What responsibility means to us...

Part of our people strategy is to create a sustainable pipeline of internal talent that will deliver on our company Vision.  We do this through the training and development of our workforce, and the nurturing of top talent within the organization.  This helps ensure that we retain important knowledge and experience, as well as provide employees with opportunities to realize their full potential.

Our philosophy towards learning and development is based on the proven 70-20-10 approach to adult learning which emphasizes the benefits of 'on-the-job experiences'(70%), supplemented by a blend of 'exchange and exposure' (20%) and more formal 'training' or 'education' (10%). Our formal internal training and development programs are also supported by external training.

Our annual global talent review process identifies and nurtures the development of employees within the organization at every level, with extra attention for those who demonstrate superior performance, exemplify our values and display great future potential.  The goal is to have possible successors in place for all of our leaders, therefore, succession plans for our Leadership Team are reviewed by our Board of Directors once a year, and this process is replicated by management throughout the organization at all levels. This helps Shire ensure that our high-performing employees are fully prepared for opportunities as they become available. We have formal development plans in place for each of the Leadership Team successors to round out their experience and skills and provide them every possible chance of progressing in their careers at Shire.

The development of our future leaders is crucial to our success.  Last year we began to assess leaders against a set of capabilities which we believe are required to deliver on our Vision. The assessment included both the hiring of new leaders and the development of existing ones. Our plans are to more broadly communicate Shire’s leadership capabilities across the organization and further incorporate them into our talent development practices in 2013.

Traditional training focused on technical skills is also provided based on business and functional needs.  Access to learning tools through our intranet is available to all global employees in multiple languages.  In an effort to develop current and future people managers, learning and development resources are available in the areas of managing performance, developing people and fostering a Brave culture.  

Our regular and rigorous compliance training ensures that all our global employees understand the relevant laws, policies and regulations specific to the country in which they operate, and the implications of laws that transcend national boundaries.  We also conduct mandatory training on our ‘Code of Conduct’ which makes clear our high ethical expectations and principles upon which our business operates. Our sales and marketing teams are supplied with significant additional training to ensure the highest level of compliance and ethics are followed at all times.

• In keeping with our practice of promoting from within and offering career development opportunities to our employees when possible, 21% of our 2012 advertised positions were filled by internal candidates. In addition, 15% of employees globally were either promoted into new roles or made lateral/developmental transfers into other positions during the year.
• Defined the critical leadership capabilities required to fuel the Company’s growth and innovation, while differentiating Shire leaders from their competitors. With this foundation, leaders from across the organization were assessed against the capabilities and individualized development plans were executed.
• Shire continued to strengthen its leadership pipeline by incorporating the assessment of leadership capabilities into selection and promotion practices across the Company. By comparing potential hires against common criteria, the Company is better positioned to ensure the most capable leaders are selected. During 2012, Shire made several internal appointments to its Leadership Team and successfully attracted top talent to key leadership positions around the world.

• Leadership capabilities will be broadly communicated to all leaders across Shire; formally integrated into our internal and external talent review process to ascertain potential and determine readiness for succession to a leadership position. Leadership capabilities will also be incorporated into the performance management and reward processes for implementation in the 2014 performance cycle.
• Drive awareness of new online learning and development resources for people managers and leaders. Develop and disseminate support materials to foster the appropriate utilization of online resources.