In a competitive labour market, values are increasingly a determining factor for the ability to attract and retain talented people. Employee surveys indicate that our vision and values are an advantage. But sustaining leadership requires consistent efforts to invest in people development.

Living the values - A training programme for managers - Values as attraction factor -Sustainability approach as retention factor

Being an attractive and challenging workplace with equal opportunities to thrive with the organisation is essential to Novo Nordisk’s long-term performance. It is also a measure for our social responsibility as an employer. That is why the People Strategy is an  integrated part of Novo Nordisk’s Business Strategy and aligned with the Novo Nordisk Way of Management. It evolves around five focus areas: customer relations, attraction and retention of the best people, development of people, winning culture and embedding social responsibility. All of these are included in the Balanced Scorecard, aligned from corporate level to individual units. In 2003 all corporate people targets were met. To allow for differing employment conditions in various parts of the world, the business areas now determine their specific targets.

The annual employee survey, eVoice, consists of more than 100 questions, of which currently 30 are mandatory. It is a tool to assess the working climate, and particular attention is given to measuring how well the Novo Nordisk Way of Management is perceived to be translated into daily business practice. Each unit reviews its own data and takes action on low performance scores. At Novo Nordisk, ‘living the values’ is one of the ten core global leadership competences and a key indicator of performance. In the eVoice survey all employees are asked to indicate – on a scale of 1–5 – to what extent they find that their management in words and actions live up to the Novo Nordisk Values. In 2003, the average of respondents’ answers to that question was 3.5.

An annual company-wide organisational audit assesses how well individual business units are equipped to meet short- and long-term business objectives. Developing people skills to match future needs is vital. This includes identifying successors for key positions. In the 2003 eVoice survey, the question “In my work unit we have identified the  competences/skills we will need in 2–3 years”, the average score was 3.0 – up from 2.9 in 2002.

This low score is due to the fact that while most units have satisfactory development plans for all employees, these plans often have a rather short-term scope. To address the need for improvement and to better meet the company’s long-term competence needs, all business areas are now systematically undertaking competence gap analyses as part of their organisational audit.

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In Product Supply, comprising production facilities worldwide, it is a particular challenge to keep up with high growth, lean manufacturing and continuous quality improvement. There is a need to train and develop people at all levels, and particular focus is on succession management. A comprehensive programme, called the Supply Manager Academy, is an example of how this is being addressed. Under this programme,  department managers are enrolled for two years, with a total of 30 days of training. Each participant gets performance feedback throughout and must pass an exam after completion of each of the six modules. When the programme is completed in 2007, 125 current managers and 75 potential or new managers, will have completed the course. What makes this programme unique is not only its scope and level of ambition, but also the commitment and active participation by the management in Product Supply. It follows Novo Nordisk’s global leadership training format – managing people, managing strategy and the business, and enhancing personal impact. Hence, for instance modules on performance management improve the participants’ skills at setting direction, mobilising people and communicating effectively.

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Changing demographics, an expected skills shortage, and changing employee expectations are stretching companies’ ability to attract and retain talented people. We believe our commitment to sustainable development gives us an advantage in a competitive labour market. Several studies show the importance of alignment between corporate and personal values.As a values-based company, this is likely to have a positive financial impact for Novo Nordisk; a relatively low employee turnover translated into saved costs of losing and recruiting people.

Internationally, Novo Nordisk, being a relatively small company, cannot compete on the size of its workforce. Rather, we aim to compete on the quality of our employees and the corporate values. Locally, the company engages with business schools and universities to identify qualified candidates.

In 2003, for the second year in a row, Novo Nordisk was ranked the number one preferred employer among young professionals and business, engineering and science graduates in a survey by the international consulting firm Universum Communications.85% associated Novo Nordisk with a good reputation, and 53% named high ethical standards as one of the three most important characteristics that they associate with the company.

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When Novo Nordisk employees were asked in the 2003 eVoice survey how they feel about the vision and the values of the company, three out of four consider Novo Nordisk’s results within the social and environmental area to be important for the future of the company, and the average score was 4.0 – one of the top scores among the 100 survey questions. To many Novo Nordisk employees the corporate values and the Triple Bottom Line approach contribute to their job satisfaction and support their decision to remain with the company.