Employee Perspective: Meet Hugh

As a Senior Regulatory Affairs Product Manager at Roche, collaboration is core to Hugh’s daily life. Working with colleagues across many different departments is key to getting medicines to patients sooner. The dynamic workspace at Roche Australia’s head office, The Bond, in Sydney’s Barangaroo, is based around open-plan neighbourhoods with a diverse mix of spaces that enable different styles of working.

“The thing I enjoy most about working for Roche is that we’re all about innovation, be it the medicines we make or the way in which we work. Our vision is to get medicines to patients faster and to meet that goal, collaboration amongst our departments is key.

Working together to register new, innovative medicines, particularly those in areas of unmet needs for patients is really exciting and motivating for me. Working as a cohesive unit, sharing our insights and hearing feedback from my colleagues about how physicians value our medicines, inspires me to do my best.

Our workspace at The Bond is designed for activity based working. This means you choose a space to work in that suits what you’re working on - and what mood you’re in. There’s open plan areas such as long team tables for working together as a group and being part of the conversation. There’s drop-in rooms for those one-on-one style catch-ups and bookable meeting rooms for more structured meetings. And, of course, there’s the rooftop cafe where we can catch up over a coffee! Sometimes I need to work intensely on a document so I sit in what we call a ‘focus area’ which signals to everyone that I’m concentrating hard and prefer not to be disturbed!

I’ve always loved technology and it’s great to be set up, whether I’m working in the office or remotely, with all the technology I need to make connecting with my colleagues simple - wherever they are in the world. It’s crazy to think back to a time when this wasn’t the case!

We’re also really lucky to have outdoor spaces on-site. Our rooftop terrace has a huge deck which overlooks Sydney’s harbour. Many of the plants up there have medicinal qualities paying homage to our focus on health. But above all, it’s just nice to see and feel nature in the workspace despite our city location!

I’m Dad to a beautiful daughter, so once my day is done, I love nothing more than cruising home on the ferry to hear about her day at pre-school!I’ve been at Roche for ten years and I’ve learnt so much in that time. We’ve got a great bunch of people who I really enjoy working with to fulfil our purpose of doing now what patients need next. The incredible workspace really is the icing on the cake!

Our workspace at The Bond is designed for activity based working. This means you choose a space to work in that suits what you’re working on - and what mood you’re in. There’s open plan areas such as long team tables for working together as a group and being part of the conversation. There’s drop-in rooms for those one-on-one style catch-ups and bookable meeting rooms for more structured meetings. And, of course, there’s the rooftop cafe where we can catch up over a coffee! Sometimes I need to work intensely on a document so I sit in what we call a ‘focus area’ which signals to everyone that I’m concentrating hard and prefer not to be disturbed!

I’ve always loved technology and it’s great to be set up, whether I’m working in the office or remotely, with all the technology I need to make connecting with my colleagues simple - wherever they are in the world. It’s crazy to think back to a time when this wasn’t the case!