4P Framework: People

Crucell’s ability to make a difference to world health depends on the creativity, passion and drive of the employees making up our global organization. We are working hard to attract people with these qualities and to create the sort of environment that will inspire, empower and challenge them.

Crucell is growing fast—in 2009 our global workforce expanded by 11% compared to 2008—in line with our business and healthcare ambitions. The majority of the recruitment was in Leiden, the Netherlands, where we are building our research and development capabilities, and in the United Kingdom, where we launched our own marketing & sales organization in October. The experienced UK team will enhance the visibility and strengthen sales of Crucell’s travel vaccines in this high-potential market.

Staff turnover has decreased markedly, from 18.44% in 2008 to 13.12% in 2009, suggesting that our focused efforts in relation to people and organization development are bearing fruit. (Note that the human resources statistics reported in this section are based on the available data from Crucell’s five main locations, employing over 90% of the total workforce. With the implementation of the Reporting Manual we aim to achieve full coverage in 2010).

“We are working hard to make Crucell an employer of choice.”

In 2009 we completed the leadership development program initiated in 2008: managers at all levels have now participated in this program, which emphasizes self-insight as the starting point for good leadership. All managers receive full-circle feedback (from direct reports, peers, and their own managers) as an integral part of annual performance assessments. We intend to extend this approach to include all employees. The percentage of employees receiving regular performance reviews increased to 95% in 2009, and we are aiming for full coverage in 2010.

Senior managers took part in a program to emphasize their responsibility as role models in the organization. We believe that adherence to the Crucell Values—Integrity, Respect, Complementarity, Reliability, Innovation, Passion and Drive—has to be led by example from the top. These values were also reinforced company-wide in 2009 through numerous activities initiated by our Corporate Communications and Human Resources departments. For example, all employees received a birthday calendar highlighting the values.

Our employees’ opinions matter to us. As in 2008, last year monthly questionnaires were sent to 100 randomly selected employees, asking them for their views on a wide range of issues relating to The Crucell Ambition, Crucell’s corporate strategy for developing the business. The surveys invite employees to comment on the progress being made and further improvements needed in the organization. In addition, informal lunch meetings between Crucell’s CEO Ronald Brus and small groups of employees were held on a regular basis, with the aim of sharing perspectives among a broad cross-section of our people.

During 2009, we placed strong emphasis on raising CSR awareness and participation among our employees. You can read more about these activities in the section on ‘Philanthropy’ .

Crucell sees the value of diversity and strives to foster this, both in its recruitment practices and organizational development. Our Dutch and Swiss sites each employ people from 20 different nationalities, and our approach to operational excellence is based on teamwork across sites and functions. This cultural and functional mix generates new insights for improving our business processes and is vital for building a unified, fully integrated global company. We are seeing a growing sense of belonging and common purpose among our employees around the world, largely thanks to this approach. The energetic efforts of our Corporate Communications team, supported by local members of our Global Communications Network, also play a vital role.

The number of female employees in our workforce increased by 16% in 2009 compared to the previous year, bringing the percentage of women in the organization to 45% (up from 43% in 2008). The relatively low number of women in senior management positions is a point for attention. However, Crucell is committed to recruiting and promoting employees on the basis of talent and ability, without negative or positive discrimination on the basis of gender, race or age.

In 2010 our global human resources team will implement an ambitious learning and development program for all Crucell employees. The aim is to facilitate and encourage our people at all levels of the organization to continuously develop their skills and knowledge. By supporting our people’s opportunities to learn and grow, we aim to become a stronger company that attracts and retains the right people. Our ambition is to become an ‘employer of choice’.

Protecting the health and safety of our employees is a moral obligation and essential for achieving our business goals.

Improving safety awareness was firmly on Crucell’s agenda in 2009. In line with objectives, safety training was improved at all Crucell sites and all local safety officers were sent to DuPont safety training, the gold standard in the chemicals and biopharmaceutical industry.

The number of accidents reported to safety officers at our five manufacturing and/or development sites (which employ over 90% of Crucell’s total workforce) showed a marked decrease of 21% in 2009 compared to the previous year (27 versus 34 accidents in 2008) despite a significant increase in both our production volume and total number of employees. The majority of these accidents were minor and generic in nature, although a number of potentially serious ‘near misses’ were reported. It is important to note that Crucell’s accident rate is low and that statistical variability has a large impact on the total figures. Therefore, these results must be interpreted with caution. Significant conclusions cannot be drawn from a comparison of only two data points. Having said that, Crucell is committed to accident prevention and is making ongoing efforts at all sites to continuously reduce the number of accidents.

The reliability of safety reporting also improved in 2009, thanks to a more harmonized and centralized approach to data collection. Progress was made in developing a global Environment Health & Safety (EHS) policy in line with international standards and certification schemes. We can also report improvements in terms of raising safety awareness, sharing knowledge, and introducing best practices across the organization.

While these developments are encouraging, we see the need to further improve the way we manage EHS data at the global level. Access to more detailed information, collected from all sites using the same definitions, will give us greater power to improve safety using a ‘plan-do-check-act’ approach. The introduction of the CSR Reporting Manual, as described earlier in this chapter, will enable this next step in EHS development.

In the face of the emerging influenza pandemic (H1N1) 2009, Crucell took rapid action to protect employees from infection and provide balanced information. Trained nurses in our Swedish organization vaccinated more than 200 employees and family members against the pandemic virus, as part of a government mass vaccination campaign. The government had asked for help with this enormous task, calling on people with healthcare qualifications to volunteer. Similar actions were taken at various other Crucell sites.

Crucell offers free vaccination against seasonal influenza to employees and their families each year, in countries where this is feasible and appropriate. In the round of vaccinations held in the fall, more than 1770 people worldwide took advantage of this offer. The free shot was given to a total of 245 Crucell employees and their relatives in the Netherlands, 114 in Switzerland, 697 in Korea, 93 in Sweden, 521 in Spain, around 80 in China, and 23 in Italy. Crucell’s employees in Argentina were eligible for free immunization under their health insurance scheme. Inflexal^® V could not be offered to our people in the United States, as the product is not registered in that country.

Table 1

We value both gender and ethnic diversity and accordingly act as an equal opportunity employer. The characteristics of our workforce are as follows:

*Not applicable, as Crucell’s UK organization was launched in October 2009

“Crucell adheres to high standards of ethics and transparency in dealing with all stakeholders.”

Crucell adheres to high standards of ethics and transparency in dealing with all stakeholders. We take our legal and ethical obligations very seriously. During 2009 we invested significantly in efforts to ensure compliance with these principles and requirements.

Crucell’s Code of Conduct was presented and explained to all employees during interactive meetings led by representatives of senior and local management. The Code of Conduct is Crucell’s commitment to business integrity. It guides employees in the high standards of behavior expected of them and their obligation to act with integrity at all times.

The Code of Conduct urges employees to report any behavior or action that may be in breach of this code. In 2009, a procedure for reporting non-compliance was implemented, and compliance officers were appointed worldwide. They report that employees are increasingly seeking informal advice if they are unsure about the ethical way to behave in a particular situation—a positive sign that compliance awareness is increasing.

The Code of Conduct has been incorporated into Crucell’s new general terms and conditions for suppliers. This lays the basis for enforcing compliance and responsible supply chain management.

These developments are part of our overall effort to improve enterprise risk management—which includes, but goes beyond, the management of financial risks. In 2009 Crucell invested significantly in the analysis of potential business risks, the establishment of risk management procedures, and the training of relevant employees in policies and procedures, for example anti-corruption strategies.