Retaining and engaging talent in a highly competitive marketplace

Evotec is one of the UK’s leading drug discovery companies, formed in December 2000 by the merger of the German Evotec and the UK’s Oxford Asymmetry International. But when they found that staff turnover among its prized knowledge workers had reached 25%, Human Resources clearly needed to change the way they operated. The HR Director asked Alasdair and his employee engagement team to design and deliver a suite of employee diagnostics to help him understand the staff retention issues, reduce recruitment costs and build a more engaged organisation.

The objectives of the programme were to develop a clear understanding of the current level of engagement amongst Evotec staff and the factors which had most impact on this, and to develop a strategy to increase engagement and thereby retention, implement the strategy and measure its results.

As an organisation that depends on intellectual capital and research for its competitive advantage, Evotec, like its competitors, is highly reliant on the quality of its people. With a limited budget, a very simple and collaborative approach was developed. Alasdair designed and ran a series of focus groups to identify the key issues the company was facing. Themes that emerged included the lack of clear career paths, inconsistent management style, pressured work environment and local cost of living. These themes then helped shape an online questionnaire designed to measure employee engagement.

Martyn Melvin, the HR Director, was particularly keen to identify and explore the factors that led to increased job satisfaction, people’s desire to stay with Evotec, and levels of employee advocacy – would they recommend the firm as a place to work to friends? The questionnaire response rate was an impressive 88%, well over the 40% average for surveys of this kind.

This research provided the Martyn and Evotec Board with a clear picture of the factors that were impacting staff loyalty. Alasdair identified that a small number of areas were having a disproportionate impact on engagement – so recommended resources should be focused on these areas. They were:

• Role fulfilment – how well or otherwise employees could stretch within their roles and so feel the achievement of working to their full potential
• Improving career development processes so they became more forward-looking
• Building leadership visibility and confidence to reinforce positive perceptions of the company

A clear plan of action was put into place. Senior managers were given one-to-one coaching sessions and middle managers were put through specially-designed training courses. These concentrated on areas such as team-building, how to build high-performance teams and how to motivate staff. Senior managers are now required to be more visible in the organisation, and there are rewards for being good managers, as well as good scientists. Career development and support were revitalised. Induction was extended to last over a whole year. Benefits packages were improved, with more choice provided. Weaker departments were partnered with stronger performing ones for guidance and benchmarking. Additionally, new communication channels were built to reinforce cross-company collaboration.
Since the first survey, staff turnover almost halved and the cost of recruiting was significantly reduced. The company now retains more talent and knowledge for a longer time. Productivity and morale have increased. It is estimated that savings have run into the hundreds of thousands of pounds. This programme won an MCA/Guardian Silver Award for HR Consulting.