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We are committed to providing the
opportunity for our employees to do meaningful and challenging work
in pursuit of our goal to improve the quality of human life by enabling
people to do more, feel better and live longer.
Last year we reported on the principles that underpin
our approach to people management, and a range of programmes which
were designed to deliver our global human resources strategy. We
are now pleased to report the progress we have made and set out,
where we are able, how we intend in future to measure our performance
on issues such as diversity.
THE GSK CULTURE
At GSK, great emphasis is placed not only on what we must
achieve as a company, but also on how we deliver our achievements.
Our culture is summed up in the GSK Spirit which defines the qualities
we expect all our employees to embrace:
- performance with integrity
- entrepreneurial spirit
- focus on innovation
- a sense of urgency
- passion for achievement
Developing the GSK culture is critical to enabling people to reach
their potential and do their best work. We therefore carried out
a survey in 2002 of 10,000 managers to assess how well the Spirit
and culture is being adopted. We sought views on the experience
of working for GSK, including both what managers considered was
being done well and what areas needed further work.
The survey results were generally very positive, showing
that managers take great pride in being part of GSK. For example,
there was overwhelming support for the statements that “people
in my department show commitment to performance with integrity”,
“my department is a focused organisation with a sense of urgency”
and “I would gladly refer a good friend or family member to
GSK for employment”. These findings show that managers believe
that the GSK Spirit is reflected in the way they and others are
working day to day.
The results also raised important areas for further
development. These included concerns about whether people are able
to perform to their full potential, the extent to which managers
are able to act as coaches to support development, and the degree
of staff involvement in decisions that affect their work. These
issues are all being addressed by GSK’s Corporate Executive
Team. For example, a programme has been put in place to reduce complexity
and bureaucracy in the company and to streamline processes to help
free up managers to do their best work.
 DIVERSITY
Diversity is a business imperative for GSK; we are committed
to the principles of equality of opportunity and equal treatment.
We aim to have a workforce and working environment that reflects
the diversity of background, culture, beliefs and characteristics
of the communities in which we operate.
We are therefore embedding the values of diversity
and equal treatment into our key business processes. For employees,
this means that diversity measures are included in manager and employee
training, external recruitment and internal appointment processes,
performance assessments and pay reviews, succession planning and
developmental assignments.
For customers and stakeholders, it includes the development
of measures to reach targeted customers, outreach programmes for
specific patient groups and advertising that reflects the many communities
we serve.
We believe that our diversity strategy will show clear
progress against the baseline figures we report this year (see below).
We will report changes annually.
With the exception of the US (see ethnicity chart),
we do not have meaningful data on the ethnicity of our employees
because of the different ways ethnic groups are described in different
countries and, in some cases, because of legal restrictions on collecting
these data.
HUMAN RIGHTS
GSK believes that on human rights issues, we can lead by
example and thereby influence the behaviours and practices of others
through clear demonstration of our own values. Our most effective
contribution can be made through pursuing policies in our own operations
that respect the rights and interests of all those affected by and
involved in our business. GSK supports and is committed to upholding
the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights26
and the core labour standards set out by the International Labour
Organization27.
During 2002, we carried out an internal review which
demonstrated that, wherever we operate as an employer, we believe
we are complying with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
and the core conventions of the International Labour Organization,
and according to the Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises set
by the OECD 28.
Conducted through the Head of Human Resources for each country,
the review was also used to build awareness and understanding of
human rights issues.
Also during the year, we began to put in place binding
requirements to ensure that our major contractors and suppliers
adopt GSK’s standards on human rights and core labour standards.
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