Two years post demerger at a fast-growing US pharmaceutical spin-off, leadership development had fallen off the radar. Efforts to embed change were suffering, and with no clear pathways for growth, employee engagement was at an all-time low. Many had fallen into management roles with no prior experience and very little support. With a global team of over 10,000 employees and limited scaling capabilities, the business was struggling to find the resources to effectively lead their people through change.
Now an independent entity, the spin-off wanted a refreshed and innovative identity which set them apart from their old company. In the words of their Head of Enterprise Learning, “we wanted to feel different and didn’t want to resemble the company we came from. Anything that reminded us of big pharma caused a visceral reaction in our company.” Envisaging a democratised culture of learning, they wanted each employee to feel empowered to be their own leader.
To support this ambitious vision across all levels of the business, the learning team identified a need to expand their curriculum. Alongside making learning more accessible to the wider employee population, their focus was to enable greater internal growth opportunities for their leaders. Part of this would involve developing the skills and knowledge of first-line managers. The desire was to achieve this through dedicated training – specifically aligned to their philosophy, values and behaviours.
Equally high on their agenda, were plans to elevate women’s leadership. Building on inclusivity and belonging, they would confront the day-to-day challenges their women face within a global organisation and open doorways to greater growth and recognition.
Global Scaling a Barrier to Developing Leaders
Having recreated and redefined their own company culture from scratch, the spin-off realised they needed external support with leadership training. With a small and decentralised learning team of just five people, global scaling was a big issue. To fulfil global reach of their 10,000 diverse employees, they needed additional help with instructional design, facilitation and content development.
Co-Creating the Leadership Learning Journey
Alchemist were shortlisted as having the scalability, delivery, custom design capabilities and expertise to fulfil this mission. The client wanted to co-create something distinctly personal to their new brand identity, which was out-of-the-box and engaging. The overall intention of such a design would be to boost employee engagement and help establish their new and evolving identity.
With a deep understanding of how their business worked and what they were trying to achieve, Alchemist was well-placed as their strategic partner for this project. In consultation with the Global Leadership Development Team a proposal was made to design, develop and deliver 3 tailored solutions:
Learning for Everyone
- 24 bite-size virtual sessions (90-mins each) encouraged impact and employee engagement – mapped to the organisational Leadership Behaviours
- Annual curriculum of 240 live sessions delivered in 10 languages
- Sessions designed to support up to 300 employees at a time – enabling attendance of at least one session, regardless of logistical and language barriers
New Manager Development
- 9 multilingual face-to-face modules
- Dedicated learning journey for navigating intra/interpersonal and organisational topics. Designed to equip participants with a diverse range of essential tools
Women’s Leadership Development
- Multi-region, fully virtual programme led by Alchemist’s female empowerment expert
- 3 live sessions delivered to 300+ female participants with support from live interpreters
- Topics specific to female leaders including Boundary Setting, Leaning into Strengths and Personal Brand
Boosted Employee Engagement and a Women Leaders Legacy
The results across all programmes were impressive. An Employee Engagement Survey increase of +4 points was achieved and 84% of employees reported learning a new skill. With positive ripples sent across the whole organisation, the rollout of all programmes achieved a remarkable uptake of 4861 employees (just under half the population).
Each person attended at least one live training opportunity from wherever in the world they happened to be. This was made possible by Alchemist’s scalable tech and multilingual facilitators. Participants could choose from no less than 10 languages for their virtual sessions. Translations were available in Chinese, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Thai, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, French and Brazilian Portuguese. Implementing such a diverse and accessible approach meant that the spin-off was able to boast a 93% Participant Positive Score across 500+ live sessions following delivery.
A total of 349 first-time managers completed the Managers Programme. This achievement has equipped managers with the missing skills and knowledge vital to their current role and future growth. Many have shared how the programme has increased their confidence and understanding of what is expected of them and how they can excel in their role.
Finally, a huge credit to the organisation’s diversity and inclusion efforts meant that 271 women accomplished their Women’s Leadership Programmes. This has created a legacy for years to come, with clear pathways for women and an enhanced feeling of belonging for their female population.
Leadership Development With Alchemist
Leading any business through change requires a robust development plan. Whether you are looking at developing leaders, management training or to bolster your retention strategy; learning can help. With a blended approach, Alchemist can support you in delivering sessions that help you to embed change. Start the conversation today to find out more: