Key Facts:

  • 74% of employees returned to work after parental leave
  • 14% of current DSC employees have been recruited via the apprenticeship programme
  • 2 of our manufacturing facilities have had 24 months of no LTA

13.6%

Employee Turnover

52%

of workforce is female

 

We now employ 1,753 people in 25 different countries and in a wide range of working environments. We have increased our cultural diversity even further in the last year with the addition of the team in Brazil. At Dechra, we have always acknowledged that our people are our greatest asset and know that an inclusive culture is beneficial for our business's performance. Our ongoing objective is to continue to be a high performing business driven by highly skilled and committed teams. Accordingly, we are committed to:

  • strengthening and communicating the Dechra culture and striving to ensure our Values encompass our business ethics and standards;
  • attracting, retaining and developing talent to build and maintain a top quality team; and
  • developing effective succession plans to enable business continuity.

In delivering these aims, it is the Group's policy to recruit and promote people on the basis of their personal ability, contribution and potential, regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, race, colour, ethnicity, disability, religion, political affiliation or union membership. We are committed to seeing that everywhere across our Group we promote, support and maintain a culture of fairness, respect and equal opportunity for all.

The Group gives full consideration to applications from disabled people, where they adequately fulfil the requirements of the role. Where existing employees become disabled, it is the Group's policy, whenever practicable, to provide continuing employment under the Group's terms and conditions and to provide training and career development whenever appropriate. The Group does not tolerate bullying or harassment.

We are committed to fair employment practices and comply with national legal requirements regarding wages and working hours. In the UK, only one of our subsidiaries is required to report under Gender Pay Gap regulations, and we are pleased to report that our gender pay median gap has reduced from 17.7% in 2017 to 9.2% in 2018. This reduction is largely driven by an increase in the number of women in senior and technical roles.

We were delighted that 84% of our employees responded positively to the statement regarding diversity in the workplace in our first employee engagement survey (2018 Engagement Survey) which took place in March 2018. We firmly believe that our Dechra Values support the culturally diverse business that we have become, and although we are separated by time zones, geographically and by language we share common goals and ways of working that are underpinned by our Values.

Age Range Split

Gender Split

Female 52%

Male 48%

 

Headcount Per Country

1,753 employees

headcount per country

 

One Dechra

Our original people plan was developed five years ago to support the delivery of the Group's five year plan. Following significant progress, we adapted the people plan in the 2017 financial year to support the delivery of the evolving business goals and the continuous expansion of the Group.

Accelerate Performance:

Align employee efforts and drive productivity through effective goal setting, feedback and focus on development.

Grow Our Own Talent:

Attract, retain and develop the right talent in the right place at the right time.

Strong Culture and Values:

How we do things around here.

Engaged and Committed Workforce:

A great place to work.

Healthy Workplace:

Improving the working lives of our people.

Creation of Shared Services:

Efficient infrastructure supporting commercial operations.

Grow Our Own Talent

Dechra is committed to enhancing the skills of our workforce, planning for a successful future and creating a sustainable talent pipeline.

Delta

Since July 2016, we have been utilising a learning management system, Delta, which hosts e-learning materials ranging from induction, compliance training such as pharmacovigilance, and software skills. There are 147 internal modules available on Delta to enable Dechra employees to continue to be the best partners to the veterinary profession. During the year, we have launched 16 new courses.

Dechra Veterinary Products North America (DVP NA)

The US Commercial sales team offers an extensive training programme for its new territory sales managers and inside sales representatives. A team of 18 recently spent two full weeks in Kansas City onboarding and building their product knowledge, equipping them to be productive from the first visit or the first call they make. Veterinary Professional Services, Veterinary Technical Services, and Marketing Managers facilitate the training workshops, which allows the field team to learn from our own internal experts. Additionally, regional managers continue their education with sales operations training offered during their first six months, at regional meetings, and during the national sales meeting.

Apprentices and Interns

We believe that offering internships and apprenticeships is a great way to attract new employees to Dechra. We have a small number of intern opportunities each year both in the UK and the US. We have successfully supported student interns at our Sansaw and Northwich offices and have an annual programme running. We have been delighted with the quality of the young people who have worked with us and we hope that the experiences of working with Dechra will support them in their future careers. We currently have nine apprentices in Europe in a variety of roles, including administration and logistics. In 2018 we had ten apprentices join our site in Croatia through a government sponsored scheme of which eight have been retained on a permanent basis.

Case Study

A series of four webinars on the New EU Regulations for the Registration of Veterinary Medicines

Product Development has recently run a series of four, one hour training webinars for PDRA colleagues globally to alert them to the major changes in the EU regulations for the registration and maintenance of veterinary medicines, which have been approved by the European Commission and will come into EU law on 22 January 2022. These new regulations are very wide ranging and include a total of 97 objectives with major impacts on our business. The webinars were delivered by Dr Julian Braidwood, MD of the international CRO Triveritas Ltd., and have proved very popular and thought provoking, with an audience of over 70 Dechra colleagues listening from their desks and asking a wide range of questions. Not only is this training format convenient and user friendly for our employees, but it is also an extremely cost effective way of delivering a bespoke and high quality training session on a key topic for our business. The webinars are recorded so that those unable to attend are still able to participate at a time which suits them.

In addition, the Product Development's global clinical team members attended an advanced Word training class for technical report writing. This programme complimented the basic training provided in Delta; geared more toward their job requirements. 22 team members from the US, the Netherlands and the UK participated in the training.

Case Study

Katy Mellor

Sales and Marketing Assistant/Placement Student

Katy Mellor joined the UK marketing team last July for a one year placement from Harper Adams University as part of her BSc Agriculture course. Katy has enjoyed learning about the veterinary industry and Dechra's vast and growing range of products whilst being part of a team working in a fast paced environment. She has been integral to the implementation of the Le Vet product launches within the UK, being involved in product forecasting, positioning, pricing and promotion of the products. All of which has furthered her understanding of commercial and marketing business practices. During the last year, Katy has embraced all of the Dechra Values and was formally recognised at a recent UK sales meeting for her contribution and support of her colleagues.

Case Study

Ben Poulter

Ben Poulter, Placement Student

"Working at Dechra as the Finance Placement Student I have gained invaluable experience which I will be taking forward into my future career.

Throughout the year I have learnt a lot about working life and working within a finance team. I have gained a deeper understanding of how the different sections of a finance team function within a large company. Dealing with foreign currencies and the different situations created in an international company has expanded my knowledge beyond what I had at university.

The thing that attracted me to Dechra is the opportunity to work within a relatively small Head Office finance team for the size of the Company. This has allowed me to feel like an integral part of the team and it is clear to see the results of my work. I was also interested in the opportunities available within this placement to help with different parts of the finance function and also experience different aspects of the Company. Having the opportunity to have a tour around the factory at Skipton and spending a day with a salesperson provided a new perspective on Dechra which was different to what I had experienced at Head Office. The experience that I have gained working within Dechra will not be forgotten."

Case Study

Apprentice case study

Apprentices in the Dechra Service Center (DSC), Uldum

There is a long running tradition of having apprentices at the DSC, primarily in the offices but also in the warehouse. The apprentices follow a formal education scheme and during the two year apprenticeship, they also attend 8 to 12 weeks of training courses at one of the local business colleges. They start with simpler tasks working alongside their colleagues, and as their skills evolve through on-the-job training, they ultimately perform the same role as their colleagues. In the final part of their training, the office trainees write a report on a project that is relevant to their work at Dechra. This report will often contain efficiency or cost savings proposals, and as such we have found that apprentices are of great value to both the Company and the employees. Out of the current employees in Uldum, 14% have been recruited through the apprentice programme, two of whom have been employed for over 20 years.

Martin Thimes Henriksen

"On a search of the job market, I found the apprentice role at Dechra logistics. After a very nervous job interview, my first ever actually, I was sold. Luckily, Dechra thought the same of me. I started my two years as an apprentice in September 2016, and my first few months was quite calm, and I learned the processes piece by piece, which was very nice. Along the way, I got more and more responsibility, and learned a lot from it. I personally think this is the way to train apprentices, I liked it that way. On my training courses, I both shared experiences with fellow apprentices, as well as learned the basics of logistics. I really liked the two years as a trainee, and I do recommend this kind of education to friends and family.

As I am now a regular full time employee in the Logistics department in Denmark, I am now the one trying to pass on my knowledge to the new apprentices arriving. If I follow in the footsteps of my boss, Anders, I will enjoy a long and successful time with the Company, and I sincerely strive to do so."

Case Study

Rachel Gilroy, Product Development Intern Testimonial

"Coming to the end of your PhD marks a time when you need to make decisions on how you want to progress your future career. Making the move from academia to a career in industry is undeniably daunting, and with no industry connections, it can be difficult to take that first step. For me, I was keen to explore the veterinary pharmaceutical industry, and when I attended a talk given by Dechra at Durham University about career options of veterinarians in industry with focus on R&D, it provided me with an invaluable opportunity to approach Dechra regarding an internship in R&D. Having a long established history within the animal health market alongside a fundamental values system, Dechra represented a growing global market brand able to offer a unique internship experience.

Funded as part of the fully integrated BBSRC DTP PhD Internship programme, my three month placement was based primarily in the Product Development offices in Shrewsbury, UK.

During the initial phase of my internship, tasks were mainly focused on exploring published research to generate a comprehensive literature review which would determine subsequent clinical trial protocols. Moreover, I was involved in the creation of a technical training presentation which would be used for the roll out of a referencing software throughout the Group. Importantly it was during this early stage of my internship that great effort was made by all members of the Dechra team, both UK and international, to introduce themselves, their role and their wealth of previous experience. Not only did this make me feel particularly welcome but was valuable in illustrating how different industry roles are not defined by a single career path.

With a clinical team based largely in the US, Dechra allowed me the opportunity to visit teams in both Maine and Kansas. Working closely with the clinical team in this way gave me tangible experience with procedures and software that formed the basis of clinical operations. Having one-to-one discussions with colleagues working in areas including regulatory affairs, safety and marketing gave me an appreciation of the multi-faceted nature of drug discovery and development, and how each role interlinks with another.

Most notably, I was heavily involved in the formation of a final study report for the submission of pilot clinical trial data to the FDA. Not only did this allow me to assess critically and interpret clinical data, but also present this in a way that complies with current guidelines. Dechra gave me the independence of being able to approach tasks in a manner that suited my skill set, while offering continued mentorship and encouragement during processes with which I was particularly unfamiliar. Being able to participate in clinical operations review meetings highlighted fundamental drug development milestones and challenges, but more importantly, how these are handled.

The ability to overlap my internship with my PhD has allowed me to apply some of the project management and trial protocol techniques to my ongoing research. Furthermore, I was able to present my current PhD research to teams in both the Netherlands and Croatia, sharing knowledge and feedback that could develop my research to application in both academia and industry.

Before working with Dechra, I had little sense of product development processes in the veterinary pharmaceutical industry. Thanks to the dedicated team at Dechra, I now have first-hand industrial experience relating to pharmaceutical research and development, alongside a strong network of industry professionals that have already contributed greatly in my future career. It is with both the confidence and knowledge foundation gained through this internship that I can decisively progress my career toward a role in veterinary pharmaceutical product development."

Engagement and Committed Workforce

Informing and engaging our employees through internal channels of communication is of utmost importance to the Group. We have multiple channels of communication to provide both formal and informal updates including a Group newsletter that is issued twice a year (following the half-yearly and year end results), intranets, management and team meetings at the respective business units. These keep our employees informed of the financial performance of the Group, as well as the sharing of updates which are relevant to all Group employees such as management and team changes, progress in relation to strategic objectives and updates on corporate social responsibility objectives.

At Dechra, people are our greatest asset. In order to continue to retain our qualified and skilled employees, and to attract new employees we conducted an Employee Engagement Survey in March 2018 using the Great Place to Work (GPTW) survey. The results of the survey were disclosed in the 2018 Annual Report.

Given the diverse nature of our workforce, due to the geographical spread and the differing roles and segments in which our employees operate, we were very pleased with the overall results of our first survey.

Since the survey took place we have spent time communicating the results to our employees. Initially, we produced a short video with the overall highlights of the survey, and this was followed with feedback of the results at a business unit, department, site or country level utilising any key meetings with employees or team briefings.

Action planning took place with employee groups across the Group where employees had the opportunity to identify areas that they wanted to address as a result of the survey and we built a database of plans, predominantly led by the employee groups. A huge variety of approaches has been taken depending on the size of the teams and their types of issues.

We have scheduled a second Group-wide survey for March 2020 where we hope to see maintained or improved scores.

During the year, Lisa Bright has been appointed as the Non-Executive Director designated for employee engagement. She is currently investigating, along with the Group HR Director, the most effective way in which the Board can engage with our employees to readily understand their views. During the forthcoming year, an employee engagement forum will be piloted.

 

Team photo

 

Engagement Survey

1

Announcing the engagement survey

A number of communications were shared with our employees globally to inform them that the engagement survey would be launched in March 2018. The communications asked our employees to provide open and honest feedback.

2

Aiding the understanding of the survey

Managers also held briefing sessions with their teams to share the GPTW presentation to build an understanding of why Dechra was launching the survey. We also used posters across our sites as a reminder to our teams of the importance of their input.

3

Employee participation

Following the completion of the engagement survey, videos were posted to thank our teams for their input.

Case Study

DVP EU

The EU team had a strong set of results with an overall response rate of 88% of their employees and a trust index of 76% (+9% higher than the Dechra Average score). The strengths of the EU survey were Culture (85%), Engagement (83%) Job Security (81%), Teamwork (80%) and Wellbeing (74%).

Following the feedback of the results,the DVP EU Senior Management team chose to focus on improving the area of Communication and Involvement (66%) across their region. Several work streams were created to focus on improving the level and frequency of communication both formal and informal. These include more focused use of the intranet for sharing news, creation of a monthly newsletter, regular sales updates to all staff, updates on the strategy from Tony Griffin and communication of the new EU marketing plan. More frequent conference calls have been put in place to allow Tony to talk directly to the EU teams, and the team has been utilising external social media such as Linkedin to promote our employee brand.

In addition to this, each of the Country and Functional managers within DVP EU has also undertaken the same action planning process with the support of the HR team and had their own action plan documented. Activities vary from additional training sessions, creation of dashboards to keep teams informed, bi-weekly town hall meetings and arranging cross-functional meetings on a quarterly basis to promote better alignment.

Culture of Safe Working Practices

Tony Griffin is the nominated Director responsible for health, safety and environmental matters. The Group attaches great importance to the health and safety of its employees and the public. The safety of our employees is paramount and that means continuing to reinforce good safety management practices as well as raising awareness of improved ways of working. Management are responsible for, and committed to, the maintenance, monitoring and promotion of a policy of health and safety at work to nurture the care and wellbeing of our employees, contractors and on-site visitors.

We have seven manufacturing facilities worldwide, employing 748 people representing 42.7% of our total workforce. Due to the nature of their roles, we have identified these as our higher risk employees with regards to health and safety. We have recently appointed a Group Dechra Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing (DPM) Health and Safety Manager who will initially be overseeing four of the main manufacturing facilities with the remit of standardising our procedures and working to ensure that high standards of health and safety are maintained.

To continue to improve the safety performance across both existing and newly acquired facilities, and to reflect the priority that is given across the business to safety, a proactive hazard awareness reporting initiative is in place in DPM.

Risk assessments are undertaken at our DPM sites to identify hazards and apply control measures to reduce or eliminate the risk of injury. Risk assessments may be conducted internally for routine activities or external specialists may be requested to conduct risk assessments for safety critical tasks. Where hazards are identified, these are scored according to the likelihood of an injury or incident occurring and the potential severity of this. Control measures are applied to reduce the risk of injury according to a hierarchy of control. We would firstly assess if a task was necessary and look for other safer ways to do a task before progressively applying other control measures.

All employees, contractors and visitors across the DPM sites are requested to remain vigilant at all times and to report any non-routine hazards they see using the local reporting procedures. We encourage employees to act immediately to warn others and control immediate risks whilst a more permanent solution may then be required to prevent the hazard from recurring. Because we work in a dynamic environment, we believe an increase in hazard reporting is an important leading indicator of the maturity of our safety culture.

DPM encourages local hazard reporting by both employees and contractors. The purpose of each report is to capture information about hazards and to track each hazard to an effective closure. It also allows us to provide feedback to the employees who have raised the hazards that action has been taken.

Each site periodically reviews any hazards raised and looks for trends. In addition to tackling each individual hazard, trend analysis allows each site to focus safety interventions on particular topics. This may include targeted safety training or safety communications.

For a number of years the Group has reported Lost Time Accident Frequency Rate (LTAFR) as a non-financial key performance indicator. A LTA is any absence or the inability of workers to conduct their full range of their normal working activities for a period of more than three working days after the day when the incident occurred. Any acquisitions during the year are included from the first full month that they become part of the Dechra Group. Despite maintaining a rigorous focus on health and safety, over the course of the last 12 months the number of incidents has increased from nil to six. All six incidents occurred in our manufacturing facilities; there were no fatalities. Two of the manufacturing facilities, Bladel and Melbourne, have now had over 24 months without a LTA.

All accidents and incidents are investigated by Line Managers with the cooperation of safety representatives or other employees who are aligned to an area. When an accident occurs, each site conducts an investigation which aims to identify the root cause of the incident including any workplace hazards, system or behavioural errors. Corrective and preventative actions are then implemented.

Any material health and safety issues or incidents that occur are discussed in detail at both business unit senior management meetings, and PLC Board meetings. Discussions include details of incidents and any remedial action taken to mitigate or prevent recurrence. Twice a year a comprehensive health and safety report is presented to the PLC Board meeting for discussion and review by the Directors.

We are routinely investing in safety, and during the 2019 financial year this has included:

  • Refurbishment of floors in our Melbourne facility to reduce the risks of slips and falls;
  • The purchase of new equipment to reduce the risk from manually handling heavy drain covers in Zagreb and the installation of a mist shower for personal decontamination;
  • The installation of three defibrillators at our Skipton facility, along with the provision of first aid training to 40 employees; and
  • An independent health and safety report was conducted at our site in Sydney, Australia with findings being implemented.

Group Causality
 

Group causality

 

  1. Slipped/tripped or fell on the same level
  2. Ergonomic injury
  3. Contact with moving machinery or material being machined
  4. Contact with a hot/cold surface or substance
  5. Hit something fixed or stationary

DPM Hazards (Bladel, Florida, Skipton, Zagreb)

DPM Hazards

 

  1. Reportable >7 days
  2. LTA
  3. Investigated accidents
  4. Investigated (damage only)
  5. Minor or First Aid accidents
     

 

Case Study

Fire training

 

Health and Safety Training

Working to ensure that our employees understand their health and safety obligations is critical to maturing and stabilising our safety culture. Employees receive general health and safety training at various stages:

  • Induction – all new employees receive a health and safety induction on day one of their employment. This means that they understand the site emergency procedures, key health and safety rules and any welfare arrangements. This is supplemented in their departments with a local area induction.
  • Job Training – Employees receive regular health and safety training according to their role and any hazards that exist in the work they are conducting. Role specific training, for example safe use of equipment, is delivered as part of operator training within their departments.
  • General Health and Safety Training – General Health and Safety training is sometimes delivered to whole employee populations. Health and Safety Theme of the Month was introduced at Skipton in 2019 and is an opportunity to build awareness and competence around safety topics that are likely to be relevant to everyone working at a site. Topics such as Fire Safety, Manual Handling, Personal Protective Equipment and Workplace Transport and Pedestrian Safety are just some of the topics which have been covered.
  • Subject Matter Experts – Across the Group there are many employees who are trained in specialist health and safety roles. These roles support the overall health and safety management system to enable risks to be controlled on a day-to-day basis. Examples of such roles are first aiders, fire wardens, and spillage responders. For each of these roles training is provided and this is refreshed according to the required frequency.
  • Post-accident reviews – following any accident the need for retraining is reviewed as part of the accident or incident investigation.