Last Friday I attended the Talent Net Live Fall Conference 2012 at the PepsiCo Frito-Lay headquarters in Plano, TX. And I had an amazing opportunity to meet Chris Hoyt, The Global Talent Engagement and Marketing leader at PepsiCo.
I have been fascinated with the concept of candidate engagement and wrote an article that I contributed to SocialBusinessNews.com titled Candidate Engagement through Social Media illustrating PepsiCo as an example. However when I met him my questions lead to more than candidate engagement. Like what makes a candidate the right fit at PepsiCo and what it is like working at PepsiCo. Here is the interview.
You can connect with him here:
Website: http://www.recruiterguy.net/
Twitter @TheRecruiterGuy
LinkedIn:http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrishoyt
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RecruiterGuy
A few snippets from the interview –
When job search processes leave candidates feeling confused and overwhelmed and often frustrated with the black hole in the job application process. Chris says
At PepsiCo they treat every applicant as a real person and not just a resume that comes into the system.
The expert sourcing team at Pepsico has been trained on how to become digitally savvy and be active through social media. Having their recruiters available and accessible to candidates through various channels like LinkedIn groups, Twitter account @PepsiCoJOBS, Facebook page and mobile apps has blown away my mind. And the thought behind this was that exploring career possibilities should be easy! As simple as that! He added
Tweeting jobs or giving automated responses are not engagement but making the real recruiters available and helping the candidates to get their questions answered at the front end is all about transparency and engagement. Use social media not as a tool for broadcasting/advertising the job opportunities but as a conversation tool to facilitate the connections.
From Chris’s words I was able to understand that the transparency and engagement that a candidate receives at the front end continues when that candidate becomes an employee at PepsiCo.
Pepsico is not about command and control structure with the management and leadership but it is about bringing people into the organization that can push great ideas upwards and drive those forward. PepsiCo’s Culture is all about empowering possibilities for their employees within the organization which has given employees the freedom to act and think in ways that they feel will get the job done, while adhering to processes that ensure proper governance. Hence employees input and shared values drives the organization towards global success.
If you want to know what real PepsiCo employees are saying about their jobs, Check out their employee blog
