Job satisfaction at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) comes from a combination of giving and receiving. The rewards from working here are plentiful. The pay is good — nearly three-quarters of employees earn more than £35,000 — but just as important are the emotional returns. Staff get a great deal of pleasure out of being part of a team which works to extend and enhance human life. The drugs that they develop, market and sell help patients with a range of conditions from cancer to HIV and mental illness. The company invests millions of pounds to help fight HIV and Aids. Almost two-thirds of the 39.4m people estimated to be infected with these conditions live in sub-Saharan Africa. In 1999, BMS set up the Secure the Future programme and since then has spent more than £66m on more than 200 initiatives to care for and support women and children infected by either condition. BMS, which employs more than 500 people and reported pretax profits of £21.3m on a turnover of £120.5m in the last financial year, is just as keen to help closer to home. This year the firm introduced the Day of Giving initiative, allowing every employee one day of paid leave a year to engage in some form of charitable activity. A company fellowship dating from 1984 awards assistance in the UK to one or two promising young doctors each year in the field of cardiovascular medicine. The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, together with the European Society of Cardiology, has also given £190,000 to a Women at Heart initiative that aims to improve treatment of heart disease in women in Europe. Employees give the Uxbridge-based firm an 82% positive score for making a difference to the world, the sixth highest result for this statement. They believe the organisation is run on strong principles (77%), are proud to work for it (81%), love their job (72%) and find work stimulating (74%). People discuss their career aspirations at annual reviews and draw up a development plan which can include training, on-the-job experience or secondments. A talent strategy aims to promote employees into management roles. Staff say the experience they gain in their job is valuable for their future (80%). They give their managers high marks, too, saying they share important information (75%) and regularly show their appreciation for a job done well (74%). People are also confident in the leadership skills of the senior management team (75%). E-mail, newsletters, an intranet site and desk drops keep everyone in the loop, as do regular business updates. An employee survey makes sure BMS has its finger on the pulse of the workforce, and any issues it throws up are followed up. Colleagues report a strong sense of family in their teams (75%), care about each other (82%), are fun to work with (81%) and go out of their way to help each other (78%). One member of staff says: “I joined in 1995 in a temporary role and, after a short time, realised I wanted to develop my career here. I now manage a team of 11 in the UK and Ireland who are responsible for the monitoring of all our clinical trials. It's a privilege to feel you've contributed towards these medicines and helped make them available to patients who really need them.”