RWS AR 23 Final Single pages - Flipbook - Page 19
PEOPLE, CULTURE AND ORGANISATION
RWS remains a great place to work and we are proud
to have nurtured an inclusive and diverse environment
where everyone has the opportunity to be their best and
be part of a global team.
In a challenging environment, a clear focus is more
important than ever and the business has adopted the
acronym EDGE to ensure that all colleagues are clear
about the Group’s priorities. EDGE stands for E昀케cient
Delivery, Growth and Engagement. Our cadence
of communications provides context, rationale and
examples that bring each of these three components
to life, from our CEO-led communications and our
monthly company newsletter, to updates about our
transformation programmes and via the regular town hall
events that take place across divisions and functions.
A major part of developing our culture and fostering
an inclusive environment is our annual Group-wide
Engagement Survey. This year marked the third year
in which we have asked all colleagues for insight into
their experience at RWS, looking at what’s working well
and what can be improved with regard to collaboration,
engagement, inclusion, growth and development,
leadership and living the Group's values. This year’s
survey achieved a response rate of 84% (FY22: 85%) and
a 61% (FY22: 69%) favourable colleague engagement
score. We fully recognise that the external challenges we
experienced in FY23 and the di昀케cult decisions we had
to take in response have impacted our overall colleague
engagement score. However we have con昀椀dence that
we can make positive progress in the year ahead.
Encouragingly our highest scoring area was Trust and
Respect (83% favourable), alongside our diverse culture,
relationships with managers and corporate sustainability.
In parallel, I am pleased to report a further improvement
in our voluntary colleague attrition rate2 to 11.9% for the
year (FY22: 15.9%).
To further encourage colleagues to adopt our values
and demonstrate their relevance, this year we launched
our ‘Ambassador Awards’ which is our all-colleague
recognition programme. Twice a year each of our
divisions, the LXD and our Group functions nominate
one colleague or team as their best example of each
of the four values. These 24 half-year winners received
a 昀椀nancial reward and their stories are published and
promoted internally to recognise their exceptional
contribution. This programme proved extremely popular
and we received more than 750 entries during the year.
In January 2023 we undertook a signi昀椀cant information
technology migration project, giving everyone across
the business the ability to communicate e昀昀ectively and
share information on a single instance of Microsoft
Teams and Outlook. We also implemented Viva Engage, a
social channel, where all colleagues can now easily share
content and join discussions across the Group.
Our eLearning platform MyLX has continued to provide
colleagues with learning and development opportunities.
MyLX o昀昀ers a comprehensive range of more than
360,000 training modules provided by Skillsoft, giving
everyone the opportunity to improve their skills and
personal development. The platform also allowed
us to roll out training in our Code of Conduct, a new
information security module and, for the 昀椀rst time, our
global health and safety programme. At the end of the
year we had a 98% completion rate for all compliance
training across the Group.
In June we again brought together our Senior Leadership
Team in the UK to remind ourselves of our organisational
purpose and values and to review and assess progress
on our medium-term strategy. This aims to align our most
senior team with our organisational goals before bringing
everything to life throughout the business under this
group’s combined leadership.
We appointed Daniel Bennett as President of our IP
Services division on 10 November 2022, overseeing the
Group’s full suite of innovation lifecycle management
services, including patent translation and 昀椀ling, renewals
and IP research studies. We announced on 28 September
2023 that Daniel would be leaving the business to pursue
other opportunities. Daniel has been instrumental in
driving the success of IP Services over the past year by
navigating the team through the launch of the Unitary
Patent, fostering a more growth-oriented culture and
realigning the IP leadership team.
With Andrew Brode stepping back from Chairman to
become a Non-executive Director, I would like to thank
him personally for the signi昀椀cant support he has given
me during my 昀椀rst two years as CEO of the Group and
very much look forward to continuing to bene昀椀t from his
wise counsel.
A regular rhythm of company communications to all
colleagues, where we provide updates on client and team
successes, organisational changes and product launches,
are complemented by a monthly all colleague newsletter.
2 Calculated as number of FTE leavers during the 昀椀nancial year, divided by average number of
FTEs during the year, noting the constraints imposed by having multiple HR systems.
STRATEGIC REPORT
RWS Holdings plc — Annual Report 2023
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