Astellas Pharma Canada Scores a "Hat Trick" as a Great Place to Work®

For the third consecutive year, Astellas makes the Best Workplace in Canada list, ranking 21^st, along with Best in Large and Multinational Workplace, and a Best Workplace for Women in Canada

MARKHAM, ON, April 26, 2018 /CNW/ - Astellas Pharma Canada, Inc. (Astellas), the Canadian subsidiary of Tokyo based Astellas Pharma, Inc., has been recognized for the third consecutive year as a Best Workplace in Canada by the Great Place to Work® Institute Canada. The Institute honours employers across the country who create and foster exemplary workplaces. Astellas is included among elite Canadian organizations, both as a Large and Multinational Workplace, and as a Best Workplace for Women. 

Best Workplaces™ Canada 2018 (CNW Group/Astellas Pharma Canada, Inc.)

"We are extremely proud to be named as a Best Workplace in Canada for the third year in a row," said Steve Sabus, General Manager, Astellas Pharma Canada. "We have created a strong culture designed to help our employees thrive personally and professionally, and this plays an important role in enabling and empowering employees to succeed each and every day."

This year's list, featured in a special national report published in The Globe and Mail, received over 7,000 nominations globally and represents 12 million individual employee voices. In Canada, approximately 400,000 employees participated in the "Best Workplaces in Canada" survey.  Astellas earned the awards following a thorough evaluation of its culture and processes, with direct employee feedback factoring significantly in the overall assessment.

As a leading pharmaceutical company, Astellas prides itself on creating a culture of excellence driven by employee recognition, flexibility and work/life balance for all of its employees. Individuals are offered opportunities to grow both personally and professionally through programs such as: flexible scheduling; training and career development; RRSP matching for all employees; a wellness program; regular company outings and milestone celebrations. Astellas also has a progressive Corporate Social Responsibility and volunteer program that provides employees with five paid days off per year to encourage active engagement in the community.

Additionally, the company has established multiple ways to ensure that the workplace offers women and any parent the necessary flexibility, work-life balance, maternity and parental support and career development opportunities. These efforts have been well recognized by Astellas being consistently being named a best workplace by organizations including Working Mother Magazine, Forbes, Fortune Magazine, Newsweek and the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index among others in the Americas region.

About Great Place to Work®:
Great Place to Work® is the global authority on high-trust, high-performance workplace cultures. We are a research and consulting firm whose mission is to build a better society by helping companies transform their workplaces. Through proprietary assessment tools, advisory services, and employer branding programs, including workplace certification and Best Workplaces lists, Great Place to Work® provides the benchmarks, framework, and expertise needed to create, sustain, and recognize outstanding workplace cultures. In Canada, Great Place to Work® produces the annual 100 Best Workplaces list, released in a national feature in the Globe and Mail. This is part of the world's largest annual workplace study, which culminates in a series of national lists in over 50 countries, including the study's flagship list of 100 Best companies published annually in Fortune magazine. Globally, this survey represents the voices of 11 million employees, including approximately 300,000 from Canada alone. It's what makes this study so credible: the primary determinant used in selecting winners is an employee survey. There's only one way to get on this list – and that's if your employees put you there.

Great Place to Work® is online at www.greatplacetowork.ca and on Twitter at @GPTW_Canada.

About Astellas Pharma Inc.
Astellas Pharma Inc., based in Tokyo, Japan, is a company dedicated to improving the health of people around the world through the provision of innovative and reliable pharmaceutical products. We focus on Urology, Oncology, Immunology, Nephrology and Neuroscience as prioritized therapeutic areas while advancing new therapeutic areas and discovery research leveraging new technologies/modalities. We are also creating new value by combining internal capabilities and external expertise in the medical/healthcare business. Astellas is on the forefront of healthcare change to turn innovative science into value for patients. For more information, please visit our website at www.astellas.com.

About Astellas Pharma Canada, Inc.
Astellas Pharma Canada, Inc., headquartered in Markham, ON, is a Canadian affiliate of Tokyo-based Astellas Pharma Inc.  Astellas is dedicated to improving the health of people around the world through the provision of innovative and reliable pharmaceutical products. In Canada, Astellas has an intense commercial focus in the following therapeutic areas – Urology, Immunology, Infectious Disease and Oncology.

For more information about Astellas Pharma Canada, Inc., please visit the corporate website:  www.astellas.ca.

Follow us @AstellasCA.

SOURCE Astellas Pharma Canada, Inc.

For further information: Media contact: Tarsis Lopez, Office: 224-205-8833, Cell: 847-224-8374, [e-mail]