Development

A well trained and motivated workforce is the foundation on which our company is built. We want our employees to achieve their potential, further their careers and contribute to the continued success of the company. Lifelong learning and development opportunities are an important part of our strategy to retain our best employees. More information is available at our Careers portal.

Roche has a global talent management programme  to identify, develop, lead and reward employees consistently. We develop the potential of all employees to help us achieve our goal of being the leading healthcare company .

Roche invests millions of Francs every year in skills, training and education, including:

• Technical skills programmes to meet compliance requirements
• Language courses
• Interpersonal skills training
• Individual coaching and programmes on leadership and change management
• Apprenticeships.

Every Roche site has its own training and development programmes geared to local needs and resources, and in line with local legal and regulatory requirements. We provide global training programmes in a variety of areas such as people management and leadership at our training centre in Buonas, Switzerland.

Leadership development

A key focus of our development programmes is to identify and develop current and future leaders. As part of our succession planning, we continually review and recommend for promotion employees who show exceptional leadership qualities and strong performance. Roche Engage, our senior executive development programme for the top 350 managers across the Group, focuses on helping them apply their leadership skills and deliver our business goals.

Performance appraisal

Employees receive regular feedback on their performance and meet with managers to discuss training and development needs at annual performance appraisals. They work together with their managers to set out a personal development plan for the coming year.  

Our managers are accountable for staff performance and development, which has resulted in tighter management. This benefits both employees and Roche, as it allows us identify high performers while giving appropriate feedback to support all employees.

Employees are promoted to higher management positions on the basis of their leadership qualities and performance.

Apprenticeships

Roche is one of Switzerland’s largest and most successful providers of vocational training for young people, training over 3,000 people over the last 50 years. These apprenticeship programmes provide a pool of talented potential recruits for Roche and the wider industry. Many apprentices have gone on to build successful careers at Roche (we generally hire more than half of our apprentices when their training is complete). In addition to technical and professional qualifications, the training builds team working skills, social skills, and self confidence. In Switzerland and Germany we offer around 850 training places in more than 20 different professions.