Following an extensive programme of internal research and data analysis, it was identified that <3% of external hires came from internal referrals from employees. This is despite the fact that feedback from Employee Surveys showed that >90% of employees would recommend Diageo as a preferred employer to friends and family members.

We were therefore tasked to re-design the way Diageo’s employee referral programme was communicated and promoted to staff around the world.

Drawing upon our experience of previous ERP research, the findings from Diageo’s EVP research (carried out by us the previous year in over 20 countries) and employee surveys, we developed (in partnership with their IT team in India) a new site on their intranet platform, as well as a library of comms assets, a content calendar and messaging / templates guide for launch and ongoing communications by email and on their internal Yammer site. We also developed a set of KPIs, measurement and reporting tools to meet ERP hiring targets.

The improvement in ERP referrals and hires over the next 12 months was significant. By the end of the first 6 months, ERP hires had increased to just over 10%. Further streamlining of the ERP process that has taken place since launch of the new digital platform is expected to result in additional increases.