How Chugai Pharma Europe Achieved 98% Career Conversation Completion
A timely and inclusive talent management initiative
Originally delivered by Talupp, a technology firm occasionally offering bespoke solutions, these projects are now part of Esendia’s distinct, consultancy-first approach, powered by Talupp’s Diagnostics platform.
Client: Chugai Pharma Europe (200 employees, UK, France, Germany)
Challenge: Replace the 9 Box Grid with an inclusive, scalable talent model for all employees
Solution: Esendia's 4 Career Stages Framework, delivered in three languages
Result: 98% career conversation completion rate; executive people reviews completed on time
Spokesperson: Sam Turner, Senior HR Business Partner, Chugai Pharma Europe
Why Chugai Pharma Moved Away from the 9 Box Grid
Chugai Pharma Europe is part of an innovative Japanese pharmaceutical company. With around 200 employees in the UK, France and Germany, it has the agility of a smaller company with the established support of its larger parent.
Sam Turner is Senior HR Business Partner at Chugai Pharma Europe. She joined the firm in 2022 and was given a key project to run. Her brief was to develop, launch and roll out a European approach to talent management. Previous work by the HR team, along with Chugai’s employee engagement survey results, highlighted why this was needed. As Turner explains, “It was clearly important to people, we were hearing that in the employee engagement survey and in exit interviews. We were losing people we didn’t want to lose. Some people were dissatisfied because they couldn’t see their potential next steps, which gave them a reason to think they would not want to spend a long time with us.” Turner saw a clear need for a practical, simple model, facilitating high-quality career conversations for all employees.
Turner recognised that she would benefit from external expertise. She had originally been introduced to Esendia (formerly Talupp) in relation to succession planning, but quickly realised that the team could be very helpful on the talent management project, as she explains: “We’re a small HR team of generalists. I wanted to get the Esendia team involved for their talent expertise. With their input, we could sense check our proposed model and then work to make it stick.”
How Esendia's 4 Career Stages Framework Was Implemented at Chugai
“We had previously used a nine-box grid talent identifier in some parts of the business, but wanted to move away from that approach to something that would clearly benefit all employees, not just those in a particular box,” explains Turner. “We needed to know what talent we had, and we needed to define what high potential means at Chugai. That meant looking at each person in the business and understanding their performance, skill sets and aspirations. We could then consider how to help them define their career with us. Esendia's expertise in talent management was valuable in sense-checking our approach and ensuring that it was clearly understood by employees and managers alike.”
In Europe, Chugai faced a challenge familiar to many small and medium-sized businesses: limited opportunity for career moves. “It’s not a huge business. Jumping up the hierarchy, as people may have done historically, is more difficult because we don’t have enough potential moves for people. That means we have to think more creatively, and that’s where Esendia helped”, explains Turner.
Esendia developed and ran training sessions and handouts for managers and employees, ensuring that they really understood our new ‘journey’ model of talent development. “We have a fairly long-serving workforce,” explains Turner. “Only a few of our European executive committee had previous experience of talent management and that meant many of our employees were unfamiliar with the concept too.
"Esendia created training sessions that explained what the new talent management approach was, why we were doing it and how it adds value. The new approach was not about putting people in boxes. It was about supporting constructive, two-way career conversations"
— Sam Turner, Senior HR Business Partner, Chugai Pharma Europe
Esendia delivered the training in three languages in the UK, France and Germany. One-hour sessions for employees helped prepare them to get the most out of their career conversations. For managers, a slightly longer session explained how to identify what development was right for their employees at different stages (Maintain | Support | Stretch | Move) of the four-step framework.
The HR teams also briefed executive teams in the three countries so they were aware of the process, the benefits, and what kinds of outputs they could expect. “We had quite a tight time frame,” explains Turner. “The executives wanted to have people reviews using the outputs of the individual career conversations by the end of the year. And we were only able to start the training and career conversations in September, an already busy period of the annual calendar. There was some push back from managers on the tight timeline, but we had strong endorsement from the top and that supported the completion on time.”
Measurable Outcomes: Results at Chugai Pharma Europe
The feedback on the training and associated materials from managers and employees at Chugai was very positive. The project secured a 98% completion rate for the career conversations. This meant that executives were able to conduct people reviews by the end of the year with accurate and timely data.
Turner explains that the quality of the training and associated materials was a key part of the success of the project: “The communications, training and materials were appropriate and accessible. The collateral Esendia developed was of a really high quality. Everyone coming out of the training knew exactly what they needed to do, and they had tools to do it. The simplicity of what we had created was appreciated. The whole thing was really well received.”
“It was good to have an external expert in talent management involved in the project. It gave some extra polish and gravitas to what we wanted to deliver. Working with Esendia we got a better and more professional outcome, and they helped us move things faster. The Esendia team were collaborative and receptive to our input, but they also challenged us, which we really appreciated.”
Key Results
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98% completion rate for career conversations across all employees
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Framework delivered in three languages: English, French and German
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Rolled out to 200 employees across UK, France and Germany
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Executive people reviews completed on time using career conversation data
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Managers and employees trained via one-hour structured sessions
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High quality completion despite tight September-to-December timeline
What Comes Next for Chugai
Following its initial success, Chugai is looking to embed the new talent management approach in its existing HR tools and processes. Turner is also scoping out the next project with Esendia, which is likely to look at programmes that support the people development needs identified in the career conversations.
"Working with Esendia was really flexible and centred on our needs. Their expertise and commitment helped us deliver something great"
— Sam Turner, Senior HR Business Partner, Chugai Pharma Europe
FAQ
How did Chugai Pharma Europe implement a talent management framework across three countries?
Chugai Pharma Europe worked with Esendia to develop and deploy a 4 Career Stages Framework across its UK, France and Germany operations. Esendia delivered training sessions in three languages, English, French and German, covering both employees and managers, and briefed executive teams in each country on expected outputs.
What results did Chugai Pharma achieve with Esendia's talent management framework?
The project achieved a 98% completion rate for career conversations across Chugai's 200 European employees. This enabled executive teams to conduct structured people reviews using accurate, timely data before the end of the year, delivered within a tight September-to-December timeline.
Why did Chugai Pharma move away from the 9 Box Grid?
Chugai had previously used a 9 Box Grid in parts of the business but found it only benefited employees in specific boxes rather than the whole workforce. They needed a model that gave all employees visibility of their career paths, defined what high potential meant at Chugai, and supported skills-based career conversations across a workforce with limited traditional promotion opportunities.
What is Esendia's 4 Career Stages Framework?
Esendia's 4 Career Stages Framework: Maintain, Support, Stretch and Move, is an inclusive alternative to the 9 Box Grid. Rather than placing employees in fixed performance and potential boxes, it maps each person's current career stage and informs what development or deployment makes sense next. It is co-designed for each organisation and delivered in the client's own language and culture.
How does Esendia support talent management in small and mid-sized businesses?
Esendia works with organisations that have limited internal HR resource or promotion opportunities, helping them build inclusive talent frameworks that work for all employees, not just high-potentials. At Chugai Pharma Europe, Esendia provided external expertise, training materials in three languages, and implementation support that a small generalist HR team could not have produced alone.