ESG
Topics A-Z
ESG Topics A-Z
Employee learning and development
To PepsiCo:
Developing a highly talented workforce is essential for our ongoing success. We cultivate employees' skills and experiences to improve retention, increase productivity and effectiveness, and drive our long-term success.
To the World:
In a rapidly-changing world, workers expect to develop and evolve their skill set throughout their working lives. Employers rely on an educated and trained workforce and have an important role to play in providing learning and development resources to their employees. Employees benefit from these opportunities, enabling rewarding careers, higher standards of living, and increased job satisfaction.
Approach
PepsiCo’s success is underpinned by some of the best leaders and most effective employees in the industry, thanks in part to a global community of learning led through PEP U Degreed, our online learning platform. We encourage employees to embrace a “learn it all” mentality, consistently striving to be our best at what we do each day, and to prepare for the future. Our leaders are actively engaged in the teaching process, supporting learning in both formal and informal settings.
As part of our pep+ (PepsiCo Positive) strategy, we’re working to provide meaningful jobs and growth opportunities for our people. We empower them to make a positive impact at work, at home and in their local communities. We further our peoples' careers through increased access to higher education, skill development, and new job roles that offer growth opportunities to everyone at every stage.
We believe investing in education this will lead to enhanced growth opportunities for our workforce, while supporting a Positive Value Chain for PepsiCo.
Effective learning experiences – whether they happen in a classroom or in the workplace – require high-quality content, and in 2022 we have improved and updated our learning resource collection of videos, podcasts, articles, blogs, job aids and more.
We aim to encourage learning through a range of methods and experiences to maximize engagement and learning effectiveness. For example, seeking an outside thought-leader perspective might be the best way to provide insight into a company strategy challenge, while a simple internal document might provide the necessary answer to a process question.
By equipping PepsiCo employees with the right learning resources at the right time, we aim to help them solve the business challenges they encounter in real time. Our programs help PepsiCo associates develop new skills to grow in their careers and prepare for transitions in our business.
PepsiCo’s internal global learning resource, PepsiCo University, enables a culture of continuous learning and development. In consultation with PepsiCo leaders, PepsiCo University sets priorities for global classroom and online curriculum needs. Our curriculum is organized by topic across three categories:
- Leadership and Management
- Future-Ready Workforce
- Functional Skills
Employees can mix-and-match electronic and face-to-face content from these categories to suit their learning styles and objectives. PepsiCo University leadership programs are rich, hands-on experiences in which leaders solve real business problems alongside global peers. Our learners emerge empowered to work in new ways, engaged in our global strategy and better connected to leaders across the business.
Progress
In 2021, we added new self-paced educational resources to PEP U Degreed and launched new instructor-led programs to help our associates build their skills and prepare for the workforce of the future.
Challenges
Employees can have difficulty finding time to fit learning within their day-to-day jobs. We continue to develop shorter, "bite-size" learning resources for easy consumption in the flow of work.
Progress
In 2021, PepsiCo expanded the reach of its online learner experience platform, PEP U Degreed, which leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to suggest personalized learning resources based on skills/interests, colleague connections and learning habits. We think that the effectiveness of learning does not solely depend on the number of logged learning hours. It can be enhanced by many experiences including in-work roles, through videos, articles and by colleagues sharing information. With PEP U Degreed, we are able to offer creative learning solutions that go beyond the typical eLearning and instructor-led training options by providing access to wider resources such as industry articles, TED talks, podcasts and more.
What's next?
Creating development interventions that focus on individual skills — and connecting those with other HR tools — will enable PepsiCo employees to find countless opportunities for growth. Those future opportunities may include projects, mentorship relationships, or new full-time roles. In 2022, we launched myeducation, which will enable U.S. employees, in the frontline population, and elsewhere, to upskill and re-skill by offering specific interventions and paths, including certificates, bachelor’s degrees, and programs in trades such as machine and maintenance mechanics, all without going into debt. As we strive to build a Positive Value Chain, we're committed to showing all parts of our organization that career growth and learning and development are important.