PepsiCo, Inc. published its most recent Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) Report, illustrating actions centered on equity and building a strong culture of inclusion that has enabled important progress on gender parity, pay equity and increasing diverse workforce representation, while supporting marginalized communities around the world. For the first time, the report also includes an audio component featuring the voices of select associates who contributed to the company’s progress, providing those who may be visually impaired the opportunity to experience the report. This added audio feature illustrates PepsiCo’s continued commitment to evolving its offerings to be more inclusive and accessible.

“DE&I is and will continue to be a competitive advantage for our company, driving our performance, and enabling our sustained growth over the long-term,” said Ramon Laguarta, PepsiCo’s Chairman and CEO. “As we look to the year ahead, we remain committed to advancing our DE&I agenda with transparency and accountability. Together with our associates, business partners and communities, we can achieve our goals and build a company that is not only successful and sustainable, but inclusive and welcoming to all.”

The latest DE&I Report shared progress across the company’s three strategic pillars, including:

A space for people to be themselves:

• Advancing gender parity in managerial roles globally with progress currently at 43%, positively trending toward its goal to achieve 50% by 2025.
  • PepsiCo Latin America opened its first production line operated solely by women in Aragua, Venezuela.
  • PepsiCo India doubled the number of women in sales, with more than 25% in senior management roles.
• Increasing Black and Hispanic representation at the managerial level, at 8.3% and 9.5%, respectively. As part of its U.S. Racial Equality Journey, PepsiCo is on track to meet its goal of increasing managerial representation in the U.S. to 10% by 2025, to mirror workforce availability of the communities it serves.
  • PepsiCo expanded its Racial Equality Journey in Brazil where through the Lift Project, it provided free English language courses and mentoring to more than 240 Black college students, helping more than 92% of the students enter the job market.

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A space for business partners to progress:

• Investing more than $2.9 billion in diverse suppliers over the past three years, – more than 50% of which was spent with women-owned businesses.
• Innovating for local tastes through purpose-driven product campaigns, including:
  • Manzanita Sol, a crisp, refreshing apple soda reminiscent of the flavors of Latin America and the Caribbean, supported some of New York City’s most beloved Black and Hispanic-owned food trucks with $10,000 to help further their small businesses.
  • Walkers introduced a range of limited-edition crisps reminiscent of iconic flavors of UK restaurants (e.g., ‘Madras Curry’ inspired by The Radhuni in Edinburgh and ‘Chicken Burrito’ inspired by Yucca in London) to encourage customers to give back and support their favorite local eateries.
  • Doritos Mexico launched a Día de Muertos ad that celebrates love and reaffirms the company’s ongoing allyship of the LGBTQ+ community through its #PrideAllYear campaign.

A space for communities to thrive:

• Unlocking opportunities & cultivating future talent through the Graduate and Future Leaders program in Africa that helps women and men advance their skills and careers.
  • PepsiCo trained 43 individuals from Nigeria, Ethiopia, and South Africa who participated and graduated from the 18-month program and majority were offered roles within the company upon completion.
• Meeting the needs of local communities through its Food for Good program that aims to increase access to nutritious food.
  • In response to the growing hunger crisis, PepsiCo and the Foundation expanded Food for Good’s to 28 countries worldwide with a goal to provide access to nutritious food to 50 million people by 2030 (against a 2021 baseline). Through Food for Good, PepsiCo has delivered more than 245 million meals since 2009, reached 41 million people across the world since 2016, and has partnered with more than 60 nonprofits across 28 countries to ensure the company is implementing local solutions that meet the unique challenges of each community.

“We don’t settle for average at PepsiCo – we strive to attract and retain the best talent for our teams,” said Tina Bigalke, PepsiCo’s Global Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer. “We’re advancing our efforts with strategic intention, continuously leveraging data and insights to meet the needs of our workforce, listening to our associates, business partners and communities about how to optimize our impact, and inspiring actions to raise standards throughout our ecosystem.”

Source: PepsiCo