Chief People Officer Jon Caldwell knows talent and tech are the greatest enablers driving Valvoline’s growth while preserving the "Vamily" culture.
Julie Colwell
Principal Strategist
Workday
When Jon Caldwell became chief people officer (CPO) at Valvoline Inc. in 2020, the company was on the cusp of transformation. Today, he leads talent strategy for a pure-play retail organization managing 2,300 automotive service centers across the U.S. and Canada, with ambitious plans to reach 3,500 locations by 2030.
That's roughly 200 new stores annually, a pace that would strain most HR organizations. But Caldwell sees the challenge differently, "At Valvoline, our business strategy involves two enablers: talent and technology. The question isn't whether we can scale, it's whether we can scale while preserving what makes us special."
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Valvoline Inc.’s identity is anchored in its culture. The company uses the term "Vamily,” which Caldwell says is a competitive advantage in an industry notorious for high turnover.
The company creates and sustains this community climate with a "promote-from-within apprenticeship model." Ninety-five percent of Valvoline's store managers, area managers, and market managers started as hourly technicians.
"That apprenticeship model has allowed us to maintain the strength of our culture even through this period of growth," Caldwell explains. "When you're passing down traditions from one managerial generation to the next, and those managers remember being in the bay themselves, the culture carries forward organically."
With a background in talent management, Caldwell understands the rigor required when hiring talent as a retailer, which typically has a high turnover rate.
"We're hiring around 12,000 people a year," he says. "If you don't have a systematic approach to identifying, developing, and retaining talent at that volume, you're essentially gambling with your growth trajectory."
"The question isn't whether we can scale, it's whether we can scale while preserving what makes us special."
Over his first three years as CPO, Caldwell navigated a perfect storm of organizational change: managing through a global pandemic, overseeing the sale of Valvoline's products business to Aramco (over half the company's revenue), and supporting a planned CEO transition. It was the kind of concentrated experience that typically takes a decade to accumulate.
The products’ business sale was particularly wrenching—roughly one-third of C-suite positions had to be filled, some internally, others externally. Employee unrest was real.
During this time, the company was focused on a clear three-pronged strategy: strengthen the core business, accelerate network growth, and prepare for the future. "During upheaval, clarity matters more than complexity," he explains.
But Caldwell and Valvoline leadership also understood that culture couldn’t be maintained through strategy alone. One of the first key moves was protecting Valvoline Inc.'s long-standing traditions, particularly the annual Oilympics competition, now in its 31st year. Each spring, teams from across 2,000+ service centers compete to execute the perfect service experience, starting from when a customer is greeted until the final goodbye wave.
"Traditions matter," Caldwell says. "They help you maintain culture, even though we're growing and adding team members every year." The competition serves dual purposes. It reinforces service standards and identifies high-potential talent. Employees on winning teams are often promoted to leadership roles.
It's telling that during one of the most turbulent periods in the company's history, leaders’ instincts weren’t to abandon tradition but to lean into it. The past provides stability, and the future requires growth. Caldwell and his colleagues understood the need for both.
Those formative years of crisis management reinforced a philosophy Caldwell has carried throughout his career. You can't always predict when opportunity—or challenge—will arrive, but you can be prepared when it does.
"You can't always anticipate when those spotlight moments will come, but you can be prepared when they do,” he reflects.
This principle of preparation extends to organizational readiness. Before implementing any new system or process, Caldwell insists on what he calls "behavioral change before system change." During a recent technology implementation, his team noticed some managers weren't consistently approving payroll or having employees attest their time, resulting in off-cycle paychecks.
Rather than simply automating the existing process, Caldwell's team focused on changing the behavior first. "You have to fix the fundamentals before you layer on technology, or you're just automating dysfunction," he explains.
"You can't always anticipate when those spotlight moments will come, but you can be prepared when they do.”
Outside work, Caldwell is deeply committed to family. Married 25 years to his college sweetheart, with three adult children, he thinks deliberately about the example he sets both at home and professionally.
This perspective shapes how he thinks about work-life balance—or rather, work-life integration. "I don't know that work-life balance is accurate," he says. "You're the same person. It’s more like work-life integration. The more consistency you can find in your personality and surroundings at work and at home, the more comfortable and successful you're going to be."
It's a philosophy that resonates through Valvoline's "Vamily" culture. Organizations thrive when people can bring their whole selves to work.
As Valvoline accelerates toward its 2030 target, it is preparing for another transformation: the gradual electrification of the vehicle fleet.
"The car park is evolving," he acknowledges. "Electrification has slowed a little bit from earlier projections, but it is coming. As we build these new stores, we're testing new services to make sure we can keep up with that evolution."
This is similar to his own personal approach to anticipate the future but stay grounded in present realities. Build systems that scale but preserve the human elements that create loyalty. Use technology to eliminate mundane tasks, but always in service of allowing people to do more meaningful work.
In an era of hypergrowth and rapid technological change, that integration of self, of culture, of technology, and humanity may be Valvoline's most sustainable competitive advantage.
Discover how Valvoline is driving people-first growth in this customer story.
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