Axol Bioscience improve employee NPS by 57% since using Mo
“The whole purpose of all these things at Axol has been to drive mental health and wellbeing, which then drives engagement.”
Liam Taylor, CEO, Axol Bioscience
Overview
Axol Bioscience is the leading provider of product and service solutions within an area of neuroscience called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC). This involves immune cell and cardiac modelling for drug discovery and screening markets.
We spoke with Liam Taylor, CEO, and Sonya Ansell, Head of HR at Axol Bioscience, to find out how they have been using Mo.
After completing a merger in 2021, communication between teams and across sites along with collaborative ways of working, required improvement. Employee engagement was not where the Leadership Team needed it to be and without a huge rewards budget, finding an employee recognition platform where rewards were optional was essential. It was also important to find a solution in which everyone across the company could participate.
Background
After their staff worked through the pandemic as key workers and then transitioned to remote working, Axol found it difficult to get their messages of recognition across with the same sincerity as if they were face-to-face.
Not only that, but Liam found that the wellbeing of his team was suffering due to the impact of the pandemic. Axol also faced the challenge of retaining its key talent and improving collaboration and communication after the merger in 2021. After taking a holistic approach to understanding what was going on, Liam found that there was a clear need for a positive solution for the whole organisation.
The team found that in their industry, recognition for work and success is equally as valuable as a monetary reward given their type of employees, who are largely PhD-level scientists who do complex work and problem-solving.
With that in mind, it was important for Sonya and Liam to find an employee recognition solution that fit the size of their organisation, could help them achieve their goals and offered exactly what their employees wanted from a recognition program.
When Sonya found Mo, she knew it was the right fit for Axol, “Other employee recognition platforms on the market are better suited to larger organisations. They’re almost robotic in their approach, whereas Mo has the ability to make it what you want for your organisation”.
Once Sonya and Liam got the leadership team onboard, they found it very easy to implement Mo, and their workforce really welcomed the platform. “We don’t need to remind people to use Mo, it’s so ingrained in them now, and they do use it regularly”.
“Mo is a positive platform, and we can shape the narrative and influence how we behave just by demonstrating those core behaviours and values we all sign up to every day when we walk into Axol.”
Liam Taylor, CEO, Axol Bioscience
Results
Axol wanted a platform that could demonstrate where people were adhering to the company values. Mo was able to provide that tangible audit trail which means Axol can see and measure how their company values are being lived on a routine basis. It was important to the Leadership Team that the platform allowed employees to be seen, heard and listened to, and Mo offers that.
Axol also used Mo to help improve the leadership culture within the organisation. Some thought it would be like Big Brother watching. However, Sonya successfully demonstrated that Mo is a constructive platform for celebrating successes, big and small.
Sonya also noted that Axol achieved the goal of improving employee engagement with the help of Mo. With the team at Axol spread across two sites, it can be challenging at times, but with Mo, everyone in the company can participate and come together. Liam said, “With Mo, you’re praising others and not yourself, so again, it reinforces the need for collaboration”.
Liam and Sonya both agreed that Mo has helped achieve their goal of improving communication and collaboration between the different sites. Sonya explained, “I feel that Mo has really benefited us. Our NPS score was 0 at the beginning of the year, in June it was 43.2 and our most recent employee engagement survey showed an NPS score of 68. Mo has categorically had an impact on our organisation!”
Sonya sent out a full employee engagement survey at the end of 2022 and she and Liam were absolutely delighted to achieve 85% employee engagement across the organisation. The survey provider stated that this is unheard of in their experience during the first year of completing a full employee engagement survey. This further confirms that the changes in the organisation and benefits introduced, including Mo, have had a positive impact on the workplace and culture. As a result of this amazing score, Axol Bioscience was awarded an Outstanding Workplace 2022 award.
