GSK offers a world of opportunities
GlaxoSmithKline employs more than 100,000 people around the globe. But its size doesn’t inhibit the company from having a very personal approach to grooming its future leaders.
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The first point of entry is the Future Leaders Program, which targets stand-out candidates as they graduate from universities. GSK is willing to give graduates a chance to get their first working experience. “Their mind is like an unwritten book,” said Line De Decker, VP human resources for Europe and Americas at GSK Consumer Health. “They go on a rotation program that offers so many experiences they can learn from.”
Participants in the Future Leaders Program gain broad-ranging experience working across a variety of business functions. During the rotations, employees experience different roles from marketing and sales to communications and supply chain. Throughout the program, GSK managers and mentors are readily available to help accelerate the learning and set the candidates on the path to success.
The Future Leaders Program typically selects graduates through a competitive process. “They really are the leaders for the future of our company,” De Decker said. “We want the best and the brightest.”
To attract employees with prior commercial experience and MBA degrees on their resumes, GSK has the Esprit Program. This also is a rotational program curated to craft tomorrow’s leaders. The Esprit associates take on a series of stretching commercial management roles, both within their home region and international markets. “I am so impressed with every single one of the Esprit associates I have interacted with,” De Decker said.
GSK also has innovative initiatives to retain its employees. One of its jewels is the Pulse Volunteer Project. “We send employees on a six-month mission to work with a nonprofit organization, such as Save the Children,” De Decker said.
The employees are matched with an interest, such as a physician who travels to a country to operate on children with eye disease. The opportunity is available to all GSK employees. Some success stories include Randy Easterly, a retail category solutions manager, who in 2010 spent six months working with Direct Relief International after a major earthquake hit Haiti. “Being a Pulse volunteer was one of the most rewarding things I have done in my life,” Easterly said. “During my time working with Direct Relief International, I was able to use my business skills that were developed at GSK to help Direct International. Pulse opens your eyes to a totally different world than you live in day to day.”
“This is a very original way of engaging people,” De Decker said. “They come back as better leaders and employees. They can put things into perspective, and they learn to think out of the box. It is a wonderful experience.”
It also dovetails nicely with millennials’ quest to “do good,” while also creating lifetime experiences. “They get to do something they care about and experience something they might never get to do in their careers,” De Decker added.
Not surprisingly, GSK has an enviably high retention rate. That also is supported by a development theory called 70-20-10. What this refers to is that 70% of career development is on the job, 20% is through coaching and mentoring, and 10% is formal training. To that end, GSK invites employees to engage in dialogues with managers and build conversations based on job experiences. “Development is much more than formal training courses,” De Decker said.
Millennials bring bountiful benefits to companies, De Decker added. She said they are broad-thinking, flexible and can work across boundaries, including not only countries, but also function. Rather than driven to climb the proverbial career ladder, they don’t only want to go up. “It isn’t only about the ladder,” De Decker said. “It is about the lattice. Broadening their experience is worth as much as stepping up.”
Their networking acumen — sharpened through social networking — has made millennials more proactive in connecting. “They build a web of connections, they have friends across the world and are at ease with different cultures,” she said. Millennials also help develop business strategies for a digital world.
De Decker coaches future leaders to build their paths in a methodical manner. “I tell them to think two roles ahead and build experience step by step,” De Decker said. “Let each role be a stepping stone for the next move.” She also encourages the next generation to learn a language, which is “almost like having another degree.”
GSK appeals to people with core values that match its mission. Some employees have joined because they witnessed babies die of a vaccine-preventable disease or to help alleviate pain they’ve watched loved ones struggle with, De Decker noted. “Our people help change the world.”