The pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK - formerly Smith Kline Beecham) had a number of quite large offices in Hertfordshire, Essex, Surrey and Sussex as well as in the London area and a decision had been taken to collocate all the facilities at one site in Harlow.

Building work was progressing apace and we were asked by Tony Farrell, HR Director of the company, to assist with the move. In particular he was preoccupied by the fact that many staff were quite open about the fact that they were loath to move from their homes in, say the leafy lanes of Surrey or the spontaneous atmosphere of London, in order to relocate to Harlow – perceived as bleak, depressing and dull.

The problem was compounded by the fact that if they chose not to relocate most staff would easily be able to find jobs with one of the many other pharma companies located in the south east of England. And if this happened it would create very real and serious recruitment problems for GSK.

• We visited the GSK Epsom facility and discussed with Mr Farrell and his team what to do. As the Harlow project was well underway and was certainly not going to be abandoned we suggested a two pronged initiative aimed at the hearts, minds and wallets of the GSK staff to try to persuade them to actively consider moving with the company to the Harlow area.
• The 'hearts and minds initiative' was directed at trying to change the perceptions of staff about the Harlow area. Harlow itself was undeniably not the most attractive place in the world but the reality was that few GSK staff were likely to choose to live there anyway. In all probability they would choose to live in one of the many attractive small towns in the area or in some of the beautiful Hertfordshire or Essex countryside within easy travelling distance of the new Harlow HQ.
• We mooted the idea of producing a high quality pictorial publication for staff with the title of 'Lifestyles Around Harlow' aimed at illustrating the wide variety of attractive areas which staff could choose to live in.
• This was approved and we designed, produced and wrote the guide in close collaboration with the GSK graphics department. The guide was separated into six pull out sheets covering; 'towns and areas to live', 'education', 'the countryside', 'every kind of interest', 'the sporting scene' and 'names & addresses you may need' and it was heavy on colour photography.
• The guides were distributed to all GSK facilities where they were freely available as 'take ones' in all offices, reception areas and rest rooms. They proved to be very popular to the extent that we had to order a re-run as stocks were being depleted so quickly.
• We decided to focus the 'wallets initiative' through the medium of the relocation support package for staff. GSK already had a relocation policy which we obtained approval to re-write. The range of options and benefits were improved and the overall package made as flexible as possible to try to fit the many different individual sets of circumstances that staff would be in.
• Again we encapsulated the new policy in a smart A5 size binder divided into a total of eighteen sections and covering the complete range of services, benefits and options open to staff if they accepted the offer to relocate at the company's expense.