In two weeks at UNLEASH World in Paris, I’m excited to join Wilfrid Bas, Directeur Talent Management at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), on stage to share one of the most inspiring workforce transformation stories I’ve seen this year.
As one of the world’s largest Coca-Cola bottlers, CCEP employs over 41,000 people across 31 countries. Their challenge was both simple and complex: how do you ensure every employee, no matter where they sit, has visibility into their skills, career paths, and opportunities to grow?
Rather than just focusing on new roles or career events, CCEP looked deeper. Through engagement surveys and exit interviews, they realized the real challenge wasn’t a lack of opportunity—it was a lack of visibility. Employees couldn’t see the paths in front of them, and that lack of clarity impacted retention and mobility.
A Strategic and Human-Centered Approach
CCEP addressed this head-on by building a skills-based talent strategy that blends AI, workforce planning, and culture. Using Eightfold’s Career Hub, they created what employees now call their “Internal LinkedIn”—a platform that personalizes career paths, surfaces roles and mentoring opportunities, and democratizes access to growth for everyone.
They narrowed their skills framework to focus on the 100 most critical skills to the business, mapped every role to 3–5 key skills, and launched capability academies to build future-ready talent. This wasn’t just a tech implementation—it was a change journey supported by storytelling, local champions, and leadership sponsorship across markets.
Real Impact, at Scale
The results speak for themselves:
- 78% adoption across 42,000 employees
- 53% of permanent roles filled through internal mobility, far above industry averages
- Employees with complete profiles are 3x more likely to move internally
- Retention among top performers has dropped to 2.5%
This session will explore how Coca-Cola Europacific Partners brought these initiatives to life, the lessons learned along the way, and what’s next as they integrate skills visibility into workforce planning and AI-powered development.
Session: How CCEP is Using AI to Build Skills, Careers, and Culture for a Distributed Workforce
Tuesday, October 21 | 3:30–3:55pm | Stage 5 | Paris Convention Centre
