People-centricity: Connecting the Employee Experience to the Patient Experience
By Anne-Marie Law, Chief Patient and Employee Experience Officer at Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
At Alexion, people with rare and devastating diseases are our inspiration. We know that beginning with their first symptoms through an often long path to diagnosis and treatment, living with a rare disease is a sobering new normal to navigate while managing other life priorities.
Each of us at Alexion has a responsibility to contribute in a positive way to this experience, and in doing so, we’ll not only change the lives of the patients we serve, but our own lives as well. This is the anchor for my #RareInspirationChangingLives LinkedIn series. I invite you to follow me and Alexion along on our journey as we enhance our strategic focus on the patients we serve and our employees; the focus of my new role as Chief Patient and Employee Experience Officer.
There is an inherent, powerful connection between the experience of employees at Alexion and the experience of the patients we serve. To deliver meaningful, valuable solutions that address the needs of patients and caregivers, we need to create a work environment where each of us has the right capabilities, tools and support to perform our best and maximize our collective impact. We view this as far broader than delivering just our valued, effective medicines.
In the last few weeks, our global campuses, including Boston, Dublin, Zurich, Toronto and Tokyo have undertaken a series of exercises designed to better educate our teams about the realities of living with a rare disease. During these sessions, we are often bringing in patients, caregivers, doctors, and nurses to share with us their experiences and provide input on their own unique challenges in managing rare diseases, inspiring us to think differently about the way we serve the rare disease community. These sessions have provided employees with a renewed sense of purpose and greater empathy; inspiring and motivating us to think, act and deliver results differently.
Ultimately, our goal is to reshape how we approach our work and restate our responsibilities within a rare disease patient’s journey. This means better orienting around patient needs, rather than around traditional functions, and engaging our people in new ways to create truly distinctive solutions that support our strategic imperatives. As we work to foster a closer link between employees and the patient communities we serve, I look forward to sharing more stories with you.
We know that anyone who works at Alexion can create an impact for good. It is our responsibility as a company to cultivate this with a supportive, enriching environment where employees can deliver profound change for patients.
I’m inspired by the motivation and energy thus far and excited to share our journey with you. Thanks for reading. Please stay tuned for my next post!
