Strategic HR Profile
A toast to the
most convivial
Aligning all the employees at global drinks brand Pernod Ricard is no easy
task, but HR has tackled the challenge with a glass half full attitude. JO
GALLACHER hears about people strategy successes and what’s left to do
The drinks within Pernod Ricard’s portfolio
have been a fundamental part of sharing
happy moments together for years. Whether that’s
a glass of Jacob’s Creek Rioja with dinner, a Ricard
to toast the Summer sun, or a Beefeater gin and
tonic with friends on a Friday after work. But
what keeps Pernod Ricard’s people happy? The
answer, according to its group director of HR,
sustainability and responsibility Cedric Ramat,
is conviviality. And their favourite
tipple, no doubt.
“When you join Pernod Ricard,
wherever you are in the world,
conviviality is with you,” says Ramat,
who bubbles with excitement when
talking about the global drinks
company. “People are glad to be
working together.”
Pernod Ricard is the second-largest
drinks company in the world, with 86
direct affiliates and 19,000 employees. Each brand
within its portfolio has a different selling point and
each is marketed accordingly depending on where
the drink is made and where it is later sold. Many
brands have been brought into the Pernod Ricard
family through mergers and acquisitions,
so how can Ramat truly measure whether his
employees are all singing from the same convivial
hymn sheet?
“The employee engagement survey is key for us
as it’s a true way of assessing what is happening
every two years,” he says. “We don’t compare teams
– it is not a beauty contest. Instead we benchmark
against each country to provide a local assessment
on where we are and what we would like to tackle.
We then share the result across the group and the
practices we introduced.”
Ramat is extremely pleased with the latest data,
given the survey found 88% of Pernod Ricard
employees consider themselves engaged or highly
engaged with the company, and 96% are proud to
be associated with the business. It’s an impressive
result for such a huge organisation, and Ramat is
eager to showcase how the company’s three-year
strategic plan, Transform and Accelerate, has made
its mark.
He credits the HR team as a fundamental
driver in helping the business adapt to the strategy
and making sure employees
understood why and how the
business was changing.
Ramat says: “I met with the HR
team to discuss how we will deliver
the vision, one that was blending
performance and conviviality to go
the extra mile.
“This vision included a better
balance among the workforce and
the fact we needed to reflect our
When you join
Pernod Ricard,
wherever you
are, conviviality
is with you
consumer base within our organisation. This is not
yet the case, it was not and still is not, but we are
on the right direction.”
The HR department itself also had some changes
to make.
“We built something with my HR team to be
more people centric and pushed the agenda of a
better balance so we could collate diversity across
the company,” Ramat shares.
Within 14 months of the strategy launch
Ramat’s HR team rolled out HCM software
platform Workday to all employees.
“We changed 100% of the HR processes at a
global level. It was a huge transformation in order
to attract and develop talent and realign. It was
launched in March last year and I think it was a
great success because a lot of people didn’t believe
we could do this at pace because there were so
many different ways of working.”
Photography: Antoine Doyen
26 HR April 2020 hrmagazine.co.uk