This year, the war has really tested and tempered Ukrainian business, which has been demonstrating its resilience to the world for the tenth month already. The Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs, the largest platform in Ukraine that unites the voice of more than 1,000 Ukrainian businesses, has announced the winners of the “SUP 2022 Award: Invincible Business”. Pharmaceutical company Farmak received the award in the Best Employer of the Year nomination.
The SUP Award is an annual award for breakthrough business practices among members of the union. Voting for the nominees was open and took place on the official website of the SUP. The next stage of the selection was the voting of expert members of the jury.
During the war, the organization of the safety of employees and the comprehensive support of the team are especially important. So, despite the destruction by the enemy of a warehouse with finished products and packaging materials worth more than UAH 1.5 billion, Farmak continued financial payments, and in October 2022 increased the salaries of all employees of the company.
Employees who lost their homes due to hostilities received additional assistance from the enterprise. The company has allocated over UAH 4 million for this. Farmak also relocated its specialists from Kharkiv, where the company had a research laboratory, to Kyiv. Medical workers from the occupied territories, regions where active hostilities are taking place, were employed in safer cities of Ukraine. Those employees who went to the front to defend their Motherland, and there are 60 of them, were fully supplied by the company with military ammunition.
Farmak also made every possible effort to create safe working conditions at the enterprise during the war. The company is equipped with modern shelters at the factories in Kyiv and Shostka, which are able to withstand a bomb or missile strike, and also, thanks to powerful filtration systems, protect against chemical, bacteriological, and radiation hazards. In addition, the company arranges vehicles to transport workers from home to the enterprise and from the enterprise home.
Even during the war, the company’s employees have a good social package with 2-stage health insurance, opportunities for professional and personal development, annual health screening, and a mental health support program.
“The main task and achievement of this year is that we managed to keep our team. Our people are not just professionals with a capital letter, but also the foundation of Farmak. These are Ukrainians who produce medicines for Ukrainians. From the first days of the war, they were under shelling in order to prevent a shortage of medicines in the country. And the fact that, despite all the losses that we suffered through the enemy, we were recognized as the best employer is the most important distinction that we would like to receive in 2022,” says Volodymyr Kostiuk, Executive Director of Farmak.
