Smart thinking and self-care: Moderna’s mission for its people

Smart thinking and self-care: Moderna's mission for its people — and the rest of the world

When your people are busy saving the world, how do you cut through the noise to help them understand the importance of self-care and the value of engaging with a workplace benefits package that can make a real difference to their lives?

As Senior Director of Global Benefits at COVID-19 vaccine pioneers Moderna, Erin Sarin tells us, it's all about tapping into the needs of the individual and giving them the freedom to prioritize their own well-being…

Gallagher: The impact of what you do at Moderna is having on the world has caused significant employee growth in the last six months. How do you work with this level of scale when establishing a holistic communication strategy that works for everyone?

ES: "Moderna is on a path of solving a very diverse set of health challenges that impact millions of people across the globe. Messenger RNA (mRNA) technology is about instructing a person's own body to create the proteins that prevent and treat, and even cure, disease.

"Not unlike our science, it's extremely important for us to understand — and provide scalable platforms for — employees and their families to connect with our benefits and well-being programs.

"Our strategy is to understand our people fundamentals, and design programs which enable access and personalization, and empower engagement in what they need, while providing them with the ability to step away and take care of themselves and their families.

"Whether we're talking to one employee in Germany, hundreds in Switzerland or thousands in the US, we make sure that we think about the whole person, then we build culturally-relevant, impactful experiences and portfolios for our people — regardless of role or location. Cultivating a sense of belonging is the result of a really effective diversity and inclusion practice. Ensuring employees feel heard and understood is core."

Gallagher: And what about helping your people find that all-important work-life balance they need? It must be so easy to absorb yourself in your career when you can see how much good the business you are part of is doing on such a global scale.

ES: "Moderna is in a unique space from a business perspective. We're not going to be able to eliminate the amount of work that needs to get done, and the urgency in which we need to act.

""COVID-19 is just the beginning for us and, right now, it's really important for us to continue delivering on our mission for the world. With that, each employee carries an incredible amount of individual responsibility, so much of our messaging focuses on the true importance of taking care of yourself to enable you to be the best version of yourself at work and home. Making sure our people understand that well-being is a priority is extremely important — not just for the individual, but the organization too.

"It's about acknowledging that there's no real work-life balance anymore, it's more of a work-life integration. We are responsible for managing our own lives, and have the power to shape the very unique life experiences each and every day. Everyone at Moderna plays a critical role in the success of the company."

Gallagher: The whole world seems to be focusing on mental health at the moment – and rightly so; how does an organization like yours drive the message of self-care home to such a dedicated workforce?

ES: “We were already on a collective path to reduce mental-health stigma at Moderna, but throughout COVID-19 there has been a realization that that we need to really prioritize the programs, communication and space for people to care for themselves. This means something very different to each of our employees each day, so it’s important that our messages hit home, and recognize the unique challenges that face us in both everyday life, and those monumental life-changing events.

“There is no doubt that there is now a shared understanding around the importance of well-being, which is so much more than the four pillars of physical, mental, social and financial. People understand this because of the level of stress we’ve seen, and how that can impact your relationships, your productivity and your ability to perform at work.

“Well-being is at the center, it impacts how we experience life, and being well impacts our ability to excel, set boundaries and priorities, have productive relationships at work, and feel empowered to change science.

Gallagher: That sounds really empowering – it must feel great to work in an environment that values trust to that level. How else do you reach your people with the messages that matter?

ES: “Recognizing who we are as a company, and what matters to our employees is key – sustainability, innovation and creativity. Messaging and creative content that our employees can relate to.

“Making it easy for employees is crucial, our campaigns included QR Codes which would provide employees with the ability to learn more on the fly. Creating excitement around the programs through visual cues in elevators and in common spaces got people talking, and relating, to the benefits.

“Last year, our organization released our Moderna Mindsets, which is a view into what it’s like to work, and succeed at Moderna. Linking our programs back to how you can use them to build on the Mindsets has begun to create the continuum of how our benefits and well-being programs relate to our values and culture.”

Gallagher: It sounds like you’ve got this nailed, Erin – but was does really good look like when it comes to delivering the gold-standard benefits experience you want for your people?

ES: “My North Star is creating an experience that’s similar to what you get with Amazon, where people are provided with options and information on a single platform, like our mRNA technology. And if we are able to integrate Alexa or Google into our knowledge-sharing process, it would help us provide not just the best benefits experience but up our game in understanding the needs of our employees.

“We need to get to a place where we’re really serving up a comprehensive experience that’s based on what our people need. Bringing in all of the different piece-parts can truly provide a hyper-personalized experience, which we believe can be accomplished through artificial intelligence.

“The information is out there, we just have to get to a place where what we have is smart enough to deliver this back to our people.”

This article was first published in the Journal of Internal Communication brought to you by Gallagher. As a world-leading internal communications agency, we are excited to share our round-up of internal communication trends and provide practical examples of how organizations communicate with their people.