P&G Gets Reticent Researchers to Speak Up

(page 2 of 2)

In 2005, for example, P&G had 43.5% market share in diapers. By 2008 its share had slipped to 41.9%, Dibadj notes. "China is becoming a much tougher market for them than it has been." he says.

Judging from the reduced attrition rate, the gas station program seems to be working. Back in 2001, 15% of P&G's Chinese employees left the company in the first year. Today, that number has dropped to 5%. Brown, the head of R&D, attributes much of that to the gas station. P&G is opening a new multimillion-dollar technical center in Beijing. "We would only do that if we can say with confidence that we can attract, recruit, and retain the best in China," he says. "Before we started this program, I'm not sure we could say that."

Consider the case of one 2006 hire. Zhu gave the example of a female employee who came to P&G from Tsinghua University in Beijing, where she was a top microbiology student. But at P&G she rarely spoke up, even though her English was respectable. The gas station allowed her to observe successful P&G managers like Zhu and learn how they advanced in the organization. She was repeatedly told by mentors in the program: "If you don't speak, you won't have a point of view."

Eventually she learned that having a point of view did not always come with bad consequences, and she soon developed the confidence to contribute to the discussion. That helped her greatly when she went back to work. Now she is leading a significant project within the oral care business unit.

The success of the program has prompted P&G officials to expand it. This year it is being extended beyond China to other regions of Asia, including Japan, the Philippines, and India. And P&G officials want to open the program up to more than new hires by starting a similar training process for researchers and scientists who have been at the company for several years.

By getting a chance to pull into the gas station, Asian workers "get exposed to the concept of dealing with people who are different from themselves," Reid says. "That's the beauty of diversity."

Crockett is deputy manager of BusinessWeek's Chicago bureau.

Business Exchange

Track and share business topics across the Web.