Reality checks for marketing people.
A formidable brand portfolio and a dynamic entrepreneurial culture make Diageo a popular destination for sales and marketing professionals. But this is also a business with a genuine commitment to best practice in the attraction and selection of talent.
The value of assessment centres
The Diageo recruitment team has long been committed to the use of high-quality assessment tools - and with good reason. The classic research studies (eg Hunter & Hunter 1984, Smith et al 1981, 2001) show that interviewing on its own leaves a lot to chance. In fact the correlation between interview and ultimate job performance is just 0.15 - 0.3. By contrast, a well designed assessment centre can reliably predict future performance up to 70%.
The bespoke solution
Traditionally, the recruitment team had used off-the-shelf simulations in their assessment centres. We believed that we could get much better results from bespoke simulation exercises that featured authentic challenges from the business. We spent time deep within the company, exploring the product development cycle with the Innovations Team, and also looking at the aims and impact of Diageo's Responsible Drinking strategy. With these insights, we were able to build an exercise based on issues that were as topical as they were challenging.
Authentic action
The finished exercise simulates a marketing team meeting; candidates are given core market data, product information and a notional advertising budget, and they have to decide on which brands to promote - and how. As the exercise unfolds, new factors are fed into the scenario, from breaking news stories (eg Government concern about alcopops) to aggressive competitor activity. By mapping decision sequences and key behaviours, it is easy to identify people with, say, strong lateral thinking and problem-solving skills.
Teamwork and trust
The key to the success of the exercise was the teamwork between Diageo and work. The enthusiasm of the client teams was infectious and we found ourselves caught up in the excitement of the product development process. At the same time, as their trust in work grew, Diageo people were prepared to give us access to real-world information and insights which helped us to make the exercises even more realistic.
Realism and effectiveness
The realism of this exercise makes it more effective as a tool for a number of reasons. For a start, it gives a more valid preview of job performance, because the candidates are tackling genuine challenges. The exercise also has what psychologists call "face validity": because the candidates can see the relevance of the exercise, they are motivated to perform better than they would in a more theoretical, or les realistic context. Finally, we were able to tune the exercise to measure the exact behaviours we were looking for, whereas there will often be a degree of shoe-horning with off-the-shelf solutions.
"I want a go."
Diageo recruiters say that our bespoke business simulation is a massive improvement over the standard solutions, and it is now used for a wide range of entry-level roles in sales and marketing. The Kaliber brand manager was also very impressed: "This looks fab, I'd love to do this exercise."
