Alcon Ireland - Great Place to Work

Alcon Ireland successfully certified for the second time as a ‘Great Place To Work’ and reaching number 22 on the ‘Best Workplaces’ List.

Alcon is the global leader in eye care, dedicated to helping people see brilliantly. With our 70-plus-year heritage, we are the largest eye care device company in the world. Providing high quality employment in Cork for the past thirty years. The Cork site manufactures Alcon’s leading surgical products, AcrySof® and Clareon® intraocular lenses (IOLs) and associated lens delivery devices.

Alcon truly believes that people are our greatest asset. Building a culture of inclusivity is one of our priorities and we are proud to have 25 nationalities represented in our 500 strong workforce.

Official sponsors of the 2020 LGBTQ+ Pride Celebrations, Alcon is committed to equality for all. With 25 nationalities, diversity and inclusion (D&I) is a cornerstone at Alcon overseen by a sub-group of employees called D&I Champions, who plan and host many events each year to bring people together, ensuring everyone is included and all ideas are welcome and valued. A culture of inclusivity is fostered through one of the many D&I societies such as the ‘Women at the table ‘group. Who meet regularly to discuss issues of relevance to women and offer vital support network. The culture at Alcon inspires our employees to excel in their own professional development. Promoting Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) subjects internally and within industry, particularly for females, by participating in Junior Achievement, STEAM in UCC, STEM South West events and by being official sponsors of the UCC Science Society. We continue to work and focus on our site culture where employees can be their best.

Alcon believe that in embracing and developing local talent and actively partner with the Munster Technological University, University College Cork, Tyndall Institute, IBEC Skillnet & Springboard to annually support on average 30 people in furthering their education each year.

We invest heavily in our employee’s development and engagement expanding our strategy to harness our culture, with employee wellness programme such as trained Mental Health First Aiders, onsite occupational Nurse as well as online GP consultations, online Fitness & Yoga, onsite gym facilities and financial and nutrition webinars. Alcon also has an active Sports and Social team who arranged many activities throughout the year including virtual quizzes, raffles and competitions. Alcon is proudly committed to discovering new ways to improve the lives of our local community through our annual “Alcon in Action” day. These annual events give employees the opportunity to dedicate their work day to volunteer in the local communities where they live and work. These extremely popular ‘hands-on’ events are organised and managed by our employees directly. Since 2011, over 440 Alcon employees have collaborated with 22 local organizations, donating 5,000+ man-hours and €103,000+ to projects close to their hearts.

Alcon Ireland is a company that looks after its people, supports the local economy and most importantly helps people all over the world to see brilliantly.

• Awarded Irish Medtech Company of the Year in 2019 by Irish Medtech • Shortlisted for the Apprenticeship of the Year award in 2020 and the

Women in Leadership award in 2020 through Irish Medtech. • Achieved Great Place to Work accreditation in 2019–2020 & 20202021. Ranked 22nd of the Best Large

Workplaces in Ireland in 2021. • Awarded multiple Alcon R&D

Excellence awards, HR awards and

QA awards for excellence.

IN ThE ChAIR

with Michelle Buckley, HR Site Head, Alcon Ireland

What sets Alcon’s culture apart?

Building a culture of inclusivity is one of our top priorities here at Alcon, and we are proud to have 25 nationalities represented in our 500+ strong workforce. We are committed to enhancing our culture with the support of our employees and together have implemented many programs to drive engagement such as the Associate Collaboration Team, HR SME Program, Quality Champion Program and the Diversity and Inclusion Champion Group. Our multiple communication and engagement forums have enabled two-way communication resulting in a culture that’s built on a foundation of collaboration and trust. What truly sets Alcon’s culture apart is that we listen to our people and build the Alcon culture together.

how has Alcon sustained and developed its culture?

The Great Place to Work model has been a perfect vehicle to help drive engagement and enhance the Alcon culture. In December 2018, we began our Great Place to Work journey as we believed this dovetailed nicely with our employee engagement strategy. In 2019 we were the proud recipient of this prestigious award and maintained the accreditation in 2020. Being recognised as a Great Place to Work by our employees is something we are passionate about and intend to continue prioritizing. Our Great Place to Work team have worked on many actions borne from suggestions and feedback from our employees to enhance the Alcon culture. Such suggestions include the implementation of a Sports and Social club, enhancements to the reward, recognition and communication programs including installation of internet cafes, video messaging boards across the campus and the introduction of Pod meetings in conjunction with weekly video messages (Vlogs). With our continued focus on engagement, not only are we a certified Great Place to Work but this year we made it onto the Best Large Workplaces list in Ireland for the first time!

What benefits have you seen to enhanced wellbeing support to employees?

Now more than ever, employees need support, and at Alcon we offer a wide range of wellbeing provisions to employees and their families. In conjunction with our Health Care Provider to both our employees and their families, our trained onsite Mental Health First Aiders are available across all shifts, providing support to employees when needed. This program has been a meaningful support for all, in particular, over the last 12 months.

Complementing the Alcon Employee Assistance Program and our onsite Occupational Health Nurse, we are committed to the social wellbeing of our people. Employees have an active Sports and Social team who regularly host virtual quizzes, competitions and online events with regular care packages sent directly to employee’s homes to boost morale and connect all our people to the Alcon network. The Alcon Step Challenge, online exercise classes and Operation Transformation incentives also promote daily physical activity while having some fun and injecting some healthy competition too.

How has Alcon adapted & supported remote working?

The pandemic has driven change in all areas, with many employees and leaders now working remotely for the very first time. Alcon has recognised the complexities of this new way of working and has responded to those challenges by dialing up supports for those working from home with initiatives such as weekly company wide communications, virtual tea breaks and skip level 1 on 1’s.

Additional supports to bolster our remote workforces has included Building Mental Resilience workshops, webinars on nutrition and finances, parenting 1 to 1’s, managing remote teams, GP online services and DSE assessments for all employees working off site part time or full time.

Effective communication is difficult but essential for achieving a high trust culture. What advice do you have for others?

At Alcon, effective transparent communication is fundamental to building a high trust culture. My advice to others would be to implement a structured communication plan. It is crucial to be familiar with what is being communicated, to whom, when and how. Secondly, timing is everything. It is vital that all employees receive the same message at the same time to ensure message clarity, transparency and engagement.

Finally, Communication is important but actively listening is essential to success. At Alcon, we hold weekly leader calls where we align on multiple topics. Providing leaders with an opportunity to provide feedback and engage in meaningful discussion with their peers, while also ensuring that the same message is delivered at the same time, to all parties.

In addition, the leadership team regularly meet with the Associate Collaboration Team (ACT), to discuss suggestions and feedback from employees and together we work as a team to implement these suggestions to make Alcon a great place to work.

What practical advice would you give a leadership team on how engage their employees?

The key to meaningfully engaged employees who are consistently motivated is to talk to them. My practical advice would be to become more available to employees, be present in their work areas so they can talk to you when they need to. Truly practicing an ‘Open Door Policy’ means putting the work in, showing employees that you are available and willing to receive feedback.

Finally, I suggest that you make it a priority to discover how your people prefer to receive feedback, how they want to be recognized, what they value most about the culture and environment and what they are most passionate about. You will only find this out by talking directly with your employees. In other words, leaders must walk the walk and create an environment where employees can bring their whole selves to work and perform at their best.