Roche Ireland Ltd

‘Creating a sustainable learning organisation to help up-skill people in a site closure’

Roche Ireland presented an excellent example of using a site closure to create a sustainable learning organisation to up-skill its people. With the site closure announced in 2016, maintaining engagement and a positive culture was a challenge. There was an upskilling commitment starting with LEAN and coaching skills, accelerated with formal training, rotation to new roles and problem-solving groups. As the site closes, employability is enhanced by the delivery of excellent business results, capacity to aspire to new roles, reflecting the impact of the up-skilling.

The judges commented on how this is a blueprint for how to do a site closure and clearly aligned with CIPD’s purpose of Championing better work and working lives. It was delivered with passion and purpose, from a foundation of commitment to staff, and has had a huge impact on individuals, the site, the organisation and the community.

Highly commended

WALK                   

‘Delivering Localised Peer to Peer Onboarding’

WALK has 166 staff and empowers and facilitates people with intellectual disabilities to fulfil their employment ambitions. With inconsistent delivery of induction training and a challenging context for influencing, the WALK team implemented a Peer to Peer Onboarding programme that provided vital information to new employees and upskilled staff as peer-to-peer trainers simultaneously.

The judges saw great evidence of collaborative effort, engagement, innovation, resulting in a strong impact on staff, teams, residents, the social purpose of the organisation and Championing better work and working lives.

Learning and development – under 500 employees Award sponsored by National College of Ireland