Q&A with Roche Products' Andrew Armes

For those that don't already know, who are Roche?

A global personalised healthcare provider finding new medicines and diagnostics that help patients live longer, better lives and evolve the practice of medicine. 

 Our mission statement: "We believe it’s urgent to deliver medical solutions right now – even as we develop innovations for the future. We are passionate about transforming patients’ lives. We are courageous in both decision and action. And we believe that good business means a better world. That is why we come to work each day. We commit ourselves to scientific rigour, unassailable ethics, and access to medical innovations for all. We do this today to build a better tomorrow. We are proud of who we are, what we do, and how we do it. We are many, working as one across functions, across companies, and across the world. We are Roche."

What does being a Top Employer mean to you?

That we can accurately claim that we provide outstanding working conditions that allow our employees to bring their full brilliance to bear on the world.

What makes Roche a Top Employer?

Our commitment to our purpose, with a unified set of values, where personal agendas and egos are set aside in the interest of the collective helping to improve patient lives.

Which recent activities is the HR team most proud of? 

Innovation (and increased capability) in our recruitment and selection processes, increasingly focusing on self-awareness, potential and emotional intelligence as opposed to simply technical nous. See a detailed description of the work here.

What’s next for HR at Roche?

We are about to deliver (globally) a brand new HRIS System and more critically a set of global "people practices" that will dramatically empower employees, and remove them from the often time consuming and restrictive management processes that can slow innovation and limit co-creation and delivery. It will generate greater transparency across the world and provide even more opportunity for the collective employee potential to be unlocked.

What do you see in the future of HR?

Perhaps more in the future of business as a whole - but certainly something HR Professionals should be thinking about supporting - I see the demise of the job title and job description and simply hiring for alignment to purpose, mindset and flexibility. Workforces can then be mobilised on a project by project basis, where hierachy is limited, co-creation is competitive advantage, and the collective outcomes are in service of something much bigger than the individual.