Fostering a Purpose-Driven Culture: We are honored to be featured for the forth year in a row on Boston Business Journal's Best Places to Work List.

Foundation Medicine is a mission-centric company with a strong set of values that drive our people-first culture and enable employees to do their best work. For the third consecutive year, we are proud to be recognized by the Boston Business Journal (BBJ) as one of the Best Places to Work, alongside other leading organizations from across Boston. This award recognizes companies that go above and beyond to foster meaningful work environments for their employees – but more importantly, it reflects how our employees feel about working at Foundation Medicine.

Personally, as I enter my second year as Chief People Officer at Foundation Medicine, I am humbled to be part of a company that leads by example, puts people first, and encourages employees to bring their whole selves to work. We work tirelessly to create a diverse and inclusive environment, embrace our differences, and support each other so that together, we can uncover new innovations and advance precision medicine to help more people living with cancer.

As an organization, we are committed to delivering the best possible experience for the patients, physicians, and researchers we serve, and my goal is to embody that customer-centric mindset with our people. 

As I reflect on this milestone, and look at how we can continuously improve our employee experience, I see a few important opportunities:  

Creating personalized employee experiences with ANDEngage

We are committed to creating personalized, differentiated experiences for employees in order to foster a welcoming and supportive work environment. We do this by offering programming and benefits that enable professional growth and engage employees in unique and flexible ways, and by cultivating a culture focused on productivity, connection, belonging and community. To put these principles into practice, we align to our unique ANDEngage strategy focused on Attracting, Nurturing, Developing, and Engaging our employees so they can do their best work and bring their whole selves to work, every day.

I have seen first-hand throughout the pandemic how teams and employees at all levels have stepped up to support each other and our business during such challenging times. As a leadership team, we took time to understand how the pandemic impacted each of us and our teams. We recognized that employees were able to get great work done and deliver on our business goals while having greater flexibility and working from home. And while we had a flexible work policy pre-pandemic, we're now establishing a hybrid environment because we recognize that everyone’s needs are different, and we want to offer the flexibility to address that.  

We also know that balancing work and family responsibilities has caused added stress for employees, so we’ve identified additional benefits to support them, such as expanding flexible work arrangements, increasing our paid sick time, adding an annual one-week holiday shutdown or floating winter break, and introducing summer Fridays.  

Further, we’re committed to prioritizing employees’ overall well-being by offering a robust family support program that includes generous parental leave, expanded access to the Ovia Health app, and an onsite working parent community group. We also encourage mindfulness and meditation through the Headspace app, and are preparing to launch a comprehensive mental health benefit with Lyra which will expand access to resources, coaches and counselors. We also strive to foster an environment of well-being and continuous learning by supporting our people’s professional development and personal passions.  

Beyond implementing new benefits and initiatives to Attract, Nurture and Develop our people, we are constantly looking for ways to keep teams engaged and connected to our values and mission. Our #Gratitude program allows employees to recognize each other or “send” kudos for work that supports our corporate strategy and exemplifies our organizational values. I’m proud to share that we collectively sent more than 228,441 recognition moments to colleagues last year. 

Fostering a sense of belonging for all employees  

Our ongoing commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) is a critical effort that is embedded in all our goals. We are dedicated to increasing diversity within our organization, and prioritizing initiatives that create a sense of inclusion for all employees.

This past year, we hosted a DE&I Fair featuring experts speaking on topics such as allyship and healthcare disparities. We’re also hosting learning sessions designed to address cancer disparities in the LGBTQ+ community, gender identity, and pronoun etiquette. And we’ve instituted “Leaders Live” sessions, where our executives hold discussions with national and local thought leaders on social justice issues and how to identify and address unconscious bias. 

I’m excited and encouraged by our efforts in this area, but I know there is more work to be done. In the coming months we’ll launch our first DE&I annual report showcasing some of the great work we have accomplished and areas we can grow and expand upon. We believe diversity of perspectives makes us a stronger organization, which ultimately allows us to advance our mission to transform cancer care.  

Reinforcing Foundation Medicine company values 

Our collaborative culture truly starts with every employee feeling engaged and supported. We recognize that the pandemic has changed the way we all work, which makes winning this award again this year even more meaningful. Throughout the pandemic, Foundation Medicine employees have remained agile and focused on our mission, while we as an organization have been intentional about supporting this rapidly-evolving work environment. With our brand-new headquarters in Boston’s Seaport district on the horizon, we are excited to be a destination for the top talent in Boston and look forward to bringing many diverse, driven individuals under one roof.

This award is a direct reflection of our employees, whose passion, innovation, collaboration and dedication to the patients we serve is truly unmatched. I want to thank our employees for choosing to be a part of this organization, for making it a Best Place to Work, and for all you do every day to improve the lives of people living with cancer.