Nearly 80 years old, Pepperidge Farm still remembers what goes into making a tasty product as well as the ingredients that make for a great workplace. Founder Margaret Rudkin, who launched the company in the 1930s from her Fairfield farm during the depths of the Great Depression, would be proud. Management’s dedication to Rudkin’s employee-centered principles has landed them the top spot among companies with 200 or more employees in the Hartford Business Journal’s list of Best Places to Work in Connecticut.
A commitment to employees, company president Patrick Callaghan said, is as much a tradition at Pepperidge Farm as is ensuring the quality of their premium brand.
“We care deeply about our people and our organization,” he said, “not only from simply having people work here but also in the kind of environment we provide.”
It’s a kind of environment where employees (and sometimes their kids) get together in friendly competition to come up with new product ideas; a kind of place where employees take two days each year — called Pepperidge Farm Employee All Service Days — and spend them volunteering in the local community; a workplace that supports employee’s professional development and offers academic scholarships to employees’ college-bound children.
“People are really empowered and engaged to make this a better place,” Callaghan said.
Kim Ryan, vice president of human resources, added, “It’s the kind of place where people don’t care how much you know until they first know how much you care.”
Pepperidge Farm, Callaghan pointed out, a company with about 750 employees and a subsidiary of the Campbell Soup company since 1961, is guided by values tied to its mission and vision.
Their values are an important part of the company’s culture and are instilled at every opportunity, such as at its all-employee Margaret Rudkin Day celebration held each September, its six-month business update held in February, as well as at its quarterly meetings.
The values are also communicated in upbeat messages posted on the company’s intranet, sent via e-mails and displayed on posters located throughout the company.
If one value seems to come up more often than any other, said to Nan Redmond, director for corporate and brand communications, “It’s teamwork with genuine caring.”
It applies at all levels of the organization – inside and out,” Redmond explained.
Pepperidge Farm’s leadership credit the company’s values as the reason it has been the No. 1 contributor to the United Way of Norwalk and Wilton for seven consecutive years, and boasts an employee participation rate of over 90 percent.
Callaghan and his management team regularly track employee satisfaction at the company through an annual Gallup survey and make improvements based on employees’ feedback. Most recent results of the survey place Pepperidge Farm in the 90th percentile of Gallup’s most satisfied workplaces of the more than 100,000 companies it surveys worldwide.
Closely monitoring workplace satisfaction and striving to continuously improve contributes to long careers and low employee turnover — currently at about 8.5 percent, Ryan said.
Callaghan, who celebrates 30 years with the company in June, said with satisfaction that he has always known Pepperidge Farm was the best place to work.
“Winning the award reinforces that what people are doing here matters and affirms that the values we’re working on everyday are important,” he said.
Type of business: Provider of baked goods
Connecticut employees: 750
Connecticut locations: 3
Headquarters: Norwalk
HR contact: Kim Ryan, vice president of human resources
Top local executive: Patrick J. Callaghan, president
Founded: 1937
