Roche Diagnostics Reviews

Pros

Great work environment for professional stimulation. Will raise your professional bar.
Products are well respected in the industry, both with customers and competitors.

Cons

Management can seem a bit standoffish at critical times.
Politics is the word of the day at Roche. If you're politically savvy, you'll go far there. Of course that could be the case with any company, but it plays out more openly at Roche, in my opinion.

Advice to Senior Management

Management could do more to support employee growth in current and prospective positions. I believe ambitious employees will be able to see greater upward mobility if management were to support professional development for a prospective role.

Pros

Great pay, benefits and working environment.

Cons

Extremely political environment. If you were not a major brown noser, you were not advanced. Only those that either kept their mouths shut or cleaned the bosses office were given opportunities to shine. Providing outstanding performance was not enough, except to keep your job.

Advice to Senior Management

Get over the FDA requirements and figure out what they require and how to provide it.

Pros

The only reason to work here is to get a good foundation and understand the methods of a proven player within the biotech/pharma industry.

Cons

The team I worked with was awesome but there is no communication between middle management on project status. One day we are working on a particular project and the next day we switch and just to keep things interesting we switch back on the third day. Too reactive and not proactive. Maybe its the lack of resources and the fact that decisions are made by a bunch of suits that have no clue about the actual work and only care about the bottom line.

Advice to Senior Management

Please stop hiring contractors. There are too many. And please understand that employees that are continuously working under the assumtion they will be let go at any moment will not commit to roche the way you expect. The employee makes the company.

Pros

Good company, fantastic products, good packages and perks, free to work the way u want but have to produce results, which is fair enough!!

Cons

No road map for growth of any individual.

Advice to Senior Management

None

Pros

Benefits package is one of the best I've experienced. Freedom to do your job, Fair amount of freedom to do the job (though, see caveat below).Spread out campus allows you to get up and stretch when needed.

Cons

Far too encumbered by self-induced delays and hindrances. Too much excuse-making of the FDA inhibiting advancement, when the main causes are internal. Very political culture - it's often who you know. The pro's of freedom to do your job is countered by having many 'fiefdoms' where local 'tyrants' rule by holding a critical position.

Advice to Senior Management

You have done a good job in providing the vision and organizational structure needed to advance. There are some areas, esp. in R&D, that have been allowed to build mini empires, to the detriment of company performance and cohesion. The R&D management staff has not been changed at all in the past five years, though everything around them has changed - does that make sense? Beware of those just saying what you want to hear!

Pros

Compensation, people, culture, severance, pension

Cons

Direction changes too frequent and too often. Too conservative

Pros

Benefits are excellent. I am sure they are one of the best in the company. Lot of different opportunities available for growth

Cons

Advancement is based on a who you know basis. Your hard work better be extra special if you want to get notice because if you do great work and "joe' does good work, "joe" will get the position cause he knows "BILL"

Advice to Senior Management

Upper Management is great! These guys are always improving and making things happen with the company to encourage growth and employment. Its the people who are in supervision positions with the egos.

Pros

Fantastic Benefits that stack up with any company in health industry
Understanding and Caring Management that provide feedback and guidance
Fun Employees that are good at what they do

Cons

Some disconnect between Marketing fields with so many people working on individual projects

Advice to Senior Management

Look at some of the internal employees for job promotions / full-time hiring

Pros

Successful company in a dynamic global business. If you come prepared to work you will succeed. Challenge is provided and encouraged. Senior Management dipped recently but appears to be improving now.

Cons

Difficult regulatory environment, product portfolio unsteady, lack a senior management decision making.

Advice to Senior Management

Make some of the hard decisions expected of your elevated position.

Pros

- Good pay
- Good overall benefits package
- Smart people
- Large company environment (a pro and con)
- Inept senior leadership in some areas

Cons

- Very little recognition of work/life balance. I have noticed others pointing to this as a "pro". Not at all the case in my department so obviously varies by business unit/department. Sr. management used to at least give this lip service, now does not even mention it. In fact was told some time ago that the "expectation" was that everyone should be working at least 50-60 hours/week.
- Significantly underresourced - both with budget and people - for the things the company wants to accomplish. We move forward with intiaitives that are bound to fail because there is not enough money or time to do them right.
- Very "old school". Little innovation happening. When innovation or a new approach is proposed, it is like pushing a large boulder up a hill to get understanding and buy-in.
- Very few opportunities for advancement once you reach a certain level.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire in the appropriate areas. You are burning out very good people in the areas you need them most.
Recognize and appreciate diversity of genders, roles and areas of expertise. Not everyone wants to fit the traditional, stoic company mold of rotation, promotion, rotation, promotion. You may find those that don't "conform" to the old, traditional norm are your most valuable assets.