PBN Best Places to Work 2020
ENTERPRISE COMPANIES 1. Amgen Inc.
Employees in R.I.: 832
Rhode Island Vice President of Site Operations Brian Britson
AMGEN INC. KNOWS that its greatest strengths are the people who work for it, and that their mission to serve patients helps make the West Greenwich-based biotechnology company a great place to work.
“What we do is important. Manufacturing complex biologics in a safe and quiet manner, it really takes all of us to have that unified mission,” Amgen Rhode Island Vice President of Site Operations Brian Britson said. “I think having the ability to have a profound positive impact on others is what unifies all of us.”
Britson said some of the values that represent Amgen’s culture include working collaboratively in teams and trying to ensure that everyone brings out the best in one another. Other values include competing to win, ethics, and trusting and respecting each other.
“At the heart of our culture are our Amgen Values that we live by every day,” Amgen Director of Human Resources Vera Tyagi said. “These values help to guide us in our collaborations with each other and in our communities and help us make the right decisions.”
Employee improvement is also an important part of Amgen. “We work diligently with staff to help provide them with opportunities to continue to enhance their technical skills and opportunities to explore different areas of the business,” Britson said.
One program that offers employees such opportunities is FUEL. It allows individuals to work within different divisions in the company. For example, employees may come work at the West Greenwich facility and then go to another site to give them a well-rounded experience. Talent rotation is another iniatative in which employees are hired from university programs and given opportunities to rotate through divisions in their first two years with the company.
“When they come out of that program, they’re able to pick and choose what they’d like to do next and it helps accelerate their growth,” Britson said.
“We don’t shy away from the talent that comes through our doors, we work very closely with our colleges,” Amgen Senior Manager of Corporate Affairs Tara Urban said.
Amgen also provides learning through employee resource groups, including a young professionals group. It helps employees who are early in their career get exposure to leaders within the company and help them get an understanding of what kind of leader they want to be.
The ERGs also help with promoting employee development, professional growth and inspiration. They also emphasize maintaining diversity and inclusion at Amgen.
“We put people who are different across countries, sexes, races and religion together to work toward one common goal: Getting medicine to patients, which ensures our mission to serve every patient, every time,” Britson said. “Diverse representation allows us to address issues and challenges with a wider range of perspectives, and approaches lead to more creative problem-solving and effective solutions.”
Amgen also provides resources to help address employee mental and physical health. One program, called Lyra, provides anonymous mental health support, and employees have access to live fitness classes and other resources, such as nutritionists.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Amgen learned a lot about workplace flexibility, and Britson thinks it will keep some of the modifications when the crisis lessens.
“We’ve had workplace flexibility programs in the past, but I think what this pandemic has allowed us to really realize is how successful we really can be while working in this flexible way,” Britson said. That includes more remote work and simplification of work processes.
Adaptability is important at Amgen as well, Urban said. As more employees are working from home, the company stepped up its efforts to help employees work comfortably and safely. With some help from the company, Urban recreated what she had at work in her home to help her work comfortably and not stress her back.
“We’re living in the times of COVID-19, and I think Amgen has been really strong in times that we’ve never lived in before,” Urban said.