Customer delight

Case studies

360-degree feedback programme

ICON plc is a global provider of outsourced development services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. In the eight years that ICON and ETS have worked together, ICON has grown from 400 to 6,600 employees and it is growing quickly. ETS’ flexible solutions have evolved to anticipate the needs of this fast-paced organisation.

ICON management work across regions and divisions in 71 locations in 38 countries. The programme means they now get feedback from across their global networks. Sarah King, Project Analyst for Strategic Human Resources, who delivered the new global 360-degree feedback programme, said:

The aim of our 360 appraisal is to reinforce the behaviours and competencies that are important to our leaders at ICON. The appraisal is a key contributor to the overall performance review process.

One of the major challenges to the global rollout of this initiative was the import and export of data into and out of the system. To address this ETS created a system that manages large volumes of staff information across multiple regions and divisions. The system allows co-ordinators to create their own relevant participant groupings which facilitates the local management of the process.

Sarah King had this to say about the need for administrative simplicity:

Having a single 360 programme meant that we could streamline the process and work to one set of guidelines globally. The ETS solution means I am able to facilitate a global programme, working with co-ordinators who can manage the participant process locally.

Commenting on working with ETS, Sarah King said:

We were under pressure to produce a system to tight timelines however we were very happy with the flexibility shown by ETS from a technical and customer service perspective. They stepped in and always made it a priority to solve any issue, whatever the notice.