Why visibility – not opportunity – was Coca-Cola Europacific Partners’ biggest retention problem

Back in 2018, three Coke bottling companies merged, realizing that although they shared similar DNA – being Coke bottlers – the way they operated was very different. 

To ensure their processes and systems aligned, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) looked at its processes to map out a new hire-to-retire experience, after running workshops and collecting employee opinions.

Speaking exclusively to Suzy Jearum, Global Digital Employee Experience Lead at CCEP at Eightfold’s Cultivate Europe 2025, UNLEASH discovers how the business transformed its operations into a unified, employee-centric digital experience – powered by AI.

Integrating AI into CCEP

CCEP’s implementation of Eightfold’s Talent Intelligence Platform began in 2019, just before the COVID pandemic. 

Jearum describes this as “perfect timing” as people began to see digital as an enabler, largely due to increased numbers of employees working from home.

“We moved on to talent processes last. There just wasn’t any technology on the market at the time that met our needs,” Jearum adds. 

“We had a very detailed design and future vision for talent at CCEP but couldn’t find a solution that fit. So, we ran an RFP and took our time. Eightfold stood out as they had the most future-focused vision and were willing to work with us to build the experience we wanted.”

To further explain this, she uses the example of succession planning, expressing that “no one had digitized it before.” But for CCEP, knowing who their successors were in key roles and having them all in one central place was a top priority. 

In fact, the company knew it lacked visibility into its internal talent and employees were therefore leaving. 

From exit surveys, HR could see that people felt that the company lacked opportunities for growth, yet there were opportunities available – they just weren’t visible. 

People didn’t feel they had the chance to grow at CCEP. Some left, and some returned – we’ve always had quite a high number of rehires. But we wanted to make everything more visible and digital.”

From integrating AI into the business, CCEP has noted one key benefit: Personalization. 

Jearum explains that when she joined 11 years ago, career paths and talent management at CCEP were “basically PowerPoints created by business partners”. Employees stayed in their function and moved up a ladder.

With AI and the Career Hub platform, employees get a personalized experience that updates in real-time. They can see their potential next steps, update their skills, change their role – with a career path that reflects that instantly. 

“People really appreciate this,” Jearum shares. “When they take the time to fill in their profile, list their skills, and share their aspirations, it opens up development pathways.

“We’re really pushing development plans – encouraging people to tell us where they want to go, what they want to develop, and how they want to learn. 

CCEP’s new learning system also uses AI, matching development plan skills to relevant content. Once a learning module is completed, those skills are added to the Career Hub profile, which in turn updates employees career suggestions.

“This would’ve been impossible without a digital platform,” Jearum inputs, “it’d be far too much work manually.”

Although AI is often met with different responses, Jearum says that the key obstacle through the implementation process was not “can we trust AI”, but rather “do we have time for it.”

“Change management has been more about encouraging people to see learning and development as part of doing their job well,” she explains. “That’s still a work in progress.

“Even in areas where I expected more resistance – like compliance – we’ve been able to explain things clearly and provide supporting documentation to reassure people.”

What’s more, when integrating AI, Jearum highlights the need for transparency – particularly so people know when something is automated and when something is being done by a person.

“We’re always very open about what we’re doing,” Jearum expresses. “If any employees have questions about Career Hub, we’ve got a dedicated service that routes to our People Services team, who can answer those questions – but we’ve never said anything is off-limits or can’t be discussed.

But ethically we make sure we’re doing the right thing – it’s a core part of how we operate. AI aside, we always want to make sure we’re doing things the right way.”

Increased adoption and facilitating career moves

Since implementing Eightfold’s systems CCEP has seen a 71% adoption in the US and 80% adoption rate in Europe. 

But CCEP also tracks return rates, as the business wants to ensure that people aren’t just signing up, but that they keep coming back. Now, 60% of the 24,000 people on their Career Hub have accessed it in the last 30 days.

For Jearum, a big reason for this success is that the Career Hub is built into CCEP’s HR processes. 

“When we talk about year-end reviews, recruitment, learning -Career Hub is always part of the conversation,” she says.

“Leaders talk about it, and it’s just become part of what we do. We have changed leads in each country pushing it locally, and we have a clear annual plan that’s aligned across the digital team, the talent CEO, and People & Culture leadership. Everyone is moving in the same direction.

“We also track KPIs. Everyone knows the numbers for their country or function. There’s even a bit of healthy competition! It keeps everyone motivated.”

To ensure the platform was suitable for CCEP’s vastly different workforce, Jearum focused on ensuring it was relevant to the varying employee demographics – rather than just focusing on country-to-country. 

“Over half our workforce is in supply chain, and many frontline workers don’t have their own devices. We’re not an organization where everyone sits at a laptop.

“So we focused on accessibility – making sure they could log in and that they understand why Career Hub was valuable for them. We added “hooks” to make it worth their time – like setting up digital rooms at supply chain sites. 

“For the rest of the business it’s more about explaining the benefits. We share success stories, especially peer stories. Success breeds success, and when people hear how it’s helped someone else, they want to check it out too.”

For other HR leaders who are looking to implement new platforms, Jearum warns that they need to approach it as an on-going project – not one that can be completed in two or three years.

“Since we launched Career Hub in October 2022, I’ve spent around 2,000 hours on it. Other organisations might underestimate the time needed to make it successful.

Once you go live, the work doesn’t stop – it continues at the same intensity. You need people who care about it and are committed to making it a success.”

Highlighting the impact CCEP’s Career Hub has made, Jearum shares the story of one employee: Jasmine. 

Jasmine started as a line operator at CCEP’s North London, before moving into central planning. She then joined a Just Be Ambassador group through the Career Hub, driven by her interest in people and culture – giving her valuable exposure to the People and Culture function.

Then, when a role opened on the team, she applied. Although her CV didn’t align perfectly, her skills made her the strongest candidate, and her application was successful.

“She’s brought a brilliant perspective [to the team]. Having been in the supply chain, she understands frontline challenges,” Jearum explains. “She’s done a lot of upskilling sessions at factory sites, and they’ve gone really well because people relate to her. 

“It shows the power of removing bias and seeing people for their potential.”

Looking to the future

Just as AI has made waves through the HR sector over the past few years, there’s little doubt that it will continue to do so as the technology advances. 

For Jearum, she expects admin tasks to drastically decrease due to automation, as well as an increase in personalization. But with this, expectations will also rise just as fast. 

“It’s such an exciting time to be in this space,” she concludes. “When we started this journey, I didn’t expect to be here three or four years later. 

“I didn’t think things would move this quickly. I mean, earlier they were talking about digital twins and all this amazing stuff — it’s just incredible.

“I’m so pleased to be in the thick of this transformation. There’s so much to learn. That’s the great thing about big tech shifts — we’re all learning together.

“It’s really cool that we’re all on this journey – and that we’ll definitely have less admin to do!”