Showing an Impact: PULSE Annual Impact Report

Sometimes when I talk to people  about my work at GSK leading the PULSE Volunteer Partnership, I am met with a bit of skepticism: "Is this just a PR thing?  Why else would GSK send up to 100 of its best and brightest professionals each year to work full-time for up to 6 months with different non-profit organizations that are in need of specific expertise that these GSK professionals can offer?"  

Well, there are plenty of reasons why GSK has invested in PULSE since its launch in 2009—and these reasons become quite clear when reading our recently released PULSE Annual Impact Report. It’s not just about helping our non-profit partners and the communities they serve, though that’s a big reason. Perhaps our Global R&D Vaccines Chairman, Dr. Moncef Slaoui, said it best when asked about how PULSE has had an impact on GSK: PULSE Fellows “come back ignited from their experience. They benefit from it.  GSK benefits from it. And patients benefit from it. It’s a win-win- win. It’s remarkable.”

We’re really excited to share this year’s PULSE Annual Impact Report, which makes a strong case to all of those skeptics out there about why GSK is so passionately committed to PULSE.  It’s not just about doing good; it’s about doing good for our business too.

Some highlights include:

• 83% of our non-profit partners agreed that, as a result of the PULSE Fellow, their organization is doing something differently even six months after the PULSE assignment.
• PULSE Fellows are 21% more likely to change roles (through promotions, transfers and rotations) and 41% less likely to leave GSK as compared to the overall employee population in the same countries.
• A non-profit partner supervisor of PULSE Fellows, Ross Comstock, said: “The PULSE program has made us a more capable organization—stronger, faster, and smarter. PULSE has helped Direct Relief to save more lives around the world, ensuring we get the right aid, in the right hands, at the right time…”

And if this is what our PULSE Fellows were able to do working with Ross at Direct Relief, imagine what our nearly 400 GSK employees from 45 different countries who have volunteered with 85 nonprofits in 56 countries have collectively been able to do since our launch in 2009!  Hope you enjoy reading the report—and let us know what you think.