Delivering our strategyPeopleWe are further developing atalented <strong>and</strong> diverse workforcein a high performance cultureEngaged employees, whoare true to our core values,supported by accountable<strong>and</strong> empowered leadersdriving performance,underpin the continuedsuccess of our business”With approximately 57,<strong>20</strong>0 people in over 100countries worldwide, we value the talents, skills<strong>and</strong> capabilities that a global workforce bringsto our business. Our people strategy, whichdefines our approach to managing our workforce<strong>and</strong> supports the delivery of our businessstrategy, is built around four key priorities whichwe believe are critical: acquiring <strong>and</strong> retainingkey capabilities <strong>and</strong> talent; further developingleadership <strong>and</strong> management capabilities;improving the strength <strong>and</strong> diversity of the talentpipeline; <strong>and</strong> improving employee engagementwhile building a high performance culture.Managing significant change in the organisation’sworkforce is also something to which considerablemanagement attention is directed. We use arange of metrics to track progress against thesepriorities, which are reported quarterly to the SET.Lynn TetraultExecutive Vice-President, Human Resources& Corporate Affairs84%Employee engagement FOCUS score rose to 84%Employees by geographical area(%)21.46.22.91.613.413.316.9UKSwedenRest of EuropeNorth AmericaLatin AmericaAsiaAfrica & Middle EastAustralasiaAcquiring <strong>and</strong> retaining key capabilities <strong>and</strong> talentDuring <strong>20</strong>11, we hired approximately 6,400 permanent employeesto replace leavers, to fuel the expansion of our business in EmergingMarkets <strong>and</strong> to build the new capabilities required to implementour strategy successfully. With 1,400 of the new hires having joined<strong>AstraZeneca</strong> in China <strong>and</strong> 400 in Russia, we have developed arange of innovative approaches to ensure that we have an attractiveemployer br<strong>and</strong> globally <strong>and</strong> to help us achieve our ambitious growthplans in these markets. During the course of the year, we have alsosuccessfully attracted key talent to supplement critical capabilitiesacross the business, including in payer excellence <strong>and</strong> personalisedhealthcare, <strong>and</strong> to refresh our leadership pipeline in key areas.In parallel, we have invested significant management time over the last12 months to better underst<strong>and</strong> the key drivers influencing employees’decisions to leave across the business, particularly in markets whereconditions are most volatile. We have implemented a range ofinitiatives to minimise the risks to the business from such attrition.Further developing leadership <strong>and</strong> management capabilitiesWe encourage <strong>and</strong> support our people in achieving their full potentialby providing a range of learning <strong>and</strong> development (L&D) programmes.These are designed to build the capabilities <strong>and</strong> encourage thebehaviours needed to deliver our business strategy.24.340 Delivering our strategy People<strong>AstraZeneca</strong> <strong>Annual</strong> <strong>Report</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Form</strong> <strong>20</strong>-F <strong>Information</strong> <strong>20</strong>11
We have a global approach, supported by the creation of our globaltalent <strong>and</strong> development organisation, to ensure that high st<strong>and</strong>ardsof L&D practice are applied across the organisation. We continue todevelop <strong>and</strong> deploy instructor-led <strong>and</strong> online development resources,which we aim to make available to all employees to increase accessto learning <strong>and</strong> to support self-development.We recognise the importance of good leadership <strong>and</strong> its criticalrole in stimulating high levels of performance <strong>and</strong> engagement.Our leadership development frameworks are focused on the corecapabilities which we believe are essential for strong <strong>and</strong> effectiveleadership. These capabilities are defined for each level in theorganisation <strong>and</strong> apply to all our employees.Alongside judicious hiring of new leaders into critical senior roles, suchas recently into our R&D organisation, the development of an internalpipeline of future global leaders is a high priority. We work to identifyindividuals with the potential for more senior <strong>and</strong> complex roles.These talent pools provide succession c<strong>and</strong>idates for a range of criticalleadership roles across <strong>AstraZeneca</strong>. We regard these individuals askey assets to the organisation <strong>and</strong> we proactively support them toreach their potential through, for example, global talent developmentprogrammes <strong>and</strong> targeted development opportunities.We complement our leadership capabilities with a set of manageraccountabilities which define what we expect from our managers.Building line manager capability is supported by a suite of globallearning programmes which we have extended during <strong>20</strong>11,addressing people management, change management <strong>and</strong> othercritical capabilities.We remain committed to making full use of the talents <strong>and</strong> resourceof all our people. We have policies in place to avoid discrimination,including on the grounds of disability. Our policies cover recruitment<strong>and</strong> selection, performance management, career development <strong>and</strong>promotion, transfer <strong>and</strong> training (including re-training, if needed, forpeople who have become disabled) <strong>and</strong> reward.Improving the strength <strong>and</strong> diversity of the talent pipelineOur global workforce provides a diversity of skills, capabilities <strong>and</strong>creativity <strong>and</strong> we value the benefits that such diversity brings toour business. We aim to foster a culture of respect <strong>and</strong> fairnesswhere individual success depends solely on ability, behaviour, workperformance <strong>and</strong> demonstrated potential. As we continue to reshapeour organisation <strong>and</strong> geographic footprint, our ongoing challenge isto ensure that diversity in its broadest sense is reflected in ourworkforce <strong>and</strong> leadership, <strong>and</strong> integrated into our business <strong>and</strong>people strategies.We measure levels of engagement, the effectiveness of ourcommunications <strong>and</strong> other areas critical to the performance of ourbusiness, such as leadership <strong>and</strong> management capabilities, throughour FOCUS survey. The results are communicated to all employees.Ninety one percent of our people participated in <strong>20</strong>11. Our employeeengagement score increased by one percentage point from <strong>20</strong>10,restoring it to <strong>20</strong>09 levels. The leadership category score improvedby two percentage points <strong>and</strong> the leadership communication score,which was identified as a priority after last year’s survey, improvedby four percentage points. In <strong>20</strong>12, we will build on this further, withparticular emphasis on clarity of direction <strong>and</strong> prioritisation fromleadership teams.A further area of attention in <strong>20</strong>11 was work-life balance, given scoresin this area had declined between <strong>20</strong>08 <strong>and</strong> <strong>20</strong>10. A set of globalwork-life balance principles was agreed <strong>and</strong> communicated in April<strong>20</strong>11, initiating a range of activities across the business includingmanager dialogues, better use of virtual meeting technologies, <strong>and</strong>health <strong>and</strong> wellbeing initiatives. Work-life balance category scoresimproved by two percentage points this year, <strong>and</strong> we intend tomaintain momentum in this area during <strong>20</strong>12.A key element of our people strategy is the continued developmentof a performance culture across the organisation. By strengtheningour focus on setting high quality objectives aligned to our businessstrategy, <strong>and</strong> ongoing coaching <strong>and</strong> feedback, we strive to ensurethat performance at all levels of the organisation delivers value. TheBoard is responsible for setting our high-level strategic objectives<strong>and</strong> monitoring performance against them (see the Operation of theBoard section on page 104). Managers across <strong>AstraZeneca</strong> areaccountable for working with their teams to develop individual <strong>and</strong>team performance targets, <strong>and</strong> for ensuring that our peopleunderst<strong>and</strong> how they contribute to overall business objectives.We will continue to empower our leaders to drive performance, tohold our managers accountable for underst<strong>and</strong>ing <strong>and</strong> deliveringagainst the st<strong>and</strong>ards required, <strong>and</strong> to provide the tools necessaryto reward outst<strong>and</strong>ing contributions.Our focus on optimising performance is reinforced by performancerelatedbonus <strong>and</strong> incentive plans. <strong>AstraZeneca</strong> also encouragesemployee share ownership by offering the opportunity to participatein various employee share plans, some of which are described in theDirectors’ Remuneration <strong>Report</strong> from page 113 <strong>and</strong> also in Note 24to the Financial Statements from page 176.FOCUS engagement scoresBusiness ReviewWe have made progress on our evolving global diversity <strong>and</strong> inclusionstrategy following research carried out in <strong>20</strong>10 to better underst<strong>and</strong>the barriers to women progressing into more senior roles in theorganisation. Under the leadership of a global steering group chairedby our CEO <strong>and</strong> made up of senior leaders from across the business,we are driving change in three key areas: ‘Leadership & ManagementCapability’; ‘Transparency in Talent Management & Career Progression’;<strong>and</strong> ‘Work Life Challenges’. We track gender representation atdifferent levels of the organisation <strong>and</strong> the country of origin of oursenior leaders to measure progress over the medium term.82%<strong>20</strong>0884%83%<strong>20</strong>09 <strong>20</strong>1084%<strong>20</strong>11Improving employee engagementWe use a variety of global leadership communications channels toengage employees in our business strategy. These include face-tofacemeetings, video conferencing <strong>and</strong> Yammer (a social media tool)to encourage two way dialogue to take place. For the second year ina row our annual global employee survey (FOCUS) included an opentext feedback mechanism, with around 19,000 comments made ona variety of topics.<strong>AstraZeneca</strong> <strong>Annual</strong> <strong>Report</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Form</strong> <strong>20</strong>-F <strong>Information</strong> <strong>20</strong>11Delivering our strategy People 41
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