Boosting financial health for PepsiCo's U.S. frontline workforce

• ‍Established: 1965  ‍
• Industry: FMCG  ‍
• No. of employees: 318,000+ ‍
• Countries operate in: 193

The challenge

PepsiCo set out to improve long-term financial health for all employees. Before nudge, financial support varied across workforces and states. The goal was to replace that with one consistent experience for every employee across the U.S.

With a workforce that spans frontline, office, and management roles, each with different access to financial systems and benefits. Many frontline employees had no company email, so reaching them called for a refreshed approach.

"We had different flavors of financial wellbeing. Really robust in some areas, not as much as others. We needed a consistent experience for all our associates." Barry O'Brien, Senior Director, Global Retirement and Financial Wellbeing, PepsiCo

The business case rested on two things: external pressures like rising costs, and what employees themselves were saying. Survey data pointed to money management as the leading source of employee stress, with retirement readiness a distinct concern. Underneath it all was a broader ambition: lifting financial confidence not just for employees, but for their families and the communities around them.

The solution

Built on personalized financial guidance

PepsiCo chose nudge's financial health platform to give their U.S. employees impartial, personalized financial guidance, free of product or provider bias.

Together they created Healthy Money, a financial health program live since October 2023, with five aims:

• Build U.S. employees' financial confidence, resilience, and overall wellbeing
• Improve understanding and appreciation of PepsiCo benefits
• Use analytics and insights to drive personalization
• Improve the digital experience, connecting the wider benefits and support available to U.S. employees
• Expand Healthy Money across all the U.S. with a consistent, best-in-class offer

PepsiCo and nudge took Healthy Money to their workforce through an omni-channel approach:

• Centrally created multimedia and promotional toolkits to equip HR and communications leads, ready to activate the program
• A dedicated web page and QR codes let frontline employees log in without being on a company site or network
• Where frontline workers had no company email, PepsiCo used personal emails captured through benefits administration to extend reach
• Financial and prize incentives encouraged people to register and complete the nudge’s financial health checkup, from sweepstakes entries to wellbeing dollars redeemable as gift cards.
• Reward teams attended on-site benefit fairs, and nudge promoted wider benefits around key moments, including National 401(k) Day and World Mental Health Day.

Reaching everyone

A core aim was making sure frontline workers saw Healthy Money as built for them, not just for management. PepsiCo and nudge:

• Sent print home-mailers, recognizing that the person managing household finances might not be the employee
• Connected financial guidance to other benefits, launching phase one during World Mental Health Week alongside EAP resources
• Produced an energetic jingle and short video to introduce nudge
• Led the platform's dual-language functionality for the large group of U.S. frontline employees whose first language is Spanish, an approach PepsiCo leadership praised as inclusive and frontline-centric
• Brought on-site impartial financial guidance, visiting manufacturing plants to support employees away from a desk

Impartial financial guidance also extended to one-on-one support. In the U.S., Healthy Money coaches give employees direct, confidential help, and key retirement information now sits on the platform itself. Through the PepsiCo Foundation Family Scholars Program, support reaches further still, helping the families of employees with the cost of higher education.

The results

Employee impact

• +10 points the average rise in financial health scores for frontline employees, the biggest gain of any group
• +8 points the rise across the workforce overall, from 56 to 64
• 64 average financial health score ahead of the cross-client benchmark of 58
• 77% of employees took action to improve their financial health three or more times
• 167% increase in financial health checkups globally

Employer impact

• 26% of employees engaged with U.S. National 401(k) Day campaign and increased their contributions
• $2.9 million into retirement savings through salary sacrifice in one market, up 10% year over year
• $470,000 in payroll tax savings from the salary sacrifice arrangements

The impartial financial guidance is translated into action. In the U.S., 26% of employees reached by the National 401(k) Day campaign went on to increase their contributions. Salary sacrifice arrangements directed around $2.9 million into retirement savings over the year, up roughly $270,000 from the year before, with about $470,000 in payroll tax savings.

Those actions sit on top of a broader lift in financial health: scores rose from 56 to 64, ahead of the cross-client average of 58, with frontline employees showing the biggest gain of any group.