Winner
Thrown in the Deep End. The Newly Formed Roche Diagnostics UK Communications Team Dealt with a Pandemic, a Supply Crisis and Much More…
Summary of work
It’s no doubt true that all communication teams needed to adapt due to the pandemic. However, for the Communications team at Roche Diagnostics UK, 2020 was a year that proved to be significant and intense not least because of COVID-19.
Roche Diagnostics became an early and fundamental partner in the pandemic to the UK Governments, the NHS and Public Health England as we rapidly developed a number of COVID-19 tests. This catapulted us into the limelight, with a level of scrutiny we’d never experienced before as the diagnostics division. Furthermore, we encountered a significant, unexpected crisis in the last quarter of the year which saw us in the headlines. Alongside these two, huge milestones we continued focusing on our business-as-usual activities including; embedding our new strategy and operating model, delivering a strong internal communications programme, maintaining focus on our priority business areas (outside of COVID-19), and the Brexit end of transition, all of which required notable communications preparation and input.
If these were not challenging enough, team members were new to one another, with a new Head of Communications and External Communications Manager joining remotely - even to this day, many of us have yet to meet in person!
Judges’ comments
The Roche Diagnostics team were calm and purposeful with candour and transparency. The judges could almost imagine they were with this team as they brought their strong entry to life demonstrating the breadth of challenges faced. They showed integrity, flexibility and ability to influence management. Very impressive!
