Free Essay. The Success in Attracting and Retaining Minorities at Pepsico

According to Reece (2012), the management at PepsiCo is traditionally reviewed and compensated for their role and success in attracting and retaining minorities. The company has received accolades for this effort with numerous awards to this end. The Kentucky African American Encyclopedia mentions the Harvey C. Russell Award, an important recognition that has seen the development of a Russell Neighborhood in downtown Louisville, and others like the rededicated Harvey C. Russell Junior High School. Crisp (2012), notes that cultural diversity implies acceptance of members of a society or culture that is usually considered outgroup.

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Reece provides that diversity can drive competitiveness in the marketplace as it enhances a company's ability to understand the represented segments. The development of new products has been inspired and informed by this diverse workforce.

Brief Summary of the Problem and Purpose

Diversity can be defined as the acknowledgment, understanding, acceptance, valuing, and celebration of the differences among people in the society as related to age, class, gender, ethnicity, mental and physical ability, race, sexuality, religion, and public welfare status (Lewis Griggs, 2010). There is a need for organization leadership to recognize the ways in which the workplace is growing, maturing, and diversifying. The management of diversity is a significant organizational challenge, and managers need to learn the managerial skills needed in a multicultural work environment. Supervisors and managers should be ready to teach themselves and others in their organizations to value multicultural differences in both peers and customers in order to ensure that everyone is treated with dignity. There is need for companies to focus on diversity and find ways to become inclusive organizations since diversity has the potential for them to be more productive and competitive.

What is the overview of the US-based leadership team at PepsiCo?

For PepsiCo, increasing the diversity of their leadership team is a business imperative. They believe that with the proper awareness and focus in place diversity can enhance business performance. The company's succession planning is heavily guided by policies and practices that focus around gender and racial diversity (PepsiCo, 2018).

PepsiCo's support for diversity is well in line with its philosophy of Winning with Purpose, a value that acknowledges that the strength of the organization is reliant on how it accepts the broad scope of humanity. The organization has developed a more inclusive workplace and promotes what it calls courageous engagement in the organization and the communities it thrives in. The code of conduct and values at PepsiCo is at the heart of how the organization conducts its business and how the employees treat one another. It has a rich history of diversity, being the first major company to have an African-American sales team. In the 1950's PepsiCo was the first major company to include a woman on their board. In the 1960s, it was the first major company to have an African-American vice president, Harvey C. Russell. There is now an award named for him that celebrates employees in the company to grow its diversity in different ways (Gerald L. Smith, 2015).

What is the current diversity among the US-based leadership team at PepsiCo?

PepsiCo's goal is to achieve gender parity in management positions by 2025. The company has a global, data-driven strategy aimed at achieving more gender diversity. PepsiCo has operations in 200 countries, and, in 2018, they managed to move 40% of women into management positions, a notable improvement from 37% in 2015. The senior leadership positions held by women include the head of Global Operations, the Latin America CEO, the President of Global Foodservice, the Controller, the Chief Global Diversity, the Chief Information Officer, and the Engagement Officer.

What is the current status of inclusion among the US-based leadership team at PepsiCo?

PepsiCo is active in supporting women at all levels of the organization to advance their careers and grow to take up more senior positions, while at the same time ensuring pay equity within the organization. It has been honored with the Workplace Gender Equality Agency's (WGEA) Employer of Choice award for gender equality, four years in a row. The company's policies and practices around gender include support for parents and working families. In 2017, the organization increased paid leave for primary carers from 12 to 16 weeks. The organization is committed to accelerating and maintaining the development of female talent by developing well-structured mentoring, coaching, and leadership development programs.

In 2015, PepsiCo started a Transformational Leadership program, a strategy to help them manage diversity as a way to unlock potential in their leadership team. The organization uses this strategy to alter how people and organizations see themselves and how they see others, focusing on their limits, their possibilities, and their circumstances. It aims to build a self-generating willingness and capacity to be innovative, speak up, be reasonably assertive, build trust, and to take workable actions and make a measurable impact in their positions. It aims to provide women at the company with key skills that are decisive for success in the workplace, including courage, influence, confidence, and impact. Since it began, more than 300 women have from more than 20 countries from across various functions and levels have passed through the program. The outcome so far has been demonstrated in improved confidence, dominion, and career optimism among participants as compared to their peers in similar organizations.

What benchmark practices help to increase diversity?

Benchmarking allows is about distinguishing areas that are flourishing from those that need improvement. It is the continuous process of comparing the organization's strategy, products, and processes with those of the best-performing organizations in order to understand and learn how they achieved this excellence, and then working to match and hopefully surpass it. Organizations that adopt and promote a diverse workplace will usually attract and retain quality employees and increase customer loyalty, and this translates into effective delivery in communities with diverse needs.

Engagement is one of the major benchmarks that promote diversity at PepsiCo. This includes engagement at both the employee and community level, the former making the latter even more possible to actualize and build on in achieving its business aims. It is the continuous diversity and engagement of its employees that has helped gain acceptance in the different communities, and this has in turn helped them understand them better and helped the company design their products and business practices around serving these communities. These employees come with different experiences and backgrounds, and the company is building on this legacy to create a future in its global market that spans over 200 countries and territories. Starting in 2016, the company has made external commitments promoting gender parity, prosperity, and pay equity for the territories they operate in.

Inclusion is one of the benchmarks that promote diversity at Pepsi. This is the degree to which the leadership in an organization is actively involved in building and implementing initiatives and risk-taking. Leaders create change by inspiring their employees. Business partners promote diversity by infusing it into organizational processes and making sure that diversity is integrated into the core values of the organization. They acknowledge the importance of diversity and position the responsibility for promoting it not only with human resources departments or specific diversity departments but also with top-level executives. These provide visibility and have the mandate to commit resources to make diversity happen. These leaders take ownership and communicate the vision through the organization's rank and file. In 2000, the company initiated the first Hispanic Advisory Board to aid in creating metrics that they used in hiring among the Hispanic community. They also implemented inclusion training programs, an initiative that then saw a significant increase in the number of employees that felt that the culture of PepsiCo was more inclusive. Inclusion at Pepsi has been a continuous process that follows employees in their various stages of career development. This was exceptionally visible in 2006 when Indra Nooyi, a woman of Indian origin, was named CEO of PepsiCo. Indra joined PepsiCo and, courtesy of the company's active inclusion practices, she saw her career rise to the top in just 12 years (PepsiCo, 2018).

What benchmark practices help to increase inclusion?

The Transformational Leadership training initiative at PepsiCo is a good example of continuous best practices that have helped PepsiCo substantively add value to the role of women in leadership within the organization. Transformational leadership has promoted diversity at the top tiers of the company while at the same time being a growth catalyst as the beneficiaries show better performance in their roles after participation.

Linking diversity to strategic plans has been another way that PepsiCo has managed to achieve sustainable diversity. Being a global operator, PepsiCo's commitment to embracing diversity among the communities it operates in has created trust and feelings of inclusion, consequently attracting and retaining some of the best minds within these communities. This has helped bring new perspectives in the workplace this has encouraged innovation and an ability to identify market opportunities wherever they operate.

The PepsiCo Global Code of Conduct is a major guiding tool in its definition of diversity. The parameters by which to define diversity are well spelled out in the document. It also explains the importance of the appreciation of diversity as to ensure an inclusive work environment that embraces the strength of the differences within their workforce.

What best practices help to increase diversity?

One of the ways that PepsiCo increases diversity in the workplace is through continuous measurement of the impact of their diversification efforts. This is well-reflected in their Performance with Purpose philosophy (PwP). This is a strategic philosophy that was introduced in 2006 that is about using detailed data to continually track and manage their impact in three key areas, products, planet, and people, in line with the company's 2025 goals. The information is used to improve their market performance and expand their product portfolio while maintaining a minimal environmental footprint and creating positive change in the communities and territories in which they operate (Lewis Griggs, 2010). Diversity, gender parity in management, and women empowerment are among the key aspects of this initiative. The PwP reporting includes an annual Sustainability Report that summarizes the major aspects of the year's performance, and a Performance Metrics sheet containing detailed 3-year performance data against their 2025 goals. This reporting is a major tool in the evolution of the company's understanding of diversity and the empowerment of women. It provides information that they then use to address issues and mitigate risks, efforts that require local interventions that are developed in consultations with the people that live and work in these communities.