Anne Sample is senior vice president of human resources at PepsiAmericas, PepsiCo's second largest bottler. The company has operations in 18 U.S. states as well as in Central Europe and the Caribbean. It serves a combined population of more than 118 million people. It manufactures, sells, and distributes a broad portfolio of Pepsi-Cola and other Pepsi-owned brands.

After a merger in 2000, PepsiAmericas recognized the need to bring together its three separate companies each with its own distinct culture. This prompted the development of a strategic business plan that would result in melding the strengths of each company into a single, unified entity. The PepsiAmericas HR team played a prominent role in leading the transformation, focusing attention on how PepsiAmericas managed its human capital.

A critical component of the plan was the creation of a talent management planning initiative centered on a comprehensive performance management process. The process was designed to support the strategic business plan while simultaneously building a unified culture.

In the following interview, Anne Sample discusses the PepsiAmericas performance management initiative and how it was developed, and also provides insight on the technology selection process.

What are the key challenges in making performance management initiatives successful?

I believe the main one is change management. You have to make it clear to managers what your organization's goals are and what they, as managers, need to do to support them. Then, the challenge is for HR to help managers understand that a performance management program is the most important and powerful business tool they can have; it's not an isolated HR program.

What are the most common obstacles?

One of the most common is when different parts of an organization want to offer a variety of niche solutions. For example, the compensation expert wants to offer a solution that provides perfect linkage between merit and performance. The organizational development (OD) person wants to offer something fully developmental. The field HR person wants a solution that is clear and understandable.

You have to keep in mind that you can't offer these solutions in silos; it automatically results in competing systems that are neither integrated nor linked. To avoid this, you have to go back to listening to the voice of the manager and the employee. What does the manager need to eliminate any doubt about what their team is accountable for and why it's important? And, from the employee perspective, what are their needs so we can help them accomplish what the organization needs done?

Speaking of integrated systems, how important is integrating performance and compensation management?

Performance management doesn't become reality until it's linked to pay. If you don't link it, it's all talk. You can purchase niche solutions to help do this, but unless they're integrated and linked, they don't really work. The information doesn't flow through. You don't gain any advantage unless they are well linked and integrated.

Why is it important for employees' and managers' goals to be aligned with those of PepsiAmericas?

At PepsiAmericas, our business mission is very focused: To make, sell and deliver beverages. Therefore, our HR initiatives are geared toward helping our 13,000 employees fulfill this mission.

Ours is a very low margin business that is highly transactional, so service is a key differentiator. It's an enormous challenge because we sell our products one case at a time. So, it's critical that every member of the organization is clear about what we're trying to do as an organization and how he or she contributes to achieving those goals.

Tell us about your vendor selection process.

We had several groups in the organization searching for the optimal solutions for automating some of the more critical steps in the talent management cycle. So, one team worked on succession planning, another on performance management and goal setting, and yet another exploring managerial tools that span the talent management cycle. Meanwhile, another group worked on automating our bonus system. Ultimately, it was the integrated nature of the Authoria Solution that carried the day.

How did you arrive at your decision and what expectations did you have?

We focused on what was most important for our organization. PepsiAmericas had processes in place that we needed to simplify and make work in tandem. We also wanted to help managers understand how everything worked together so that, as a manager, they derive the maximum value for the time they commit to using the technology.

We'd been trying to simplify and streamline many of our performance management processes. Originally, we expected we'd need to do the heavy lifting and only acquire the best-in-class solution for each segment of the talent management cycle.

Our managers told us, however, that having the solutions integrated would enable them to be far more effective. Consequently, being able to provide a highly integrated product suite where managers can enter data once and have it flow through all areas of the talent management process is what led us to choosing Authoria. The integrated functionality of the Authoria product suite was unique and a key decision factor.

How does a solution like Authoria help in aligning employee and organizational goals?

It's critical that managers and employees to see corporate goals at the uppermost levels. It helps them see how their own business unit's goals relate to those high-level objectives, as well as how their group and division goals link to their personal ones. We're excited about being able to visualize that goal alignment using Authoria Performance.

How do you engage and assist managers in the process?

We've created methods and tools that clearly communicate to managers the role they're being asked play. Previously, we had a variety of processes, but they weren't integrated. Nothing frustrates managers more than having to duplicate effort, whether it's repeatedly entering the same information into the system or filling out cumbersome forms.

Today, we make it easy for them to guide employees through the talent management cycle, from hiring to performance reviews.

What aspect of technology really facilitates managerial communication?

Undoubtedly, the most powerful and important component is the manager portal that spans and links the technology that supports each distinct area of the process.

For instance, managers often evaluate subordinates without thinking about how to explain why a particular aspect of performance is important. The integrated systems capability Authoria provides helps us do that much more effectively.

What are your next steps?

Our senior management team is focused on clarifying our overall company vision and the goals we want to pursue over the next three-to-five years. It's an excellent opportunity to take full advantage of the Authoria product suite. And, the suite provides an excellent platform from which PepsiAmericas can build comprehensive campaigns that are truly consistent with the company's vision and goals.

Thank you for this informative discussion.