The Great Stay: How Diageo’s People-First Culture is Winning the Talent War in 2025

Victoria Canham • 18 June 2025 • 4 min read

Victoria Canham Consultancy | A diverse, smiling team collaborating around a table, with a bold overlay title reading “The Great Stay: How Diageo’s People-First Culture is Winning the Talent War in 2025” – symbolising inclusive, people-first workplace culture.

"Employees who believe that management is concerned with them as a whole person – not just an employee – are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability."– Anne M. Mulcahy, Former CEO of Xerox

Imagine a workplace where employees don’t just show up—they stay, innovate, and drive results year after year.

In 2025, “The Great Stay” is the new battleground. While some companies are stuck in a revolving door of exits, others, like Diageo, are quietly, confidently winning the war for top talent. Their secret? Not perks. Not pay. But a people-first culture so sticky, it makes staying the obvious choice.

It’s about crafting an employee experience (EX) so compelling that top talent chooses to stay. Let’s dive into how Diageo’s people-first culture is redefining retention and what you can “borrow” for your own workplace.

The Retention Crisis and Why EX Matters

In 2025, employee retention is a make-or-break challenge. A recent study notes that high turnover costs businesses up to 200% of an employee’s salary, disrupts productivity, and erodes morale. Meanwhile, posts across social media, like LinkedIn, highlight a growing sentiment: employees want more than a job; they crave purpose, flexibility, and a culture that values them.

Diageo, a global leader in alcoholic beverages, stands out as a retention powerhouse, with an A+ culture rating and a workforce of over 30,000 who build iconic brands like Guinness and Johnnie Walker. By prioritising Employee Experience (EX) through inclusion, development, and flexibility, Diageo offers a blueprint for keeping top talent in a volatile market.

Diageo’s Retention Playbook: 4 Strategies You Can Adopt

Drawing from Diageo’s approach and industry trends, here are four proven strategies to boost retention through EX in 2025:

1. Build an Inclusive Culture That Feels Like Home

Inclusion isn’t a policy—it’s the pulse of the workplace.

Diageo’s “Spirit of Progress” ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) programme champions inclusion and diversity, creating a workplace where everyone feels valued. Their 2024 Ireland Gender Pay Gap Report and initiatives for disability inclusion show a commitment to equity that resonates with employees. On social media, leaders praise Diageo’s culture for driving performance.

Actionable Tip: Conduct regular culture health-checks, not just engagement surveys, to measure inclusion and act on the feedback. Use “Culture Circles” or reverse mentoring to invite honest conversations across all levels where employees share personal stories to foster belonging.

2. Empower Employees with Growth Opportunities

Forget ladders. Today’s talent wants lattices—flexible, cross-functional growth that evolves with them. Diageo’s Learning for Life and internal mobility models show how development drives retention.

Diageo’s Learning for Life programme and graduate schemes offer clear career paths, from digital tech to whisky specialisation. Employees like Yuka, a Financial Controller, thrive due to flexible roles that align with their goals. Research shows 93% of employees stay when organisations invest in development.

Actionable Tip: Map career trajectories in quarterly 1:1s. Offer personalised learning, like Diageo’s digital training, to keep employees engaged and growing. Remember, the learning pathway has to be a mutual agreement, not an enforced one.

3. Prioritise Flexibility to Boost Loyalty

In 2025, flexibility isn’t a perk—it’s the baseline. Organisations that don’t accommodate how people want to work will struggle to hold onto anyone.

Diageo’s hybrid work model, as seen in stories like Yuka’s, supports work-life balance, a top retention driver. A FlexJobs survey found 89% of HR professionals saw retention rise after flexible policies. Social media posts echo this, noting flexibility as a non-negotiable part of work in 2025, not a perk or a bonus.

Actionable Tip: Redefine performance metrics to focus on outcomes, not hours. Allow employees to design schedules that suit their lives, like Diageo’s approach.

4. Recognise Contributions to Fuel Motivation

Recognition is rocket fuel for retention.

At Diageo, global team shout-outs and cultural celebrations like Burns Night don’t just boost morale—they reinforce identity and belonging. Gallup data shows 80% of employees feel more loyal with regular recognition. On X, EX experts stress that feeling valued is a top reason employees stay.

Actionable Tip: Implement peer-to-peer recognition platforms. Celebrate both big wins and small efforts, like Diageo’s global team shout-outs.

Why It Works: The Data Behind Diageo’s Success

This isn’t just “nice to have”—it’s high performance strategy. Companies that get EX right aren’t just keeping talent; they’re outperforming their competition across profit, innovation, and customer satisfaction.

Diageo’s retention strategies deliver measurable results. Their A+ rating on Comparably reflects high employee satisfaction, with 285 employees praising leadership and perks. Their focus on EX aligns with 2025 trends: companies with strong retention see 22% higher profitability and 60% better retention with structured programmes. By investing in people, Diageo not only keeps talent but also fuels innovation and growth.

Start Your Retention Revolution

The talent war isn’t slowing down, but you can win it by putting EX at the heart of your strategy. Take a page from Diageo’s playbook: foster inclusion, offer growth, embrace flexibility, and celebrate your people. Start small—try one strategy this quarter—and watch your retention soar.

Don’t wait for your top talent to walk. Start building the kind of culture they’d never want to leave.

Which of Diageo’s four plays will you try first? Tell me in the comments—or let’s have a chat about retention strategy.

Sources: Comparably (2025), Gallup (2023), FlexJobs (2025), Work Institute (2025), LinkedIn Learning (2025), Diageo Annual Reports (2023-2024)

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I am Victoria Canham, I transform employee journeys into competitive advantages. From frontline staff to senior leaders, I help you create a culture of respect, growth, and loyalty that drives bottom-line results.

As a Performance and People Strategy Consultant, I help organisations transform workplaces through culture change, leadership coaching, and EX strategies that drive results. Follow me on LinkedIn for more insights on building high-performing teams in 2025.

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Victoria Canham - Performance and People Strategic Partner

Victoria Canham is an ICF-accredited Certified Professional Coach and the founder of Victoria Canham Consultancy. We are a specialist performance consultancy partnering with senior leaders and HR teams to elevate culture, leadership, and employee experience. Rooted in behavioural insight and change expertise, we diagnose what's truly holding performance back, co-creating practical, strategic interventions that drive sustainable business results and build workplaces that work—for people and performance.