Enabling purpose-driven culture during the COVID-19 pandemic

As a global pharmaceutical company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, we saw first-hand the gradual shut down of business as the COVID-19 pandemic began to evolve from China, to Japan, then Italy, and the United States. I work as the communications, events and CSR lead for our company in the U.S., and early on realized that our lives were about to change radically.

Some of the challenges we faced were:

Early on, Astellas’ U.S. corporate communications/events teams led COVID-19 decision-making regarding travel, event attendance and work-from-home measures, maintaining an employee-first focus. We also quickly repositioned and created new vehicles for executive communications, awards, employee engagement and information-sharing to adapt to the new environment.

Then, we convened a cross-regional, cross-functional core team and proposed new ideas to help employees stay connected to each other and to their communities. Many of these ideas came from many years of demonstrating solidarity during times of crisis. Instead of backing away from the challenge, as a company, we pushed ourselves to think differently and open up new avenues for engagement.