1. CSR campaign
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CSR campaign
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Special Report: CSR workplace Irish DirectorIrish Director Special Report: CSR workplace
STRATEGIC
direction
D of Human Health at MSD in Ireland Brian
Longstreet was once told by a mentor he had in the
early part of his career that “culture eats strategy
for lunch” and it’s something that he continues to
believe in as a leader today.
“The adage meant that you can have the best strategies in the
world and a really good business plan, but if you don’t have engaged,
motivated employees you won’t accomplish much,” he explains.
“Having a strong developmental structure is critical to our
employees and our business at MSD. Our biggest asset is our
people, not the machinery or the strategies. It’s about how our
people can help us to make a difference through being engaged and
motivated.”
A global leader in healthcare, MSD employs over 2,000 people at
six separate sites in Ireland, encompassing manufacturing, shared
business services, sales and marketing facilities.
MSD’s health solutions include the development, production
and distribution of prescription medicines, vaccines and biologic
therapies as well as animal health products.
Playing an active part in Ireland’s pharmaceutical sector for over
50 years, many of MSD’s leading products globally are made or
packaged in Ireland.
Longstreet says the large manufacturing presence in this country
influences the strong culture driven by employees being motivated
by the fact that they are involved in making medicines, which
ultimately help patients around the world.
“This is a rallying cry for everyone working for MSD in Ireland. I
have worked for the organisation in both the US and UK and I have
never seen this as palpable as it is here in Ireland,” he notes.
With this in mind, an ongoing goal within MSD is to find different
ways of supporting its people to make a difference and of engaging
teams in the development and implementation of strategies that
meet business objectives.
At MSD Human Health this has meant the establishment of
two initiatives in particular – the Change Team and the Evolve to
Succeed (E2S) project.
Started around five years ago, the Change Team is a group of
people drawn from all levels of the organisation who act as the
“eyes and ears” of the entire employee base, feeding back to the
management team what they hear from employees on a regular
basis.
“The feedback helps us to be in tune with everything that’s
happening and shows us where we can make changes. It can cover
anything from the desire to have a flexible working environment to
different aspects of the benefits package – essentially the things
Employing over 2,000 people in Ireland, an ongoing goal within MSD is to find
different ways of supporting its people to make a difference
M
that keep employees awake at night,” says Longstreet.
An example of this process in action is sales reps telling the
Change Team they needed to be more connected and efficient, for
example through using an app on their mobile devices.
MSD Human Health worked with the corporate IT department to
develop a solution introduced six months ago, which means sales
reps can do all their expense reports through their smartphone or
iPad. They have become more efficient as a result.
“The Change Team has really fed into our culture over time.
Culture is not something you can build over night. It takes years.
To really build that engaged and trusting culture from a leadership
perspective, you need to delegate and put your trust in people,” says
Longstreet.
Strategic road map
Established in mid-2013, E2S aims to determine MSD Human
Health’s strategic road map over a three to five-year period.
“All levels of the company through work streams led by individuals
are involved in E2S to determine what our priorities should be. This
bottom up approach is helping us to develop to be sustainable in the
long term,” says Longstreet.
“Our marketplace is evolving rapidly and we want to stay ahead
of where it could evolve to. For example, we have new customers
now because of the formation of hospital groups – previously every
hospital was autonomous. Now there are six hospital groups.
“E2S has really helped everyone to understand such changes
and the direction we’re going in. One of the four strategic priorities
resulting from E2S is to build a dynamic, resilient and flexible
culture. Our people need to understand that change is going to
happen and be able to react to that.
Regarding Longstreet’s own leadership style, he says he has an
“open door” approach and is a big advocate of communication.
“We produce monthly webinars for the entire organisation in
Ireland covering various aspects of the business so that everyone
understands the totality of what we’re trying to do.
“We also have strong internal communications
channels between the different areas of our
business to support an open sharing of information
with all our people.”
“This approach allows us to highlight important
developments that can be very motivating. For
example, our Carlow site recently got US Federal
Drugs Authority approval for the liquid formulation
of one of our cancer treatments, which is
manufactured at Brinny (Co Cork) for the rest of
the world.
“We were able to tell everyone via the webinar
that clinical trials for the liquid formulation are
taking place in Ireland.”
Another web-based initiative at MSD will be
the launch of a new human resources (HR) portal
in April, which will act as a ‘one-stop-shop’
for employees in terms of their development,
performance, and any support requirements they
have of the HR function.
Liam Murray, head of HR for MSD in Ireland,
explains: “We are moving towards a self-service
HR model, where employees can get information at
their fingertips as and when they need it. We’re all about creating
a learning environment and building talent is one of our leadership
behaviours. The new HR portal will allow employees to access all
the great tools we have.
“For example, any employee can go online and self assess their
own proficiency and identify what it takes to move to another role
in terms of competencies. As MSD has six locations in Ireland, it
provides a good landscape for people to move around and develop in
different areas of the business.”
MSD operates a number of cross-Ireland project teams that
allow employees to pick up experience in another plant without
having to up sticks and relocate. People can also go on temporary
assignments to other locations including to international locations
to gain exposure to different areas of the business and leverage the
full potential of the global reach of MSD. Murray notes that four
plant managers in other parts of the world originally came from
Irish MSD plants.
The overall approach to career development is to upscale people
so they are well rounded and more marketable within MSD or
outside the organisation if they are applying for another job. “Our
attitude is that if someone leaves MSD, chances are we may get
them back,” says Longstreet.
Murray says when it comes to development the underlying
ownership of the learning by the employee is a prerequisite.
“A key ingredient in everyday work behaviours which ensures
that continuous development really happens is that our managers
are highly trained in coaching. This creates a sense of safety,
which allows employees to open up and feel secure in stretching
themselves.
“There is constant two-way dialogue occurring in the plants every
day. Our way of working is that the person who owns the problem
is best placed to come up with the solution as opposed to being
directed.”
MD of Human Health at MSD in Ireland Brian Longstreet
‘The Change Team has really fed into our culture over time.
Culture is not something you can build over night’
MSD lab in Ballydine, Co Tipperary