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Prioritizing people

How Genentech supports the top minds in biotech with its data-driven mental health solution

Company Size 26,000
Industry Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology
Headquarters South San Francisco, California

For over four decades, Genentech, a Roche Company, has pioneered the discovery and development of medicines that help people with serious diseases. Widely recognized as the founder of the biotechnology industry, the organization has consistently pushed the boundaries of medicine in the pursuit of that foundational goal.

The company has been listed on Fortune Magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” for more than 20 consecutive years. This steady recognition is unsurprising given the company’s commitment to offering enviable benefits to attract and retain talent in ultra-competitive Silicon Valley.

98.3% icon Of members searching for care with Lyra are instantly matched with a recommended provider
4.6/5 icon Average satisfaction rate of members who engage with Lyra
“If your people are your best asset, why then, when they’re struggling the most, would you not have a system in place to help them most effectively?”
Deborah Olson headshot
Deborah Olson
Lead Strategist for Well-Being
U.S. Roche & Genentech

Customer story

Genentech and its parent company, Roche, rely on various data to evaluate how their population is engaging with their benefits. But, when it came to the mental health counseling service available through their existing employee assistance program (EAP), they were in the dark. “We had no way of knowing if this service was of benefit to our employees, and there was no bar set for provider quality,” said Olson. “[Our EAP] couldn’t tell us if our employees were even progressing in care. For all we knew, someone could attend five sessions and get absolutely no benefit from them.”

Genentech’s benefits team knew it needed a better way to support their people’s mental health—with a frictionless path to effective care, and transparency to evaluate whether the program actually worked. Partnering with Lyra not only made these goals achievable—it was simply “the right thing to do,” said Olson. Since launching Lyra in late 2018, the company has also implemented Lyra’s Clinical Leave Evaluations. “Lyra is saving lives—it’s saving families,” said Olson. “It’s helping us to focus and function in ways we wouldn’t have before.”