Nan Sotomayor wasn’t even out of college yet when she started at the company where she would remain for the next 19 years.
Sotomayor started as an intern at what was then Nestlé Waters North America the summer before her senior year. Today, she is the chief people officer of the water company, which is now BlueTriton Brands, leading the HR function for 7,000 workers.
Nan Sotomayor
Permission granted by Blue Triton Brands
She was interested in marketing and PR and had interned with a PR firm already but was offered an HR internship at the company.
“I remember at the time thinking, ‘That’s boring, because who wants to hire and fire people every single day of your life? That seems so depressing.’ So I came in with all of these conceived biases of what I thought that HR was like,” Sotomayor said.
That summer, she rotated into new HR areas every two weeks, gaining experience in benefits, compliance and organizational development, which turned out to be her passion. She was hired on a part-time basis, and, before graduation, was offered a full-time job.
“They worked around my school schedule flawlessly,” Sotomayor said. “Very early in my career, they showed appreciation of the personal and work.”
That internship program has been on hold the past three years since Nestlé sold Nestlé Waters North America, and the company rebranded as BlueTriton, but Sotomayor is excited to see it come back next summer. “We decided, as we were going through this transition and transformation, that we would take a pause until we could create really good learning opportunities for interns,” Sotomayor said. There will be a class of 15, placed in roles in the corporate office, she said.
After Sotomayor’s internship, she was hired into the organizational development department, where she set to work rebuilding onboarding and leadership development programs.
“I loved it so much because it was so creative, and I felt like I had the power of the pen on so many different things. it gave you such great experience in the business, because you weren’t tied to just one part of the business,” she said.
She moved into various roles in the company, including as an HR manager for ReadyRefresh — a brand that sits alongside Poland Spring and Deer Park in the businesses’ portfolio. By working closely with front-line employees, she learned firsthand how important employee buy-in is to achieving any business outcome.
“I’ve learned so hard and so deeply that you can have the best and biggest business idea ever, but if you cannot make it workable by changing human behavior, you’ve wasted all of your time. So, you might as well come up with a business decision that actually can be led through your employees with passion and conviction. Otherwise, you’re never going get the business outcome that you intended to get,” Sotomayor said.
That’s why, for example, the company implemented a revenue sharing program for its drivers, moving them away from salary or hourly roles. “Essentially, they get paid on units or a percentage of what they sell. So, for your extra discretionary effort and for the value in which you’re adding to the organization, you get a direct kickback,” she said.
Today, Sotomayor still works with another intern from her pool and has felt like the organization has let her grow up with it.
“I still see myself as intern Nan in so many ways. I’ve stayed here for as long as I have, because the people here really do just let you be you. I never feel like I have to be corporate Nan,” she said. “I love that there’s no expectation that just because you moved from intern to CPO that all of a sudden you lose who you are.”