Listen: As a pharmaceutical firm that specialises in reproductive medicine and helping individuals to start families, Ferring Pharmaceuticals has also placed these support measures at the heart of its benefits strategy.
In this episode of the Employee Benefits podcast, Aatish Pattani, global head of rewards at Ferring, details how the organisation’s approach around the world is to support the wellbeing of its employees in the core areas of retirement, healthcare, long-term savings, disabilty and life insurance, no matter where they are based.
Ferring takes a decentralised approach in that local markets have a level of autonomy in terms of the support they offer for things like wellbeing and flexible working. However a key focus of its global provision is its family-building benefits programme, which aims to support employees at all stages of their fertility journey.
Pattani explains what this programme involves and how the organisation is proud to be a fertility- and family-friendly employer.
At a glance
Ferring Pharmaceuticals is a specialty biopharmaceutical group. It strives to unlock opportunities to deliver life-changing solutions to patients at every stage of life. It specialises in reproductive medicine with a strong heritage in gastroenterology and urology.
Ferring is split into four main organisations: science and medical, technical operations: production and supply of products, commercial (marketing and sales), and corporate functions.
It has over 7,000 employees in more than 60 countries. The average employee age in Ferring globally is 42 years, 45 in the UK. The average length of service in Ferring globally is seven years, eight years in the UK.
Primary business objectives that impact on benefits for the coming year:
- Ensure the benefits offerings evolve so that these reflect Ferring’s ambition of being among the most fertility- and family-friendly employers in the world.
- Continue to focus on the programmes which contribute to employees’ wellbeing, and which, ultimately, drive sustainable outcomes for the business.
- Focus on alignment of benefits with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals, while ensuring compliance whilst navigating a complex global legal landscape.
Career history
Aatish Pattani joined Ferring Pharmaceuticals in September 2024. He has previously held positions including head of compensation and reward, and HR operations. During his career, he has spearheaded the design and implementation of an engineering incentive programme, achieving £4.5 million in cost savings through measurable improvements in productivity and quality.
Pattani has deployed a robust people analytics strategy, that equips senior leadership with actionable talent insights. These data-driven interventions directly informed job architecture redesigns to mitigate attrition.
He championed the global performance agenda by conceptualising Ferring’s global recognition programme to foster employee engagement and enhance workforce productivity. He also led the successful delivery of Ferring’s enterprise-wide job architecture framework, streamlining organisational design and supporting operational simplicity.
He designed and managed market-aligned compensation strategies that enhance employee value proposition and contribute to a sustained reduction in talent attrition. Pattani said: ”I am particularly proud of what has truly been a great team effort in delivering our job architecture programme for Ferring. This will help lay the foundation for our talent management to develop skills and capabilities and create a consistent job framework.”
