Country Clinical Operations UK
Pros
Theoretically the culture and values are fantastic (courage, integrity, agility, collaboration, people first) , the benefits are great, good facilities that promote high productivity with on site wellness centre. The company does genuinely promote a good work life balance. Lots of in-house promotion means that the opportunities are abundant.
Cons
The culture is interpreted differently depending on which department and which manager. Theoretically you can speak up when things are wrong however it is frowned upon and managers don't have the time to actively listen. People are too worried to speak up about inefficiency and how it can be improved. "How" you conduct yourself is the number one priority in 360 feedback, therefore people are reluctant to speak up for fear of appearing confronting the status quo. It appears that management training is not always effective, some are rapidly promoted managers overseeing big teams who are under pressure to progress trial conduct. These middle managers lack understanding of site or study operations or regulatory expectations but manage people who work in clinical trial project oversight. This makes people feel over whelmed with lack of support and clarity and poor onboarding. The on boarding is inadequate given the complexity of the organisation, lack of middle management knowledge of operations, and the numerous systems and platforms. This can leave an expert CSM or contractor feeling like a rookie when they first join Roche. People stay because it's easy to move on to another role whilst enjoying the benefits. If you play your cards right, keep your head down, work around inefficiencies and make sure all the right managers know you and love you, you get ahead. This is what is meant by the "how" in real terms.
