Dana-Farber picked as a top place to work in Massachusetts and academia

The Boston Globe and The Scientist magazine recently recognized Dana-Farber Cancer Institute as a leading place to work. Dana-Farber ranked 73rd in the Globe's 100 Top Places to Work in Massachusetts survey and 22nd in The Scientist's international Best Places to Work in Academia survey. Dana-Farber came in at number 19 on the Globe's list of large organizations — businesses with more than 1,000 employees — and was up from 34th in The Scientist's survey last year.

The Globe survey, which polled 70,000 employees at 300 organizations across Massachusetts, recognizes the most progressive companies in the state based on employee opinions about organizations' leadership, compensation and training, diversity, career development, family-friendly flexibility, and values and ethics. Private companies, nonprofits, and publicly-held businesses were included in the analysis.

The Scientist rankings were based on a survey of more than 2,300 tenured, permanent, or tenure-track scientists working in non-commercial organizations in the United States and abroad. Survey respondents assessed their working environment according to 41 criteria in eight areas: job satisfaction, peers, infrastructure and environment, research resources, pay, management and policies, teaching and mentoring, and tenure.

"The results reflect positively on our organizational goals to make Dana-Farber an ideal workplace — an attractive, rewarding, and professionally satisfying place to work," said Darlene Lewis, PhD, senior vice president of Human Resources at Dana-Farber. "It's gratifying that staff recognizes the Institute's efforts in these areas, and we're constantly seeking to make improvements."

Barrett Rollins, PhD, Dana-Farber's chief scientific officer, said there is an institutional commitment to making Dana-Farber an employer of choice among scientists and postdoctoral researchers. "Our ability to successfully meet Dana-Farber's mission of eliminating the suffering caused by cancer depends, to a great extent, on the talent of the people who work here," said Rollins. "That's why we're absolutely committed to attracting and retaining the best and the brightest scientists in the world."

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (www.dana-farber.org) is a principal teaching affiliate of the Harvard Medical School and is among the leading cancer research and care centers in the United States. It is a founding member of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC), designated a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute.