Top Employer: learning and development with an impact

When David started at our company as an IT Demand Manager in Spain, it was his first time working in the pharma industry. “In the initial interviews I was a bit scared,” he explains.  Nonetheless, he speaks with confidence and a smile on his face when he adds “I had no idea about pharma.”

The career path of a lifelong learner

Following his first role in Spain, David continued his journey – together with his wife and two kids – in France, Ingelheim, then back to Spain, then in Ingelheim again. Over time, he expanded his core expertise from IT to agile learning. Today, he is working in Biostatistics and Data Sciences as Chapter Head Agile Coaches Germany. The projects, functions, and businesses he has been supporting are as versatile as his overall journey: purchasing, human resources, medicine, customer engagement, and BI X to name just a few. “I've been learning since I started in this company, and it has not stopped,” says David reflecting on the diversity of areas he has been partnering with.

The Top Employers Institute awarded Boehringer Ingelheim for the fourth year in a row a “Global Top Employer”, one of 17 globally certified companies. High scores in development and steering practices reflect the impact of the comprehensive learning and development opportunities at our company.

Opening doors through cross-functional learning

One recent example of how David manages to onboard to new domains, is his participation in the clinical drug development training at the Harvard Medical School (HMX). David is an expert in IT and agility. However, the work within his department, Biostatistics and Data Sciences, goes beyond this. It focuses on creating clinical insights, supports the submission process and hence bringing medications to the market. “It all comes from the need to better understand where I’m working. I tried several things, but they were very complex. This is where the Harvard Medical School was proposed to me as part of the One Medicine learning program at Boehringer.”

HMX is a Harvard Medical School Corporate Learning program being made available to our employees at Boehringer Ingelheim through the internal University of Medicine Excellence (UME). All HMX courses are self-paced and delivered online. They look in detail at some of the most important topics in medical science, providing the knowledge needed to stay ahead of the curve in this fast-changing, ever-evolving field.

David describes the accomplishment of the still challenging HMX training as having opened “mental doors”. He now has the tools to do his job better and better understands his peers. “Boehringer Ingelheim has given me the chance to train on an area that was completely foreign to me,” he says. “Whenever I start working in a new field, I feel ignorant. If you assume that as a natural part of the process, this is where you can obtain new knowledge. It happens every time.”

The Boehringer Ingelheim University and its virtual campus were launched in 2023. The virtual campus as a tool provides easy global access to learning content, further enabling cross-functional learning and diverse thinking – as exemplified by David. An increasing amount of learning content is being made available to all 53,000 employees. The virtual campus already includes multiple academies (and counting!), such as a data science and an onboarding academy. More and more UME content is being made available through the virtual campus, too!

Skills for a brighter future

David’s further education is more of a rule than an exception for him. Throughout his career at Boehringer, he has looked for and taken learning opportunities to better understand the business areas he has been working with. “It is about adaptability so that I can better respond to the environment in an effective way,” he says and adds: “I’m certain that my job in five years does not exist, yet. Likely not even the one in three years.” David smiles again. This is what excites him about his employer: „Whenever I’m about to feel too comfortable, I discover something new to learn.”

How does David make time for all of it? His answer goes in the opposite direction: “It’s about prioritizing. We tend to say, ‘I put learning on top of my work’. But in my view training is part of the work because development is part of our growth as a person and as a company.”

In the end, David explains, it's about what motivates and drives one. He joined our company as IT expert. Over time, he built an understanding and dedication for pharma. Working in pharma means to him bringing new opportunities to people by leveraging his expertise: “Thousands of people are working towards bringing medications to patients so that someone can have a better life. I think that’s awesome. Honestly, when I joined at the age of 33, I did not think about it very much. But now, in retrospect, I say: Yeah, it’s a fine place to be.”