Amgen Singapore Manufacturing Recognized
as One of Singapore’s Employers of Choice
SINGAPORE (January 15, 2020) – Established five years ago, Amgen Singapore Manufacturing (ASM) has grown its presence and is now recognized as one of Singapore’s employers of choice – having received the 1 Great Place to Work® and 2 Great Place to Learn™ certifications as well as the SkillsFuture Employer Award recently.
A biotechnology innovator since 1980, Amgen has grown to be one of the world's leading independent biotechnology companies. Since 2011, Amgen has expanded its geographic presence from approximately 50 to 100 countries, enabling the company to play a growing role in serving the rapidly increasing demand for better healthcare around the world.
“Our culture is what makes Amgen a special place to work. We have a powerful mission – to serve patients and a set of values that emphasize patients, science, ethics, trust and respect,” said Emily Razaqi, Vice President, Site Operations at ASM. “With millennials poised to make up the majority of the workforce by 2025, understanding what motivates and keeps them engaged will continue to remain key for Amgen in attracting and retaining the best talents. This is crucial as the required skill sets for Singapore’s workforce are now more diverse than ever – with digital transformation and emerging technologies reshaping and disrupting industries at an accelerated pace. Lifelong learning is the future of work.”
“To continue growing as a leading global enterprise and to deliver medicines for patients, we not only take pride in being an industry-leading, family-friendly place to work but also in building an agile workforce. We also invest in a diverse, inclusive environment that enables our employees to stay relevant and future-ready. Amgen is proud to play an integral role to create a positive work culture, to champion employees’ skills development and to build a lifelong learning workplace culture in alignment with Singapore’s national agenda. To be recognized with three awards is a positive affirmation that we are on the right track in creating a progressive workplace that unlocks the best in our people,” she added.
“Being certified as a Great Place to Work® recognizes an organization’s efforts to build a high-trust workplace culture for its employees. We commend Amgen and its leadership for their ongoing commitment to listen to and act on employee feedback to create positive changes in the workplace including a culture that promotes physical safety, collaboration across departments, and camaraderie in the workplace,” shared Evelyn Kwek, Managing Director of Great Place to Work® Singapore.
A. AWARDS AND CERTIFICATIONS
1. Great Place to Work® Certification: Awarded by the Great Place to Work® Institute, the Great Place to Work® certification is considered the “Gold Standard” in identifying and recognizing great workplace cultures. ASM joins a host of leading organizations in the ‘medium and large’ workplace category, as one of Singapore’s employer of choice. This is a testament of Amgen’s commitment in building a positive workplace culture that supports diversity and inclusion, work-life balance and rewarding careers.The company’s certification follows the completion of the 2019 Great Place to Work® Trust Model© employee survey where employees were asked about the aspects of credibility, respect, fairness, pride and camaraderie. ASM employees rated the company at or above the benchmark of other top Asia biopharmaceutical companies on over 85% of the items surveyed. At least 7 in 10 Amgen employees have had consistent, positive experiences with their leaders and colleagues, their work and the work environment. They also recognized their workplace as one that consistently demonstrated the characteristics of a supportive learning environment, including providing a physically safe workspace, supportive leaders, cooperative and committed co-workers, and individual employees who have a desire to improve their skills and share knowledge for the good of their team and organization. Employees also felt respected by the management in terms of professional support and involvement in decisions, and took great pride in their individual impact, the work of their team and the company.
2. Great Place to LearnTM Certification: ASM received its second consecutive Great Place to Learn™ certification, in recognition of its efforts to foster a positive learning and high-performance workplace culture that enhances workforce skilling and business transformation. The Great Place to Learn™ certification was developed in conjunction with SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) to recognize enterprise achievements in promoting continuous learning and innovation. This is in line with the national SkillsFuture agenda to encourage enterprises to promote continuous learning and innovation in the workplace to enhance individual skills mastery and business agility to weather disruptions.
3. SkillsFuture Employer Awards 2019: Presented by the President of the Republic of Singapore, ASM is a proud recipient of the SkillsFuture Employer Awards 2019 (non-SME category). This prestigious award honors exemplary organizations that champion employees’ skills development and build a lifelong learning culture at the workplace. A national movement to provide Singaporeans with the opportunities to develop their fullest potential, the SkillsFuture movement drives Singapore's next phase of development towards an advanced economy and inclusive society. The award acknowledges ASM’s efforts in creating a high impact learning environment, where employees are equipped with necessary vocational skills for their career success and where development opportunities are created for employees to grow and evolve professionally.
B. OTHER KEY AMGEN TALENT DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES
“At Amgen, we are strong believers of investing in our people to help them stay relevant and future-ready. We regularly meet with employees to uncover their career interests and goals so that we can tailor our talent development programs to the individual. By doing so, we are building an agile workforce equipped with the right talent and skills to support our evolving business and to fulfill Singapore’s aspirations to become Asia’s premier hub for the biomedical industry. Ultimately, we know that these efforts will make a greater positive difference in the lives of our patients in Singapore and around the world,” said Jessica Simpson, Director of Human Resources at ASM.
Since its opening in 2014, ASM has grown its workforce by more than 450% to over 350 employees. As the biotechnology industry evolves, Amgen remains committed to talent development programs that champion continuous learning to advance a local pipeline of highly-skilled biomanufacturing talents. These include:
• Industry-Manpower Development Programs Through Project ZODIAC, DNA and Local BOOST Programs
ASM is an active participant in developing a pipeline of skilled specialists for Singapore's biologics manufacturing sector through industry manpower development programs such as Project ZODIAC (through Biopharmaceutical Manufacturers' Advisory Council (BMAC), Development and Apprenticeship (DNA) and Local BOOST (Local Biologics Skills Training)).
ASM actively participates in partnerships with SSG, Workforce Singapore (WSG), Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) and Singapore Polytechnic (SP) to drive structured talent development programs for employees/participants to attain the required certification and the necessary skills and competencies they need, supporting and contributing to the Skills Framework for biopharmaceuticals manufacturing. To date, 11 DNA, 19 BOOST and 51 Project ZODIAC employees have gone through the programs through ASM.
• FUEL Your Potential Program
The ‘FUEL Your Potential’ program is an 18-month global Operations talent development program to develop Operations employees for key roles. Employees are rotated through different assignments across global Amgen offices to build skill sets and learn from different cultural approaches. Efforts include on-the-job development, job rotations, mentoring, career development resources and structured learning. This holistic learning approach not only enables Amgen to develop talents but empowers employees on their career progression. To date, four Amgen Singapore employees have gone through or are currently undergoing the global FUEL program.
o Amgen Early Career Professionals (AECP) Employee Resource group
AECP brings Amgen professionals in the first three years of their careers together to broaden their knowledge and build career development opportunities. Through informative lunches, learning sessions and coffee chats with the leadership teams, AECP serves as a platform for networking and mentorship across functions and hierarchies.
o WE2 (Women Empowered to be Exceptional)
An employee resource group, WE2 enables all team members (women and men) to leverage each other's unique and diverse talents to deliver exceptional results that positively impact Amgen’s workforce, business and community. These are achieved through support and interest groups, networking events, coaching and mentorships, and workshops that encourage learning beyond employees’ job roles.