How Pearson Helped Nestlé Purina Steer Their Future of Work
CASE STUDY
Pearson data allowed Purina to better understand new and emerging technologies and their impact on the business.
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Pearson demystifies the future of work. It takes the intangible, this idea that things are going to change, and converts it into numbers that represent our organization.”
Angela Schneider, Director of People Analytics, Nestlé Purina
Overview
Nestlé Purina Petcare is a company of pet lovers. For over 90 years, they’ve been committed to nourishing pets and enriching lives. The company is currently on an “Agility journey.” As part of that journey, employees were asked to remove, reduce, or simplify work. Many of the resulting successes were fueled by technology. Given the early wins on the use of technology in certain areas of the business, doing that at scale was an obvious next step.
Pearson came at the right time to augment the initiative and inform the next steps of the process. Specifically, to spur the exploration of new and emerging technologies to unlock capacity and zero-in on the most meaningful tasks at the individual, team, and enterprise level.
“We’re always trying to move at speed, smartly, and in the best way possible. Therefore it is important to figure out where we should focus—replacing repetitive tasks with meaningful work, for example. And part of it is figuring out where we can be better served by technology.”
— Angela Schneider, Director of People Analytics
Challenge
Multiple departments throughout Purina had already come up with ways for emerging technology to benefit the business. For example, the Digital Manufacturing team had identified technology to enhance human capacity in the warehouse.
“At Purina, we are constantly thinking about tweaking capabilities. We want to identify what’s coming next, what we are up against, and where gaps exist. Pearson accelerated our ability to play in that space,” said Angela Schneider, Director of People Analytics
Pearson was able to provide further clarity on how to best prepare the workforce for this shift by attaching numbers to current skills and capabilities and accurately identifying future requirements.
These insights enable leaders throughout Purina to anticipate workforce supply and demand up to 15 years in the future.
“My goal is not just to throw data at our leaders and associates across the company, but to make sure we’re providing them with actionable insights that they can move forward with that day,”
— Ellen Lynch, People Analytics Consultant
Solution
Veracity for Scheduled Digital Transformation
Leveraging Pearson data proved a natural extension of what Purina’s teams were already doing. By applying Pearson insights to new technology initiatives that were already scheduled, Purina was able to:
- rationalize technology roadmaps
- augment existing knowledge
- identify gaps that emerging technology could fill
“Pearson helped us tell a story of where we’re at and what the future looks like. It shows us how we can act today to prepare for tomorrow.”
— Angela Schneider, Director of People Analytics
Informing the Workforce Future Project
After Purina explored the existing technology projects in the works, the easy next step was to systematically review the rest of the workforce—a project called “Workforce Future.”
Pearson provided useful and thought-provoking data. The People Analytics team then created a Steering Committee to share that data with cross-organizational leaders, including the Heads of Human Resources, Sales, Digital Transformation, and more.
“We were already very committed to this goal, and we had taken some big first steps, especially in terms of automation. But Pearson showed us that we couldn’t stop there. It helped us think about where we were heading, where we need to deploy our resources, and where we need to focus to achieve long-term Digital Transformation,”
— DeAnne Stepp, VP Managing Director, Purina Sales
Powering Ongoing Digital Transformation
Key contacts were identified from each function to use the Pearson insights to identify gaps, come up with informed plays for tomorrow’s workforce, and put forth next steps that departments can use to act on data. All of this was vetted with the Steering Committee.
Workforce Future efforts also expanded to include curating an education program for employees on explanations and potential uses of emerging technology. Beyond education, this course was designed to help create a shared language within the company and inspire leaders to continue thinking about how emerging tech can enhance work.
Pearson data, including predictive workforce analytics and job impact analytics, keep agility and work removal front-of-mind. It helps leaders verify their good instincts and adds clarity and precision to workforce and technology planning.
“Before Pearson, we didn’t know how big the opportunity was. Figuring out where to focus your effort in an organization of this size is quite difficult. Pearson’s data helped us size up the opportunity and prioritize our efforts,” said Thomas Douaihy, VP Digital Business Transformation.
“We started by approaching specific leaders with insights that would solve immediate problems. Then we involved more leaders. We helped them understand what the future state looks like, especially from a people planning perspective.”
Results
Company Culture That Embraces Transformation
Today, Pearson plays a key role in Purina’s Agility journey. Its insights have helped raise awareness on new and emerging technology, informed a shared language around technology, and added data and context as leaders plan for future work.
Pearson proved especially valuable in identifying areas where Purina needs to focus, including process automation, predictive analysis and decision generation, solution discovery, and collaborative robotics.
Treating Data as an Asset
The next goal is to keep the momentum going within each department. Pearson helps by empowering the organization to use the technology it already has and treating data as an asset that is organized, connected, and applied. Many of the technologies Pearson predicts use data to run.
“We’ve seen a change in culture across Purina since introducing Pearson insights. Associates across the organization are more willing to use technology in their daily jobs. We’ve also seen the ability to use this data to make or support decisions already in progress.”
— Ellen Lynch, People Analytics Consultant
Proactive Strategies for the Future
In 2022, 83% of employees reported that they were able to better incorporate technology into their work. Pearson is helping bring about that change—and it’s helping everyone think about the future of work more holistically.
“The Pearson insights that were identified for our sales group helped us make significant and quick progress in areas we were already exploring and introduced us to the possibilities collaborative robotics offered. That was an area we hadn’t really thought about before Pearson,” said Stepp.
“Pearson inspired us to go down this journey of educating our people, especially our leaders, on what emerging technology exists. We’ve seen a positive push to make everything more efficient.”
Discover Pearson’s AI-powered predictive analytics platform today.
