Science - USA (2021-10-29)

6 4 2 sciencecareers.org SCIENCE

FOCUS ON CAREERS

top employers

ADVERTISING FEATURE: Produced by the Science/AAAS Custom Publishing Office

“We surprise people with

how agile we are,” says

Vildan Kehr, divisional

vice president of human

resources for the rapid

and molecular diagnostics

division of Abbott (No. 11), a

multinational medical device

and health care company

with headquarters in Abbott

Park, Illinois. “With COVID,

we saw the calling. We had to

do something. In 3 months,

we built a factory to produce

COVID tests. There’s nothing

like this in history. But the

nation and people needed

u s .”

In overseeing Abbott’s

Global Surveillance Program,

a 26-year-old endeavor that

started after the company

developed the first U.S. Food

and Drug Administration

(FDA)-approved test

for HIV in 1985, Mary

Rodgers, principal scientist

in diagnostics, has been instrumental in supporting Abbott’s

COVID-19 tests. “It was challenging and overwhelming at times.

It typically takes 5 years for a test, and we launched 12 tests

globally since the start of the pandemic. But every test result is a

real person that gets to know about their health.” For Rodgers, the

stakes were especially high, given that her husband has a heart

issue. “The fact that I was able to contribute to a test that saved my

family is so meaningful to me and really surreal,” she says.

Of course, the top employers’ response to COVID-19 included

more than tests and vaccines. The pandemic also propelled

actions in corporate social responsibility, as these companies

invested in more proactive and strategic approaches to diversity,

equity, and inclusion (DEI); global climate change abatement

initiatives; and social justice stances.

Insmed is taking an overall perspective and examining every

corner of the company; it is now looking to reduce its carbon

footprint and environmental impact. Recent initiatives include

adding electric-vehicle charging stations in its parking lot and

evaluating food-waste curtailment measures. “We have an eye

toward being green,” says Schaeff er. Abbott is investigating the

environmental impacts of packaging to reduce plastic. Employees

at Incyte are empowered to make a diff erence with autonomy

and the ability to take ownership of a problem, which has led to

improved sustainability measures. “We realized that we had a

number of green initiatives in place, for example a green roof and

tanks for holding and recycling water, which we had not spoken

about formally and our employees were unaware of. In meetings,

people would ask, ‘Why aren’t we greener?’” shares Swain.

“So we decided to put a team in place to evolve and

people strategy off icer at Bridgewater, New Jersey–based Insmed

(No. 1). “We are a patient-centered, patient-driven culture.” Walter

Perkins, chief technology off icer at Insmed, explains the origin of

this tenet: “Our CEO said put the patient first, use that as your

compass, and everything will take care of itself in the business.”

To bring home this point, Insmed, like several top employers,

regularly invites patients to speak directly with the employees, an

eff ort that empowers its staff to more actively engage in furthering

the company’s mission of developing life-saving interventions

with patient outcomes in mind. “It is hard to understand how

devastating these diseases are, so to hear [patients’] intimate

stories of what they go through on a daily basis is striking,” says

Perkins.

The Top Employers Survey results reveal additional fascinating

finds: “Organizations that are seen as innovative leaders in the

industry, who easily adapt to change, who respect their employees,

have loyal employees, and are socially responsible, are selected

as best in class.” In fact, being an ‘innovative leader’ continues

to be the most powerful statistical driver of the selection of best

companies. Interestingly, this is the first time in 20 years that the

adaptability of a company is listed as paramount to the employee

experience, and one can guess that this is related to employers’

responses to the pandemic and COVID-19.

COVID-19 response

COVID-19 has been a nightmare for humanity, but it has also

brought out the very best of human ingenuity. Top employers

harnessed the diverse talents of a global human resources

pipeline and infrastructure to mobilize strategic responses.

2021

Rank

2

1

20

19

18

17

16

15

14

13

12

11

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

ó

15

19

16

13

17

7

18

12

5

14

11

6

8

9

4

10

1

3

Incyte (Wilmington, DE)

Insmed (Bridgewater, NJ)

Roche ó excluding Genentech (Basel, Switzerland)

Novartis (Basel, Switzerland)

Eli Lilly and Company (Indianapolis, IN)

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) (London, United Kingdom)


 (New York, NY)

Novo Nordisk (BagsvÊrd, Denmark)

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (Tokyo, Japan)

AbbVie (North Chicago, IL)

Biocon Limited (Bangalore, India)

Abbott (Abbott Park, IL)

Genentech (South San Francisco, CA)

Merck KGaA (Darmstadt, Germany)

Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Boston, MA)

Moderna (Cambridge, MA)

Syngenta Group (Basel, Switzerland)

Spark Therapeutics (Philadelphia, PA)

Regeneron (Tarrytown, NY)

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA)

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

ï

2020

Rank

Innovative leader

in the industry

Treats employees

with respect

Is socially

responsible

Has loyal

employees

Easily adapts

Employer (global headquarters) to change

Top Twenty Employers

The 20 companies with the best reputations as employers and the top three driving characteristics for each company, according to respondents in the 2021 survey undertaken for the Science/AAAS







    






























cont.> IMAGE: © PEDRONEVESDESIGN/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

1029Recruitment_RC.indd 642 10/25/21 1:00 PM