Winner
London 2020: Novartis UK HQ Relocation Project
Summary of work
In November 2018, global pharmaceutical company Novartis announced it would be moving its UK headquarters from Frimley, Surrey, to a new office in White City, London by January 2020. The reason for the relocation was to be closer to customers and partners, and better networked in the healthcare and life sciences ecosystem that the area afforded.
The overarching communications objective was to ensure as many employees as possible, a large number of whom lived in the Frimley area, continued within the business and moved to London. The Communications team, working alongside their London 2020 project colleagues, developed a strategy to inform, support and inspire employees throughout the consultation process and the physical move.
This strategy included a schedule of thoughtful communications to inform and inspire employees, novel approaches such as the White City Pop-Up to create excitement about the new location, and the appointment of move ambassadors to ensure employees had a voice in the process.
In the monthly employee pulse survey, ‘Communication’ was consistently the highest rated metric throughout the project. In November 2019, more than 80 percent of employees made the move to London.
Judges’ comments
Novartis’ produced an enjoyably creative relocation project. It shows good understanding of using language to resonate with the audience, creating empathy during a difficult period of change. It had a tangible impact, demonstrated by the high level of staff retention. Achieving way above what was expected!
