Angel’s Share Engagement Strategy

The radio never stops buzzing, does it? Listening to the radio has become synonymous with my car journeys. And no matter what time you tune in, someone is always speaking, or the day’s news is being played for the nth time until you have practically memorised the headlines.

On this occasion, however, the gentleman on the radio was talking about the ‘angel’s share’. Interestingly, when whisky is being aged, a small portion evaporates. This lost portion is referred to as the angel’s share, implying that angels secretly ‘steal’ their share of whisky. I was both amused and amazed by this imaginative metaphor.

This fact reminded me of my childhood.

Whenever something special was being cooked at home, my mum would look for someone to taste it while it was still in the pot, so that necessary adjustments could be made and the final dish would be perfect by the time it reached the dining table.

This tasting process was a little tricky, because a misjudgment could mean the dish ended up less than perfect, spoiling the culinary experience for others and limiting the accolades for my mum. But the tasting process also meant an extra piece of meat or fish — the angel’s share.

As I grew up, I perfected this art of tasting and gradually became the most dependable set of taste buds at home. I have retained this reputation to this day, including when I cook. More than the joy of getting that extra piece of meat or fish, it was the thrill of being the first to experience something special and of making a small but important contribution to perfecting the final product. Developing such discerning taste buds has also helped me build reasonably good gourmet cooking skills, largely through my understanding of taste and spices.

What if organisations offered employees a similar privilege — the opportunity to experience something first and play a meaningful role in making it better?

A similar angel’s share approach has been used by some companies, especially technology companies, which give their employees early access to new products and encourage them to use them before a wider launch. This soft internal launch plays a key role not only in perfecting the product but also in understanding it from a customer’s perspective.

Feedback received from employees helps improve the product’s features and value proposition. Indirectly, it can also make employees more empathetic towards customers’ needs and what they look for in a product or service, thereby encouraging a customer-focused rather than purely engineering-focused mindset.

This practice is commonly known as ‘dogfooding’ — employees use their organisation’s own products, often before their public release, to identify problems and suggest improvements. Personally, I think ‘dogfooding’ is a horrible way of describing something that can have such a profound impact on a company and its community.

I call this the ‘Angel’s Share Engagement Strategy’ — an approach that engages employees internally while bringing organisations closer to customers externally, simultaneously fostering skill development, innovation and organisational competitiveness.

What makes this strategy particularly compelling is its potential to resonate with Gen Z and Millennials, for whom opportunities to make meaningful contributions can be powerful drivers of engagement.

Interestingly, Deloitte’s 2025 Gen Z andMillennial Survey found that 89% of Gen Z respondents and 92% of Millennials considered having a sense of purpose important to their job satisfaction and well-being. This reinforces the importance of creating opportunities for employees to feel that their contributions genuinely matter.

The strategy can also strengthen customer engagement by drawing on insights and feedback from employees who belong to the same generational cohorts as the target customers, helping organisations develop offerings that resonate more strongly with their end users.

Give the angels their share and be blessed! 🙂 Have you?