Our people are the key to our success and we are proud of the pioneering and ground-breaking work they carry out that can transform a patient’s life.
We aim to develop careers by identifying and supporting talented individuals to ensure that we have a workforce capable of realising our ambitious strategy. We review succession planning of our Senior Executives at Nomination Committee meetings to ensure that the business has procedures in place to safeguard continuity of leadership. In addition, we are now embedding a globally consistent talent management and succession planning approach for future growth and labour retention.
We support our employees to make a difference to the business through a structured performance management process. Achievement of an individual’s objectives is rewarded through a discretionary bonus. We provide a competitive compensation and benefits package which includes discretionary share awards for eligible employees.
During the year, we launched our Learning Management System (“LMS”) to our employees. Individual training and development needs are identified and discussed at performance review meetings with line managers. Since the LMS launch we have seen 93% of our employees engage with the system, each completing a minimum of ten training modules. We sponsor individuals undertaking further professional qualifications and encourage continuous learning. We recognise that coaching and mentoring can have a significant impact on behaviours, and certain employees continue to benefit from bespoke coaching programmes.
Culture and values
Our four core values, Vision, Patient First, Commitment and Menschlichkeit, shape how we work and are at the heart of every decision the business makes. For more information on how we are evolving culture within the business, please see pages 14 and 15 of the 2022 Annual Report.
Diversity and inclusion
We believe that every person in the Group has a part to play in creating value and we understand the benefits of a diverse and inclusive workforce. We believe that diversity improves our effectiveness and we have set gender diversity targets at Board and Executive Team level.
We are working towards a consistently inclusive environment where differences are valued.
Recognising that an inclusive working environment is one in which everyone feels that they belong, one of our key business objectives for the year is to agree measurable targets for diversity, equity and inclusion. Our annual employee engagement survey will continue to help the business to implement fair policies and practices and inform the business of ways that people can work together effectively while continuing to work remotely.
In addition, through our digital people system platform, we will be increasingly monitoring and taking proactive action to improve diversity across the organisation, beyond gender.
Our gender pay gap, while reducing, reflects the fact that we have a smaller proportion of women than men occupying senior leadership roles. More information can be found in our gender pay gap report on our website www.allergytherapeutics.com.
Modern slavery
In accordance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015, the Board has approved a Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement, which has been published on our website. The statement details the steps we take to avoid slavery and human trafficking in our own operations and in our supply chain.
We believe that our own operations present minimal risk, but recognise that a higher level of risk is posed by the suppliers we engage with to provide goods and services.
In the year ahead, we plan to provide further guidance to our employees and continue our ongoing engagement and audit of our suppliers.
Responsible employer
During the year, Allergy Therapeutics became an accredited Living Wage Employer for their UK operations.
The real Living Wage is higher than the government’s minimum, or National Living Wage, and is an independently calculated hourly rate of pay that is based on the actual cost of living. It is calculated each year and is announced by the Living Wage Foundation as part of Living Wage Week. It is currently £10.90 in the UK, with a higher rate of £11.95 for London, reflecting the higher costs of living in the capital.
We are now one of over 13,000 UK employers who voluntarily choose to pay the real Living Wage because we believe that a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay.
This commitment applies to not only directly employed staff but also to our third party contracted staff, such as our cleaning and maintenance staff.
Health and safety
Keeping our people safe and well is our absolute priority at Allergy Therapeutics. This extends to the safety of any contractors, our patients and our local communities. The Board of Directors has overall responsibility for health and safety and this includes approving the health and safety strategy and reviewing performance at each meeting.
During the year, we continued to embed best practice health and safety standards within the business across all our sites; all employees and contractors are training in health and safety and during the year we only recorded one lost time incident (2022: one).
We care about the health and wellbeing of our employees as well as their safety. During the year, the business focused on raising awareness for those suffering from mental health and introduced trained Mental Health First Aiders. The wellbeing programme delivers regular campaigns and training and we provide employees with a dedicated website with advice and guidance on how to improve wellbeing.