me getting the opportunity to help the organization navigate that difficult time.”

Women are taking leadership roles and breaking ground at the company in many unique ways. We have the first production line run entirely by women in Venezuela. Also, I recently visited our Saudi Arabia team where we had one female employee in 2008 and now have approximately 25% female representation.

My conversations with our Marketing team and Noof Nooh, an inspirational female leader who heads our Riyadh plant, covered the themes of embracing authenticity, encouraging sponsorship, and fostering development. These incredible leaders are building networks across functions and business units to further drive their own advancement and impact.

With a workforce of more than 300,000 associates in a wide range of roles, building connections at all levels is essential in achieving this growth. We view mentorship and sponsorship as critical to deepening our associates’ networks and promoting female leaders at PepsiCo. Our Women’s Inclusion Network Employee Resource Group and Women of Color Employee Resource Groups offer forums to amplify women’s voices and connect women leading across the company. Many of our STEM employees participate in the Million Women Mentors program (MWM), pledging more than 23,000 hours of mentoring since 2014 across 11 chapters globally. This is a significant metric as women are traditionally underrepresented in STEM fields. For us, it is important that young female talent can see PepsiCo as a STEM thought leader and opportunity provider where they can pursue a fulfilling STEM career.

Miriam MenacherryThomas, Senior Principal Scientist in R&D, shares her experience with Million Women Mentors:

“Participation in the MWM Early Career mentoring program was a wonderful opportunity for me to connect with and encourage an early career engineer as she navigated the transition between college and starting a career with PepsiCo.

I learned just as much from my mentee through sharing cross functional experiences, me being in R&D and her on the floor in high throughput beverage production facility. During our mentorship, we were able to build trust and discuss topics such as confidence, networking, and skill building critical elements to having a successful career.”

It’s not enough to promote women at PepsiCo, we also look for ways to empower women in the communities we serve. As a company that operates in 200 countries and territories, PepsiCo has the opportunity and the responsibility to economically empower women around the world. Since 2019 the PepsiCo Foundation has partnered with CARE to invest in She Feeds the World , which aims to provide 5 million female farmers and their families with sustainable agriculture training and economic support to help them increase their crop yields, incomes and access to nutrition locally.

Most recently, we launched the program in India to strengthen the role of small-scale women producers through sustainable training and economic support. The program, which will be implemented in the Alipurduar and Cooch Behar districts of West Bengal, aims to reach out to more than 48,000 women, men and children and indirectly benefit 150,000 individuals.

Recognizing the multiple challenges women in business face, including inadequate support networks and difficulty accessing funding, we are also helping to build resilient women-owned businesses. Since 2017, our Stacy’s® Pita Chips brand has connected thousands of women entrepreneurs and provided more than $1,000,000 in funding in addition to resources and mentoring to elevate the leaders that help our communities thrive. Through its partnership with Hello Alice — a free platform that supports small business owners looking to learn and grow –selected winners receive $15,000 in business grants, four months of 2:1 PepsiCo executive mentorship, increased visibility through Stacy’s brand platform, a peer network with other women entrepreneurs, and a spotlight feature on Foundedbyher.org business directory. Founded by a woman entrepreneur, Stacy’s Pita Chips is just one example of a PepsiCo brand driven by purpose committed to making a difference.

PepsiCo remains committed to fostering a diverse workforce by creating a collaborative, equitable, and inclusive space where everyone, regardless of what we look like, where we come from, or who we love, has a voice. When we continue to champion women and promote their success within our walls and anywhere, we can influence diversity in our communities, we can deliver more smiles, and build a more prosperous future for us all.