PepsiCo's Career Planning and Development Framework PepsiCo has a long and well-deserved history of innovative employee and leadership development practices. However, in the late 1990s, a significant number of strategic and organizational changes, including the spin-off of Tricon and the Pepsi Bottling Group and the acquisition of Tropicana and Quaker, had left employees feeling unsure about the requirements for success in the organization. In particular, employees wanted to know more about how to build a successful career within the new organization. Moreover, and because of Pepsi's traditionally entrepreneurial and autonomous culture, each business unit had set up its own way of developing employees. In this new organization, employees wanted more information about how to take advantage of cross-business unit and cross-functional opportunities. In response, senior management tasked the internal OD group to partner with the HR organization and line managers to develop tools and processes to address these concerns. Their initial efforts resulted in: The PepsiCo Leadership Model that outlined leadership competencies and provided a framework for the 360-degree feedback process A career-development web resource called MyDevelopNet that provided assessment tools and development resources A cross-business unit job posting process called MyCareerConnection that listed open jobs in other functions and business units Although these tools and processes became an important part of PepsiCo's career planning and development process, people continued to want more detail and support regarding what it took to build a successful career in a given function. The interest in functional careers was somewhat at odds with Pepsi's strong division focused culture. To shift from a business unit-focused approach to a broader and standardized enterprise view, the organization needed to explore the importance of consistency in language and processes across specialties but within functions. The HR function was selected to pilot the approachto set the agenda, lead the initiative, and resolve any problems inherent in the design and implementation process. The task force, representing the 10 specialties within global HR (e.g., compensation, benefits, diversity, staffing, OD), was established in 2003 to develop a fully integrated career solution within the HR function. It was chartered with the following objectives: 1. Provide employees access to career information that will allow greater ownership of their development and enhanced development planning discussions with their managers 2. Provide consistent language around competencies, leadership skills, and the critical experiences required for career progression in the HR function at PepsiCo 3. Provide greater clarity regarding different opportunities and choices rather than prescribed paths. If properly designed and implemented, the intervention would result in a stronger and more capable HR functionone that spoke a consistent language across very different types of specialties, and had a greater emphasis on individual development and career growth. In addition, it would pave the way for similar efforts in other major functions, such as sales, marketing, finance, operations, and R&D. Based on this diagnosis, the HR Careers Task Force adopted a five step, OD-related process that emphasized input from key stakeholders across the function as well as early involvement and participation in the process. The first step was to develop an appropriate competency model for the HR function. The task force collected lists of HR competencies from internal and external sources, including business unit models, professional associations, and the literature. Importantly, although several business units had their own competency list, a successful intervention required a list that worked well with all employees in HR. The resulting model consisted of 12 competencies that were measured by 50 specific areas of applied knowledge and practice. The second step was to identify the jobs that would be part of the solution. The task force believed that it was unrealistic to analyze and include every job in a function. Rather, the team identified key positions with multiple incumbents within each of the 10 HR specialties. These jobs represented consistent, sustainable, long-term roles to which employees could aspire as part of their career planning. The final list of key jobs comprised the target for their work. The third step was to validate and calibrate the competencies for each of these key jobs. To do that, the task force created a "job modeling" survey that sampled the incumbents in the key jobs across the entire HR function. The first 50 questions represented the key HR competencies identified in Step 1, and asked participants to rate the proficiency level required to do the job well. The next set of questions were drawn from the PepsiCo Leadership Model to understand the leadership emphasis required in the job, and the final section asked about the experiences the incumbents were gaining from the role. For example, did the job provide the opportunity to partner with other divisions, manage a merger or acquisition process, or apply organization design skills. The fourth step required the task force to build the key job database so that it could be used by managers and employees. That is, whenever a manager, HR professional, or executive coach sat down with an employee to have a career conversation, the data base needed to be able to address at least three questions: 1. Where are the jobs (level, location, specialty area)? 2. What are the different accountabilities, experiences, and competencies required for the job? 3. How do I get to the next job from where I am? The database was designed to provide information on each of these questions and to facilitate rich career discussions. Data elements in the profiles included: overall position description, key accountabilities, requisite functional and leadership competencies, experiences gained, typical next jobs within and across levels and functions, required education and experience, and interactions with other roles. To facilitate the database's use, additional supporting tools were developed, including: an interactive online tool that allowed employees to view all of the key jobs in the function and their own division with typical next steps identified for each position the ability to initiate self-assessments against functional or leadership competencies and compare those with either the current job or any other job in the database the ability to request a manager's assessment on an employee against the same competencies for comparison and discussion an HR Resource Guide containing development tips, tactics, and resources to help employees build their functional competencies a behavioral interviewing guide to assist in job interviews and placements new training resources and modules to support deeper knowledge acquisition in key areas of need. The database and tools were shared with managers, functional VPs, and senior leaders to ensure that the jobs were properly calibrated against others both within and across HR divisions. This data feedback stage was time consuming but ensured the product was of high quality and high validity, created additional buy-in on the part of leaders to actually use the tools, and allowed leaders to reevaluate the nature and accountabilities of the jobs in question. The final step of the process involved implementing the system and evaluating its acceptance and use for areas in need of adjustment. Each HR specialty created their own integrated rollout strategy based on current initiatives and available resources. Certain key messages and tools supporting the framework and their relationship to existing HR processes were standardized to ensure a common language and approach to career development.

Which of the following steps did PepsiCo's HR function not follow in creating its new career-planning and development process?

a. Develop an appropriate competency-based model for HR function

b. Validate and calibrate competencies for key jobs

c. Specify industry best practices

d. Build key job database

Why did PepsiCo move beyond its initial career-planning and development efforts?

a. Competitors were implementing better career-planning and development processes.

b. Employees wanted more detail and support regarding what it took to build a successful career in a given function.

c. Middle management was dissatisfied with the initial career-planning and development efforts.

d. Initial career-planning and development efforts were too costly.

Which of the following was a key factor in implementing the new HR function career-planning and development process?

a. A special budget for implementation

b. Standardized key messages and tools

c. A common rollout strategy across HR specialties

d. Rewards tied to implementation success