{"id":88730,"date":"2026-04-30T19:54:57","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T19:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/degreed.com\/experience\/?p=88730"},"modified":"2026-04-30T20:00:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T20:00:46","slug":"pernod-ricard-turned-skill-development-into-business-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/degreed.com\/experience\/de\/blog\/pernod-ricard-turned-skill-development-into-business-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"How Pernod Ricard Turned Skill Development Into a Business Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For years, learning lived in the background, separate from top-line business strategy. Then, with the AI surge, the rules of business changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most companies have always treated (and still treat) learning and development as a support function. Something HR owns, employees participate in when required, and where success is measured by completion rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in today\u2019s world, capability building to keep pace with transformation isn\u2019t optional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To address this need, Pernod Ricard decided to do something different. The company made learning the engine of its business transformation, and in the process, turned skill data into one of its most valuable strategic assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Degreed LENS, Louis Bosche<\/a>, Head of HR Tech, and Anna Gosteva<\/a>, Product Owner for Learning and Engagement Solutions, shared how Pernod Ricard built a skills-first ecosystem that now shapes decisions far beyond the L&D function, from talent acquisition and internal mobility to workforce planning and business strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Urgent Case for Workforce Transformation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The pressures Pernod Ricard, with its global market of 150 brands (including Jameson, Chivas, Ballantine’s, and Absolut) faced real and accelerating pressures. Consumer expectations in core markets were shifting rapidly, requiring marketing, sales, and product teams to work in fundamentally new ways. Inflation and regulatory changes were reshaping operations globally. Supply chain resilience had become a strategic priority. And the economics of running a global enterprise demanded greater cost efficiency across the board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than ever, the Pernod Ricard team\u2019s ability to compete depended directly on having the right capabilities in the right places at the right time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

„Our business is changing and it’s changing all the time,“ Bosche said. „We need to bring change to our employees fast. We need to understand where they stand and what maturity they have to bring them towards the future.“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The urgency felt at Pernod Ricard mirrors the situation in nearly every organization today. Research shows 44% of workforce skills<\/a> are expected to change by 2027 and organizations are out of time to mobilize to this reality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were also compelling internal reasons to make a change.  When surveyed, 95% of Pernod Ricard employees said they would stay longer at a company that invested in their professional development, drawing a direct line between learning investment and retention outcomes. Learning was critical for the employees, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, their previous learning system was in dire need of updating. There were many duplicative platforms and redundant tools leading to excessive cost. The ecosystem was so fragmented that it could hardly be called an ecosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question wasn’t whether to act. It was how.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skills Became Pernod Ricard\u2019s Common Language<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Rather than launching another learning program, Pernod Ricard built a foundation for skills. The team deployed a skills catalog across approximately 900 job roles, mapping roughly 20 skills per profile and integrating those directly with Workday, their global HRIS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goal was clear: Make skills the shared language that connects individual development to business outcomes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To do that, they built a technical architecture that would optimize content management and tools, while unifying skill data across systems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employees could declare their skills, identify career opportunities, join skill-based mentoring programs, and apply for internal \u201cgigs,\u201d or short-term assignments that let people build new capabilities while contributing to different parts of the business. Since launch, more than 70% of employees have declared 15 or more skills in Workday, including operational populations that had historically been harder to reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company also made an early decision that shaped everything that followed: Skill data would be used for development and opportunity, but never for performance evaluation or compensation decisions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That choice built trust, and trust drove adoption at scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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