(Philadelphia, PA - May 31, 2005) Industry scientists ranked Genentech in South San Francisco, CA as first among large companies and Tec Laboratories in Albany, Oregon as first among smaller companies in The Scientist's 3rd Annual Best Places to Work in Industry survey.
Landing second in this year's assessment among larger companies was Iowa-based Pioneer Hi-Bred International followed closely by Amgen Inc. (Thousand Oaks, CA), while Transform Pharmaceuticals in Lexington and Infinity Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA) held the second and third place positions among smaller firms.
Nearly 1,600 scientists working in biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies in the USA, Canada, and Western Europe assessed their work environments in this year's survey of the "Best Places to Work in Industry: 2005." A total of 56 companies received at least 4 responses. Ranked companies were categorized as...
Satisfying work was the most important factor to scientists, regardless of location or size, Employees also said that companies that made them feel appreciated and had high ethical standards were important, as were colleagues that do their jobs with integrity and professionalism. These were the ultimate factors when it came to a meaningful corporate experience.
"This year's survey once again proves that a sense of personal worth and appreciation from the employer is essential to a satisfying professional experience, as is a sense contributing to company and societal goals", says Richard Gallagher, editor and publisher of The Scientist. "Monetary benefits alone will not satisfy."
There were some differences in the response of employees based in the US versus those who worked outside the US. Ethics placed high on the list of key factors for US scientists than for those located elsewhere, which may due in part to recent corporate scandals and cases of mismanagement.
"I think that it's starting to affect employees in our sector," explains Dr. Cynthia Robbins-Roth, author of Alternative Careers in Science: Leaving the Ivory Tower. "For all of us as life scientists, we are very well aware that biology is incredibly complex, and that there are always some things you're not going to know about a product until it's out there in enough people, but you like to think that the company in general is taking a positive ethical stance." In addition to a company's sense of ethics, healthcare benefits also proved crucial in the US, being ranked as the third most important factor in worker satisfaction, in contrast to Canadian and European employees who ranked benefits as a much lower priority.
The full text of the article, survey results, and methodology are available online to The Scientist subscribers. Members of the press who would like to access the full article text should contact BPTW_industry@the-scientist.com. For more information about The Scientist's Best Places to Work surveys, please visit us at http://www.the-scientist.com/bptw/bptw_home.
BPTW Industry 2005: Top Ten Large Companies
1. Genentech (South San Francisco, CA)
2. Pioneer Hi-Bred International (Johnston, Iowa)
3. Amgen Inc (Thousand Oaks, CA)
4. Novo Nordisk (Denmark)
5. Pfizer (New York, NY)
6. Merck & Co. (Whitehouse Station, NJ)
7. Bristol-Myers Squibb (New York, NY)
8. Abbott Laboratories (Abbott Park, Illinois)
9. Monsanto Company (St. Louis, MO)
10. GlaxoSmithKline (UK)
BPTW Industry 2005: Top Ten Small Companies
1. Tec Laboratories, Inc. (Albany, Oregon)
2. TransForm Pharmaceuticals (Lexington, MA)
3. Infinity Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA)
4. Promega Corporation (Madison, WI)
5. Diversa (San Diego, CA)
6. Asterand Inc. (Detroit, MI)
7. Biogen Idec (Cambridge, MA)
8. Lexicon Genetics (The Woodlands, TX)
9. IatroQuest Corporation (Quebec)
10. Exelixis Inc. (South San Francisco, CA)
About The Scientist, LLC
The Scientist, a leading news magazine for life scientists, was founded in 1986. It is distributed in print and electronically. It was the first continuously published science publication on the Internet. The print version is distributed to over 70,000 life science researchers in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe. For more information about The Scientist, visit: www.the-scientist.com.
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