Roche: ‘We will work to eliminate barriers to social media’
pharmafile | September 3, 2010 | Feature | Medical Communications | Digital Pharma blog, Roche, social media
Last month Roche broke new ground for pharma by publishing its Social Media Principles (full details of which you can find here).
The four-page document of operating procedures for staff was a bold move for a pharma company in its openness and transparency, and signified the degree to which Roche has embraced the Web 2.0 generation of communication tools.
The company even made a welcome acknowledgement that blogs, wikis and social networks “are changing the way we are communicating, interacting, and doing business – with patients, customers and other stakeholders outside Roche, but also within the Roche network”.
The team that put Roche’s social media guidelines together was led by the company’s head of corporate internet and social media Sabine Kostevc and she was kind enough answer a few questions on the guidelines and how Roche views social media.
I started by asking Sabine why Roche decided to publish its social media principles and how long it took to finalise them?
“We’ve had Social Media Guidelines for internal use since 2008, but given the growing interest and activities in social media we felt that we needed to update them and make them more easily available – like we do with our Communication Policy or Code of Conduct. The updating, review and approval process took about 3-4 months.”
I was intrigued by the guidelines’ mention of Roche’s Social Media Advisory Board, which you lead. How is this board made up and what is its function?
“The Social Media Advisory Board is a cross-functional team with one representative from each of the business divisions – R&D, HR, IT, Legal – and reporting to the head of group communications. All of the team members are social media savvy experts in their field and some even have a key focus on social media as part of their normal job role.
“The Board will consult on issues as well as coordinate further social media guidance, training and adoption. As a first step, the board members have developed the new Roche Social Media Guidelines and a set of ground rules for the participation in online conversations, and aims to foster the use of social media by serving as a knowledge and best practice sharing hub for external and internal activities.
“Key tasks are to be a single point of contact for questions and governance of the use of social media, identify business relevant new trends and pilot projects, develop corporate-wide training and further guidance as needed.”
The guidelines had seven rules for personal online activities, one of which was for employees to “be a scout for sentiment and critical issues”, while its seven rules for professional activities included a need to monitor relevant social media channels.
Have you given employees any training with regards to being a ‘scout’ or on social media monitoring?
“No, there has not been general training on monitoring or being a ‘scout’ as this is not seen as a specific ‘task’ for the social media user. We merely wanted to offer guidance on where to go if colleagues come across any issues.
“Apart from that all employees are educated and required to report adverse event information that they encounter – no matter via which communication channel.”
Roche is active across a number of social media channels, many of which are detailed on the social media page you launched last month alongside the guidelines, which of these does Roche gain the most value from?
“This cannot be said in general. Social media channels are being used and experimented with in many contexts – and generated value will always depend on the respective business case.”
There’s anecdotal evidence that some big pharma companies routinely block work access to social media sites such as YouTube, does Roche restrict employee access when at work to any particular social media sites?
“No, at Roche we allow and welcome the use of all social media. Our social media principles provide guidance to our employees how to use the new channels in a safe and responsible manner.
“Being a global and de-centralised organisation, however, we cannot exclude that certain restrictions may be in place at some of our locations, but we will work to eliminate any barriers as much as possible.”
Dominic Tyer is web editor for Pharmafocus and InPharm.com and the author of the Digital Pharma blog He can be contacted via email, Twitter or LinkedIn.
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