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Finalist

#beatingCOVID: Engaging employees during challenging times; Emerging strong from the pandemic

by Astrazeneca

Summary of work

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the shape of the world almost overnight. AstraZeneca not only had to manage changes to the working practices of employees, it also needed to transform its operating model to ensure patients could continue to access life-saving medicines and ensure scientific advances continued to be delivered. In tandem, the company expanded its focus to respond directly to emerging health crisis, including its work with the University of Oxford to develop and deliver a vaccine at no profit during the pandemic.
As part of AstraZeneca’s response, a truly impactful internal digital programme was initiated to capture learnings and drive innovation to help shape the company’s strategy, to maintain engagement and recognition across the global workforce of 75k employees, and use innovative approaches to keep employees informed of latest developments as AstraZeneca took the fight to COVID-19.
The campaign generated >20k ideas that helped to shape the company’s strategy for a rapidly changing world, has ensured belief in and understanding of the company’s strategy are at global high performing norm levels (93/92%), and has further galvanised a workforce committed to delivering for patients worldwide and #beatingCOVID.

To date, the program has successfully generated and leveraged data through newly established channels and partnerships with engaged stakeholders. The program has already successfully influenced clinical practice and policy at global, country and clinic levels via novel insights and targeted, patient-focused solutions. Adherence is gaining the attention it has long needed, and real-world outcomes will improve as a result.

Judges’ comments

This was a fantastic internal campaign, with a wide range of digital tools used, in particular crowd sourcing. It delivered great metrics, but also provided significant insights for the business to tap into moving forward. The scale and success of the project was even more impressive given what the business was facing.