Human Resources
“In the last year we continued to focus on talent management, development, engagement and enhancing the company’s employer brand.”
As Edrington has internationalised, the company has created more opportunities for movement of talented employees across the organisation. In the last year there were 341 internal promotions and a significant increase in the number of secondments and assignments, which provide experience and broaden employee skills.
The welcome task of filling an additional 50+ posts at the new Macallan distillery and visitor experience meant that the number of roles filled increased to nearly 440 in the year.
On the development front, LEAD, a bespoke leadership development programme for our leaders, established itself with over 40 participants in the last year.
LEAD is complemented by the Emerging Talent Programme, with 50 participants in the last year, as well as a tailored mentor programme.
Both the Edrington Academy and Learning at Work events were able to build on their previous success. Edrington Academy encourages self-learning by delivering easy access to insight, tips, and coaching techniques. In the last year there were around 300 activities, including the popular ‘Breakfast with…’ format, in which our executive team and many senior leaders shared their perspective on the company and their career experiences.
Learning at Work also continued to be a popular vehicle with increased numbers of employees getting together with speakers from other industries or leaders within the company.
In 2018 Edrington completed its first Gender Pay Gap Report in the UK. While the results were not where we wanted to be, it has given our diversity and inclusion strategy a new momentum.
When recruiting the company now aims to have a candidate pool that is gender balanced whilst remaining committed to appoint the best candidate for each role. We will also provide more coaching and assistance for those parents returning to work, as we look to increase the number of women in senior roles.
There will also be an opportunity to build on this year’s engagement programme which majored on inclusion and diversity. Twenty-five themed events took place centred on International Women’s Day, and mental health and wellbeing.
A supportive network for female employees entitled BALANCE, is in the process of extending its reach at the same time as we roll out the gender pay gap analysis to Edrington’s international locations.
Broad and regular engagement underpins all our employee activity. In the last year the biennial employee survey took place. Just under 2,000 employees took part in this year’s employee survey, the highest ever number of participants.
This year Edrington appointed AON, a provider with strong international benchmarking capability, to collect and analyse the responses.
The top line results indicated that Edrington has a very strong reputation as an employer. The company’s overall engagement rate scored 68%, +3 percentage points better than the AON benchmark. However as usual there are a number of areas to work on in the year ahead, notably leadership and communication.
Our recruitment experiences and the employee survey confirm that the company’s ‘employer brand’ is strong but in the year ahead we see opportunities to articulate Edrington’s unique culture more clearly.
It promises to be another busy and exciting 12 months!