A
programme to develop the leadership skills of GlaxoSmithKline staff in
Maidenhead has saved the company more than half a million pounds.
A
development programme, introduced in October 2000, has given team leaders
increased responsibility for staff.
Asif
Khan, people development advisor at the GSK site in Maidenhead, explained that
team leaders could undertake risk assessment, appraisals, holiday and absence
management and disciplinary procedures on staff, which had previously been the
responsibility of first-line managers.
He
said, “This gives our first-line managers more of a coaching role and takes
them away from the day-to-day aspects of the job and long at the long-term
development of staff.”
The
four to five week programme has been staggered over a 12-month period and gives
the participants the chance to do work-based assignments.
Khan
explained, “The terms are gapped so that staff can practice the skills which
they have learnt in the classroom.”
So
far, 30 team leaders and seven first-line managers have entered the development
programme.
One
of the programme’s main objectives was to reduce costs by cutting the number of
temporary workers at the site and re-deploying permanent workers depending on
the demand of various production lines. Four hundred staff are employed at GSK
in Maidenhead.
