Abbvie Named as Ireland’s No.1 Workplace

AbbVie, the global biopharmaceutical company, has been named as Ireland’s No.1 large workplace. The award was presented at the 18^th annual Great Place to Work Best Workplaces in Ireland ceremony in Dublin last week.

AbbVie has been listed among the Best Large Workplaces in Ireland for the seventh successive year and placed in the top three companies for the past five years, including previously securing the top position in 2018. It remains the highest placed company in the biopharmaceutical/pharmaceutical industry across all categories.  

The Great Place to Work Institute, which organises the annual awards, also recognised AbbVie as one of Ireland’s Best Workplaces for Women for the second year in a row.  

AbbVie employs more than 700 people at five manufacturing and commercial sites across Ireland. Workers located at the company’s manufacturing sites in Sligo and Cork participated in the Great Place to Work evaluation process alongside colleagues based in Dublin.

The Great Place to Work Institute assesses the policies and practices in place in organisations under nine key areas, including employee development, hiring practices, recognition and communication. It then benchmarks these against other organisations in each country.

AbbVie’s ranking reflects a continued company focus on talent-development, equality diversity & inclusion (ED&I), health and well-being initiatives. It also reflects efforts to provide employees with meaningful opportunities to engage with their local communities through science education and volunteering projects.

AbbVie’s Country HR Director, Samantha Commons said: “Being ranked as one of Ireland’s best workplaces seven years in a row is a significant achievement for the company and reflects a long-running commitment to create and maintain a high-performing company culture. It demonstrates the ambition, drive and passion of our employees across Ireland to make an impact on patients’ lives around the world.” 

She added that is was rewarding to see efforts to create a vibrant company culture validated by external recognition. “The No.1 ranking and Best Workplace for Women award are clear endorsements of the fantastic work of our people in bringing AbbVie’s unique company culture to life” Ms Commons said.

The Institute publishes three different lists: The Best Large Workplaces in Ireland (>301 employees), the Best Medium Workplaces in Ireland (101 to 300 employees), and The Best Small Workplaces in Ireland (20 to 100 employees).

Companies are ranked in order on each of these lists primarily based on the confidential input from employees. Each workplace's score comes from the results of the ‘Trust Index’ employee survey and a thorough company-wide ‘Culture Audit’ assessment of the company’s policies and practices.

Partner at Great Place to Work Ireland, Cathal Divily highlighted the efforts of all participating companies: “Reaching the criteria to appear on the list of Best Workplaces in Ireland is a massive achievement, and has provided a great platform for these organisations to differentiate themselves both externally and internally as employers of choice. While attractive benefit packages will go some way towards employee satisfaction, the companies on this year’s list have realised that their unique and distinctive cultures are what will mark them out in a crowded market.”

Founded in 2013, AbbVie is a global, research-driven biopharmaceutical company committed to developing innovative advanced therapies for some of the world’s most complex and critical conditions. It employs more than 700 people at five manufacturing and commercial sites across Ireland. The company’s commercial headquarters is based in Dublin as is a separate international manufacturing and engineering services centre. AbbVie has two manufacturing plants in Sligo and one in Cork.

The company’s mission is to use its expertise, dedicated people and unique approach to innovation to markedly improve treatments across four primary therapeutic areas: immunology, oncology, virology and neuroscience.  In more than 75 countries, AbbVie employees are working every day to advance health solutions for people around the world. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.

Great Place to Work Ireland is part of a global network of culture consultants, with offices in 48 countries using an established methodology to publish lists at country, regional, and global levels. The best known of these is the Fortune 100 list of Best Companies to Work For in the United States. Our media partner in Ireland is The Irish Times, who develop the annual Best Workplaces Special Report.

The key defining feature of a great workplace is the level of trust that exists within it. From an employee’s viewpoint, the definition of a great workplace is one where you trust the people you work with, you have great pride in what you do, and you enjoy the people you work with. The Great Place to Work Institute assesses the policies and practices in place in organisations under nine key areas: Inspiring, Speaking, Listening, Caring, Developing, Thanking, Hiring, Celebrating, and Sharing. They then benchmark these practices against other organisations in that country. The second key component of the assessment is an anonymous Trust Index survey that gathers the perceptions of employees under five dimensions: Credibility, Respect, Fairness, Pride, and Camaraderie. Finally, there is an in-depth qualitative analysis of open-ended comments from employees.

The full 2020 lists of organisations and award winners, as well as rankings from previous years, are available at www.greatplacetowork.ie.