The Campbell Soup Company has in the last seven years reclaimed its status as one of the world’s best-performing food companies. During this period of growth, Campbell has set two basic, interconnected goals: increase shareowner return and foster exceptional employee engagement.
As senior vice president, chief human resources and communications officer, Nancy Reardon ’74 oversees Campbell’s global human resources and communications functions, including training and development, compensation and benefits, and public affairs. She is part of the executive team headed up by Campbell’s president and chief executive officer Douglas R. Conant, who is credited for leading the company’s turnaround.
Upon joining the company in 2004, Reardon set out to enhance the company’s ability to recruit, retain and develop the best talent in the food industry and to contribute to the company’s transformation.
“We firmly believe that to win in the marketplace, we must win in the workplace by providing a superior employment experience,” she said.
At Campbell, a good work environment starts with training and development. The company runs leadership training courses through Campbell University, the company’s innovative learning and development program.
The training is aimed at teaching the company’s leadership model, which includes inspiring trust, creating direction, driving organization alignment, building organization vitality, executing with excellence, and producing extraordinary results.
Recently, the company began training employees in China, one of world’s largest soup consumption markets. Campbell has introduced new soup products in this market to appeal to the unique culture and tastes of Chinese consumers.
These training opportunities are helping to attract and retain employees in China who are often unaccustomed to such professional development, Reardon noted.
“We invest in training and development on a global basis to ensure that we have the best leaders around the world, and that they have the ingredients they need to succeed,” Reardon said. “We’ve worked hard to develop consistent, core processes, such as performance management. An employee could be in Sydney, Australia or in Brussels, Belgium; they could work for Pepperidge Farm or for the soup business. No matter where they are, the program works the same.”
In other words, the company’s award-winning domestic leadership training and employee retention strategies are as much an export as its iconic Campbell’s soup cans and Pepperidge Farm Goldfish crackers.
And these strategies are working— Campbell’s employee engagement has steadily increased, as measured through the Gallup Organization, the recognized industry leader. The company employs 23,000 worldwide and has 1,200 employees at company headquarters in Camden, N.J.
Indeed, the investment in employee engagement is paying dividends both in the marketplace and in the workplace. Campbell’s stock value doubled from 2003 to 2006, and in the fiscal year ending in July 2007, net income rose 10 percent, to $854 million on sales of $7.8 billion. The company, founded in 1869, makes products ranging from its signature soups and Pepperidge Farm cookies and crackers to Godiva chocolates, Prego pasta sauce and V8 beverages.
In June 2007, Campbell was awarded one of 12 Gallup Great Workplace Awards for creating an engaged workplace. Recently, Campbell was ranked as one of the best places to work in Philadelphia (Camden and Philadelphia sit on opposite sides of the Delaware River.) And in May 2007, Campbell was recognized with two more awards, one connected with employee health given by the National Business Group on Health, and another from a New Jersey business group that cited Campbell as one of the state’s best places to work.
The underlying factor behind all of the recognition, Reardon said, is a holistic approach. The company cares as much about employee health as it does about the nutritional value and market success of its products.
“We’ve engaged our employees by demonstrating that we value them and their contributions,” Reardon said. “They know that at Campbell, they can make a difference.”
Reardon began her career with General Electric’s international operations after earning a master’s degree in social psychology from Syracuse University. She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Union in just over three years. Prior to Campbell, Reardon was executive vice president, human resources and corporate affairs, for Comcast Cable Communications, Inc. Earlier in her career, she was partner and executive vice president, human resources, at Borden Capital Management. That academic and professional background has helped Reardon, a 54-year-old mother of two children, hone her leadership skills.
“If you’re interested in people, you know intuitively how to look at an issue from their vantage point,” she said. “You can convey a sense of interest and value in what that person has to offer. A good leader must be able to link people to business goals they believe in and be able to chart a course that others are willing to follow. You can’t just tell people to feel good or how to achieve a goal; you’ve got to take them on a journey and get them excited about it.”
Reardon traces part of her business success to her Union roots. First, being one of the roughly 100 women who entered Union College in 1970, she learned much about succeeding in the corporate boardroom, a space that has traditionally been a male-dominated environment. Union also provided opportunities beyond the classroom. Reardon helped lead an on-campus chapter of Big Brothers Big Sisters and participated in local efforts to improve nonprofit services in Schenectady.
“I found professors so willing to spend time with me,” Reardon recalled. “It was easy to approach a professor and say, ‘Can I bend your ear for half an hour? I’m working on this project. No it’s not for a course. No it’s not for a major.’ I could have access and professors were very encouraging.”
Reardon is the granddaughter of Robert Tiel, Class of 1926, who worked as an engineer at Niagara Mohawk before retiring in the late 1960s. She grew up in the small Adirondack town of Dolgeville and visited the campus with her grandfather before becoming a student in 1970. During her sophomore year, Reardon lived on the same North College floor where Tiel had lived 50 years prior. She recalled her grandfather sending her a note with his tuition and a coal bills from the 1920s—the coal was used to feed the floor’s potbelly stove.
For Reardon and classmates such as Gayle Quinn-Wheeler ’74, now vice president of finance for Human Kinetics Publishers Inc., Union was a new frontier. Certainly, the first women at Union found encouragement from professors and fellow students but they were also a minority facing high expectations and pressure to succeed.
“When you’re one of 100 women among a couple thousand guys, you quickly get over being one among many,” Reardon said. “Sitting in freshman calculus, you had to get over the fact that you were one of the few women in the room. This experience was good preparation for my later business life.”
In addition to her role at Campbell, Reardon is a member of the board of directors of the Warnaco Group Inc. and The Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia. She lives in St. Davids, Pa., with her husband, and her daughter, Kathryn, 20. Her son Scott, 24, lives and works in Boston.
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