With the launch of the Lonza People Strategy in 2021, we introduced a clear employee offering for how we attract (Come), empower (Stay), develop (Grow) and connect with our people, enabling them to make a meaningful difference. We have also launched the Lonza Roadmap, which provides us with a clear and engaging corporate identity, with a vision to bring any therapy to life and a purpose to enable a healthier world.
Executing the People Strategy was a key priority for the Human Resources function, alongside continuing to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of our people during a year of continuing challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, we began to consider the future new working environment, whilst also managing the temporary easing of restrictions in certain countries, as well as subsequent re-enforcements.
Throughout the year, up to one third of our global workforce continued to work remotely in line with local government restrictions. Our on-site workers continued to physically attend manufacturing sites and research and development (R&D) facilities, supported by clear guidelines and procedures to protect and maintain their health and safety.
In addition to the successful execution of our People Strategy and ensuring the health and wellbeing of our workforce, growth continued to be a key focus across the organization in 2021, with a total of more than 4,500 new hires1 made over the course of the year. The attraction and onboarding of our new people was a strategic priority as we began operations in multiple new facilities. In addition, we integrated new sites to our network to strengthen as well as expand the technological platforms of our organization, such as the Codiak Exosomes Manufacturing Facility in the US and the Exosomics Service Unit in Italy. Alongside these recruitment and integration activities, we have continued to support and grow our talented workforce.
Our global organization reflects a broad range of backgrounds, cultures and perspectives with more than 100 nationalities represented across 30 countries. It is a cross-generational community – from Baby Boomers2 to Generation Z3 – with a proportionate increase in the recruitment of younger employees. Globally, the gender split remains at 36% female and 64% male, with a trend towards a higher number of female employees in Generation Z.
The global employee community takes a welcoming and inclusive approach to diversity by embracing a wide range of perspectives and experiences, which help to drive innovation and creativity. We understand the value and importance of diversity across our employee community, and further information on recent initiatives in this area can be found in our 2021 Sustainability Report.
More than 4,500 is the total number of new joiners in 2021 (headcount, excluding contingent workers). The net increase of FTE totaled more than 2,000
The generation is generally defined as people born from 1946 to 1964
The generation is generally defined as people born from 1997 to 2015
With our strong current focus on growth, we have worked assiduously to attract industry leading talent into our business over the course of 2021.
More than 4,500 employees1 joined Lonza in 2021 with 48% located across three key sites: Visp (CH), Portsmouth (US) and Houston (US). 40% of these new hires related to strategic growth areas, including mRNA, Ibex® Solutions and Cell & Gene Technologies.
To ensure a consistent and coherent onboarding process, we introduced a Welcome Center in Visp and piloted a digital onboarding platform in both Visp and Houston. We also created a suite of localized Employer Value Proposition videos and campaigns across our sites in Houston (US), Geleen (NL) and Tuas (SG), key functions and our Cell & Gene and Biologics divisions. These have been used both to attract new candidates into the business, as well as helping new colleagues to understand our work and values.
We have already reviewed the impact of our current initiatives and identified areas for improvement and expansion. This will support our sustained focus on continuing to expand our employee community in line with our ambitious growth plans in the years to come.
More than 4,500 is the total number of new joiners in 2021 (headcount, excluding contingent workers). The net increase of FTE totaled more than 2,000
Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO)
Even during the most challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have continued to focus on talent attraction, development and retention as critical elements for Lonza’s long-term success. The HR team has worked diligently to recruit new talent in line with Lonza’s ambitious growth plans, while working to retain engaged and established colleagues.
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Ensuring that our existing employees are respected, appreciated and empowered to make a meaningful difference, is a critical component of our People Strategy. We understand that it is not enough to accelerate recruitment if we do not also work to retain our employees.
2021 has seen a focus on retention, with an employee turnover rate of 10.9%1. This figure is reflective of the industry standard on a global level. However, higher rates have been identified in the Americas (16.6%)1. This further enforces the requirement for prioritization within this space.
To provide insights into the reasons why our talent leaves the organization, structured exit interviews were established in 2021 on a global basis. Among the top reasons given were the desire for further promotion, recognition and work schedules, with the most common reason being lack of perceived promotions. 74% of respondents reaffirmed that they would work for Lonza again in the future, suggesting that the large majority had a positive experience during their time with the company. This data will continue to be gathered in 2022 with a focus on utilizing the output to best shape our initiatives for future change.
We work in a highly competitive industry, which means we must strengthen our offer to ensure that our colleagues are inspired to stay with us. In this context, we have worked to improve the “moments that matter” in our employee journey, including a full review of how we reward and recognize talent across our global network.
This work included the redesign of the former Short Term Incentive Plan (STIP) to form the new Lonza Bonus. We have also commenced an initial review of the equity plan offerings – our Long Term Incentive Plan (LTIP). These changes will ensure that we offer a competitive reward package to attract new talent while also recognizing the contributions made by our current employees and retaining our high potential for the long term. Changes and enhancements to these programs will go live during 2022 and 2023.
Our ongoing learnings from the pandemic resulted in the revision of a Benefits strategy with a specific focus on Wellbeing. This has enabled us to further strengthen the global Employee Assistance Program (EAP) which was launched in 2020 to support employee health and wellbeing. Key strategic initiatives included events about effective stress management, how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected children, ergonomics, general financial planning considerations and healthy movement at work. These were accompanied by the provision of wellness assessments.
Personal growth and development is a vital part of our employee career journey and long-term job satisfaction. During 2021, several programs were developed to support professional growth, including the global launch to all employees of LinkedIn Learning to support a personalized approach to self-development and 24.5% of our positions advertised were filled by internal candidates2.
Our Voice of the Employee Survey was conducted in Q3 2021 and provided critical data to company leaders. It provided an overview of strengths that may be harnessed and galvanized from within the organization, as well as highlighting opportunities for change and improvement. Throughout 2022, these results will provide a platform for all of our people managers to acknowledge the current position and take active and decisive steps to support beneficial change in their teams. To maintain momentum, and ensure our employees feel truly heard, we plan to host the survey again in 2022 to track our progress and encourage further feedback to drive new waves of evolutionary development.
The role of the managers has become increasingly important in the development of all new programs. In this context, we have placed a focus on empowering our leaders and managers to have informed and insightful discussions with their teams. We have worked with leaders and managers to introduce a global recognition program Bravo, engage their teams around the new Lonza Bonus program, as well as empowering them to drive positive changes based on the insights from the Voice of the Employee Survey results.
The figures (10.9% and 16.6%) relate to voluntary turnover. Voluntary turnover reflects employees who left Lonza through personal choice and does not include those who had their contracts terminated either for cause or for restructuring. The total turnover rate is 12.7%
Excludes promotions without an active recruitment process
Having laid firm foundations for strategic change in 2021, we will capitalize on this momentum over the coming year. We will also build on the insights from the data points now established, as we see the People Strategy enter its second year of maturity.
As part of our key initiatives for 2022 we are planning to further strengthen key systems and processes to ensure that we are able to sustain the ongoing business needs with optimal levels of efficiency and a wider focus on Lean. 2022 also presents the opportunity to drive further progress on adapting and enhancing our current approaches to a more systematic engagement, refined reward, as well as overall onboarding experience. Employees and leaders are at the forefront of those changes to ensure that we are fit to deliver at pace through a sustained period of ambitious growth.
