Developing Corporate Affairs Capability Across Asia Pacific
Strategic Onboarding and Coaching of Remote Talent
Location: Asia Pacific
The Challenge
Our Client - a large pharmaceutical company, appointed an identified talent from an affiliate to a global policy and external affairs role. The employee had previously been in a government affairs role for a single market in Asia, where they had worked under a very hierarchical structure. Their new role would cover all of Asia-Pacific, and they would need to be self-directed in an ambiguous work environment with several reporting lines and stakeholders.
Onboarding would be remote as they were based in Asia, away from the company headquarters. With our expertise in capability coaching and global policy across Asia Pacific, we were engaged to ensure a successful transition and plan for their first 12 months in the role.
Our Approach
We focused on how they would best achieve success in the role, in areas including policy issue identification and prioritisation, internal and external networking, and communication.
We worked closely with the individual, managers, and other stakeholders to develop and implement the following 12-month roadmap:
Outcome
For the employee, the roadmap greatly helped their understanding of the new work culture and confidence in undertaking their role. They had a smooth transition, with demonstrated success through development of a network, delivery of meaningful policy inputs, and communicating the value of their work to the company.
We continue to work with this company to support their global corporate affairs teams with onboarding and coaching.
Ensuring New Hire Success
For global pharmaceutical companies, it makes sense to hire local talent for corporate affairs functions. Talent moving from affiliate roles to global roles can struggle to succeed in self-directed and matrixed work environments, which can negatively impact regional product pipelines.
This is especially true for employees coming from highly structured, hierarchical work environments and cultures. In these cases, an onboarding strategy is critical to a successful transition, and affective corporate affairs and environmental shaping functions.