41% of Total Supply Chain Workforce Are Women, Per ‘She Is PepsiCo’ Recruitment Campaign
To kick off International Women’s Month, PepsiCo has launched its annual campaign to spotlight women employees on the frontlines.
The company’s “She Is PepsiCo” campaign is honoring more than two dozen employees from across the U.S. and Canada for 2024, recognizing truck drivers, mechanics, merchandisers, warehouse loaders, and other frontline workers.
As part of the initiative, these honorees will have their names and photos on PepsiCo trucks that will drive through their community. This is also being used as a recruitment tool, demonstrating how women can build and grow “a meaningful frontline career at PepsiCo supported by the tools and culture to nurture their continued development.”
Becky Schmitt, chief human resource officer at PepsiCo, said getting more women to apply for frontline roles doesn’t just positively impact the employees, but is also beneficial for their families and the communities in which the company operates.
"PepsiCo wants women to clearly see the career opportunities that are available to them and hear from the women who are thriving in frontline careers, and beyond,” said Schmitt. “We hope people who see these trucks in markets around the world will be inspired to apply for a role at PepsiCo."
According to a 2023 Gartner report, 41% of the total supply chain workforce is made up of women, an increase from 39% in 2022. Looking at overall frontline roles, however, women made up only 31% even though they account for about half of the U.S. labor force.
At PepsiCo, the company’s supply chain is led by women, with Karen Jordan at the helm for PBNA as chief supply officer and Laura Maxwell as chief supply chain officer for PepsiCo Foods North America.
About ‘She Is PepsiCo’
The campaign launched in 2022, expanding nationwide in 2023 and now running on a global scale. The goal of the initiative is to “create a collaborative, equitable, and inclusive space where everyone, regardless of what we look like, where we come from, or whom we love, has a voice.”
It works alongside pep+ goals of achieving gender parity across global management roles, maintaining equitable pay, and uplifting underserved communities. It additionally has an underlying foundation based in STEM, working in tandem with PepsiCo’s role as a founding member of the global Million Women Mentors initiative, which focuses on mentoring women and girls in STEM across primarily underserved communities.
Female applicants for PepsiCo Beverages North America (PBNA) frontline roles increased by 6% since 2022, and this past year the company saw retention improvements across 210 sites that reduced turnover by 10%.
The Honorees:
- Tracy Pendleton: A transport driver that made a career change to driving with her CGL A after managing a convenience store
- Sterling Graham: A driver who started as a merchandiser in 2019.
- Kanoe Kapana: A large format bulk customer representative who joined PepsiCo in a merchandising role after previous jobs in automotive and HR.
- Casey Bair: A large format sales representative who has been working at PepsiCo for 5 years.
- Joni Woitas: A machine operator with 32 years of experience. She has held various frontline operations roles at PepsiCo and is currently a CO2 tank filler operator.
"This is the third year we're honoring PBNA's exemplary frontline women through ‘She Is PepsiCo’ and I'm always moved by the individual career journeys of the honorees and the important role they each play in our business — making, moving, and selling our products," said Andrea Ferrara, chief human resource officer for PBNA. "Our business truly relies on excellence in these frontline roles. I am proud that PBNA creates these unique moments of recognition to help drive belonging for all our employees, making a large company feel small."
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