For the first time, Mondelēz International, the company behind brands like Nabisco, Sour Patch Kids and Cadbury, was recently named a Global Top Employer by Top Employers Institute, while its U.S. business also broke onto the list.

What’s driving workforce success for the 14-year-old company, a snack food spinoff from Kraft Heinz? According to Chief People Officer Stephanie Lilak, the organization is driven by a talent philosophy that focuses on being both a talent maker and a talent magnet, balancing investment in internal mobility—including a focus on succession planning, pipeline building and efforts to raise awareness about opportunities—with innovative talent attraction, rooted in creating and communicating a strong employee experience.

As the former CHRO of Bumble and Dunkin’ Brands, Lilak spent more than two decades moving through HR leadership roles at General Mills. She recently spoke to HR Executive about executing Mondelēz’s talent philosophy in a rapidly changing and uncertain global environment.

HR Executive: The company has seen significant acquisition activity in the last decade. How is that both a challenge and opportunity for your HR teams?

Lilak: An important part of our business strategy is mergers and acquisitions, for sure. We really see it as an opportunity. It allows us to expand our business, our categories and our channels. And that allows us to bring new talent, and sometimes new capabilities and skill sets. On the whole, it creates a lot of opportunities for us. It’s always a challenge for both the acquired and acquiring. That integration process is really one of the most important roles my team plays with the business.

HR Executive: What is culture work like in those instances?

Lilak: Culture is critically important. It starts from the first conversation with the potentially acquired business. In doing our due diligence, we work to understand each other’s culture, that fit. That may or may not sway the decision that gets made in the end. When a decision is made for a purchase, a large part of that work is the cultural integration. What can we learn from the acquired? What can we bring to them? That’s a central feature of the due diligence and integration process.

HR Executive: As Mondelēz expands its global footprint, what role is data playing in shaping the formation of a cohesive people strategy?

Lilak: We are a very global company right now, and data is important to every aspect of the organization—both for our people team and the business broadly. Data is also the foundation for not just good decision-making, but also for good processes to be systemized and leverage tech. Our digital agenda is grounded in a really strong data and data governance strategy.

HR Executive: Where is your focus when it comes to AI integration?

Lilak: From an enterprise perspective, the chief technology officer and I are partnered on our digital strategy and its importance around the world, in connection with our entire leadership team. It’s truly an enterprise approach. Our processes extend across multiple functions, so AI integration needs to be thought of end-to-end. You need a change management approach in order for a good digital agenda to get implemented.

From an HR perspective, we’re very lucky we have a very strong technological stack in the company. We have incredibly strong relationships with key technology providers. We are very often on their innovator advisory boards, so we’re helping to shape what that tech does and how it does it for HR processes. We are testing and learning in multiple different parts of HR. For example, if you think about manager self-service, we’re looking at how we can use AI and other tech to make getting service from your HR tech easier.

HR Executive: How are you balancing investment in tech and people?

Lilak: So much has to do with the culture of the company. Our culture is very balanced between how we do the work of the business and how we do that work together. It is a kind, caring organization; a lot of people have been here many years. As a newer colleague, I’d say there’s an openness, curiosity and willingness to bring new folks in and embrace new ideas. All of that has a great deal to do with how we balance the benefits of technology and the importance of all the humans who are still going to be here doing this work. AI is not going to eliminate our workforce, but it will reshape what people do and what they learn will change. Tech will change work, but at the end of the day, we’ll still have people here doing the important work.

HR Executive: Given the company’s span, how is ongoing global uncertainty—from tariffs to economic issues—impacting HR’s agenda?

Lilak: Very much. The No. 1 focus for us during turbulent times that are affecting people personally and professionally—like war does or changing government policies—is, are our people safe? Are they supported? A lot of the dynamics happening in the macro environment require us to have good scenario planning in place. How can we anticipate what might happen and be prepared with options for how to respond? That speaks a lot to how we are working together as a leadership team.

HR Executive: How is the ongoing macro uncertainty challenging you personally as an HR leader?

Lilak: Amid everything that’s happening—at the macro level, at the tech level—the important thing we’re doing as a team is making choices: where we’re going to focus, how we’ll prioritize our time. There are so many opportunities out there, so you have to get clear on what’s most important to the business and the workforce, and make sure you’re focused and prioritized. You have to be educated about the different opportunities that are presenting themselves—tech, new ways to build skills, new capabilities that are becoming important. There’s a continuous learning aspect to it, and then the ability to build, to co-create and to do this from an end-to-end perspective. You have to see the full system you’re building.

HR Executive: Mondelēz was recently named a Global Top Employer by the Top Employers Institute. To what do you credit that?

Lilak: Yes, we were named a Global Top Employer for the first time, and the U.S. was also named a Top Employer for the first time. We’re very proud of that. There are a few things that drive that, especially the opportunities we’re creating for people in the company, which are pretty potent. We’re very global, which gives us a lot of opportunities to develop people in myriad ways—from a functional perspective, through geographic moves, different experiences people want out of their careers. Our talent philosophy is to be a talent maker—focused on that internal development—and a talent magnet; we want to be a compelling place people want to come to work. We have incredible, iconic brands and we care about building careers from the inside.

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