"Our talented and dedicated employees are passionate about developing new drugs that benefit patients. At HGS, we recognize that the "whole person" comes to work and our programs support both professional and personal development. Providing people with the resources to help them navigate both their work and personal lives is key to the success of our company."

— Tom Watkins, President and CEO
HGS Employee Since 2004

Since 2002, we have been a recipient of the Maryland's Workplace Excellence seal of approval, recognizing our commitment to our employees' personal and professional lives. Our work/life philosophy recognizes that people arrive at work with all the pressures of their life outside of work. Our programs are designed to address all aspects of work/life and provide the resources for people to manage their lives and their careers.

Employee Development

We support opportunities for employees to develop and advance their careers through promotions along a job family's career path, transfers to new positions, or the acquisition of new skills. We provide weekly employee development sessions, including computer skills training, monthly lunch-n-learn business related topics and communication skills training via Toastmasters. Employees enjoy having access to training on our campus because we can customize the programs to our business. An added benefit of training with colleagues is that you build your network within HGS.

Leadership Development

We offer leadership development seminars throughout the year that focus on building our managers' capabilities as managers of people. Some of the seminar topics include developing your staff, energizing employees, performance management, conflict management, managing to goals, interviewing, and running effective meetings. We provide managers with a monthly newsletter and manager roundtables on timely topics. We also offer 360 development opportunities and "Leadership Through People Skills", a 3-day off-site seminar for our senior managers.

Education Assistance

We provide $5250 annually in educational assistance as a means of career development. Classes must be directly related to your present job or a future position within HGS. HGS is centrally located to many universities with biotech specific programs, such as John Hopkins University and University of Maryland.

Work/Life Services

Our work/life professional provides onsite seminars, individual consultations, and brown bag workshops focusing on work/life management, stress management, communication, and time management. These services also include an option that we refer to as consults. Consults are one-on-one sessions with our work and family specialist.

LifeWorks Program/Employee Assistance Program

Provided to employees and their families, the LifeWorks program offers support, advice, and solutions in many areas, including confidential counseling, referrals to local resources, and dependent/elder care consulting and education referral services.

Other programs and benefits that make HGS unique:

MC coffees and all employee meetings

Open communication to all employees is important at HGS. At least monthly, all employees are invited to meet informally with members of the management team to discuss current events at HGS. Enjoy coffee and pastries with your colleagues and ask our senior leaders your questions about HGS. It's a great way to have access to our senior team and get those "unanswered questions" out in the open! We also host all employee meetings several times a year to discuss company-wide topics.

Gene Scene

Four times a year, our employees publish an on-line Company newsletter. Put your creative writing or photography skills to the test! Help fellow HGS'ers learn about current company events, highlight specific department or projects, and read about cultural events happening around the area. It is also an excellent way to learn more about department functions and the personal side of your colleagues.

Toastmasters

We have our very own chapter of Toastmasters that meets twice per month on campus. What a great way to improve your public speaking and communication skills while meeting new people from across the organization. Practice speaking extemporaneously and participate in speech and evaluation contests. Get ready to become an awesome speaker!

Associates Committee

An active group comprised of Scientific, Manufacturing, Quality and Clinical Associates working to foster a better work life at HGS. They are involved in organizing charitable and work/life events with HGS, attending job fairs and participating in outreach to identify potential candidates. Each year, our Associates Committee proudly presents a Poster Day event (see below).

Poster Day

Once a year, all of our associates are invited to create and display posters highlighting specific experiments, processes or programs that are helping HGS to meet its business goals. Posters are separated into categories, and are judged by senior managers from across the Company. All employees are invited to review the posters and learn about the innovative work that is happening across HGS. The event is topped off by a Happy Hour celebrating the winners!

Work/Life Consults

We provide all employees with access to a personal work/life consultant. If you have an issue that is affecting your home or work life, our consultant can provide confidential counseling specific to your issue. She also provides many of our brown bag lunches, on such topics as "Managing Up" and "Dealing with Difficult People", and facilitates our working parenting group. We send out weekly e-mails announcing all of our employee and manager development activities and our work/life events of the week.

Employee Referral Program

Nobody refers better candidates than our own employees. About 30% of our hires come from employee referrals each year, thanks to our own employee networks of great people. For each successful hire of a referral, you'll receive $1000-$2000. No wonder employees say that their colleagues are one of the top three reasons they stay at HGS!

Employee Suggestion Program

Help further our business goals by submitting ideas via our on-line system that can save time or money for HGS. On a monthly basis, a cross-functional group of managers reviews and authorizes employee suggestions. If your idea is implemented, you will receive a spot bonus for your idea!

Internship Program

Each summer, we host interns from high school and college level programs to learn about the biopharmaceutical business and gain industry work experience. We sponsor several intern programs -- some focused on helping them figure out their career paths and how to get there and others focused around socializing with other interns. We invite all of our employees to help make HGS internships a way to develop future HGS employees.

Take Your Kids to Work Day

Our employees create and host an exciting formal program for children aged 8 and up to learn what HGS does and the importance of science. Kids spend the entire day learning about basic science, statistics, and how to gown up for manufacturing. Kids get to have lunch with their parents and receive special HGS gifts to take home. How else will HGS continue to feed its future candidate pipeline?

Happy Hours

are held monthly to recognize important business milestones or employee events and are generally sponsored by a department, a product team or a specific group of people. Past Happy Hours have celebrated progress on our lead drug candidates, completing validation for a new clinical manufacturing suite, Black History month and celebrating our Work/Life award with a family-centric Happy Hour.

Wellness Rooms

Rooms are available on the campus for nursing mothers, for prayer, and for resting if you are sick. We also subsidize breast pump purchases to support nursing mothers' transition back to work.

HGS understands that our people are at the heart of our business.  Without the hard work of our people, we would have no science, no products, and no drugs to give to our patients. In order to support our people both professionally and personally, we have continued to build a culture and programs where people matter. While we need to balance the needs of our people with the needs of the business, our employees tell us that they feel supported by this high energy, innovative and team-oriented organization. Come join the team and add your experiences and knowledge to HGS!