Working in HR and organizational transformation for other companies such as Walt Disney and LG Electronics, Sadie Stern learned that “corporate purpose” can range from creating iconic entertainment to supplying the world with electronic devices vital to life, livelihood and enjoyment.
But it was in becoming executive vice president and CHRO for DexCom that Stern really understood what it was like to help lead a company with a clear purpose: The $4 billion, San Diego-based company makes wearable continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) that help diabetics and near-diabetics track their blood-sugar levels and make adjustments that can rescue their day—or save their life.
“Our employee base is so incredibly passionate and driven about this,” says Stern. “What makes this unique is that diabetes itself is so prevalent that it’s hard to find someone who isn’t impacted in some way, shape or form. The majority of our employee base is dealing with diabetes in some way: personally, family member, close friend. It’s hard to find someone who doesn’t have a connection to diabetes at some level.”
Such a clear motivation, Stern says, helps create “an incredibly collaborative environment where people are working together to deliver for the patient. That passion for our business and our culture, and that we genuinely like each other—I’ve never worked anywhere else where teams genuinely enjoy working together like that.”
Along with a clear purpose for their jobs, DexCom is also enjoying phenomenal growth worldwide, another major dynamic that affects Stern’s role. The company had little more than 3,000 employees when she joined in her current role four years ago, and now DexCom has exploded to an employee base of more than 10,000 people. This has included not just expansion of manufacturing and employment at existing factories but also the construction of new facilities abroad, such as one in Malaysia that recently opened and already employs 2,000 people.
“Coming into the organization knowing that I had to grow and assemble a team to deliver resources needed for that type of growth was critically important,” Stern says. “We from an HR perspective have needed to be sure we are enabling the business to meet those growth objectives.”
Further, she says, such explosive growth has challenged DexCom to maintain the culture that helped create the boom. “Some people say that every time you add 1,000 employees, your culture changes,” Stern says. “So how do you sustain your culture as you develop? For us, our culture is derived from our mission, which is to empower people to take control of their health.”
DexCom accomplishes this mission through four core values, Stern says. They are:
Thinking big. “That’s making sure we’re unleashing innovation to improve healthcare and change lives,” Stern says. “We apply that internally and externally.” DexCom has “brought almost every major first to market in the CGM space, and our technology has continued to lead.”
Listen. “That’s also internally and externally.”
Be dependable. “That means we keep our promises and own our results.”
Serve with integrity. “Make sure we’re doing what’s right for our employees, customers and the communities in which we operate.”
Particularly as DexCom continues to expand globally in a world where the Western scourge of epidemic diabetes is invading more and more populations, hewing to these values manifests itself in a number of ways in areas that Stern oversees, including:
Talent is No. 1
As DexCom creates facilities in new markets, “Our philosophy is that our HR hires are as important as our general manager or other leadership hires,” Stern says. For instance, in constructing the Malaysia plant, DexCom’s first hire was its local head of talent acquisition; the second was the site leader; and the third was head of HR for that site.
Promote the employer brand
As it moves into new geographies, DexCom is strategic about promoting its presence and its brand to potential employees. This includes a heavy presence on social media and also “being visible at the physical site,” Stern says. “During construction, we always make sure there’s plenty of signage on the fencing. We hang balloons. Anyone in the local environment knows exactly what we’re building and why. There are photos so that people can visualize what’s coming and get information.”
In Ireland, for instance, DexCom followed up on its new facility by sponsoring a local rugby team. “People started hearing our name and knowing what it was about,” she says. This included not only putting DexCom on team jerseys but actually buying naming rights to the local stadium.
“We wanted to go and build a brand,” Stern says. “We knew for us to build the best product and be innovative, we needed the best talent, and it’s difficult to go into new markets where you’re unknown and compete for the best talent. When you go into new markets, you’ve got to make a name for yourself and tell your story.”
Adjust to the culture
Recruiting employees requires different approaches, of course, depending on the geographic market. “Our values don’t change and are the same wherever we operate, but we know we need to be flexible,” Stern says. “And local markets might have a unique personality.”
For example, when DexCom recently opened a shared-services facility in Lithuania, “We realized that the talent-branding strategy we had used in other markets wouldn’t necessarily resonate in the same way,” she says. DexCom was seeking a lot of call-center employees, so, “We knew we needed a lot of people with empathy skills.” As a result, the company decided on a recruit-marketing campaign that emphasized superheroes, an approach it wouldn’t have tried in the U.S. “It resonated much more with the talent base in Lithuania.”
Centralize recruiting
Because its recruiting is so geographically dispersed and periodically intense in local markets as DexCom opens or expands facilities, the company created a global hiring team “that allows us to recruit 24/7,” Stern explains. “We have local teams that support different locations and regions for ongoing needs. But if we’re going to build a plant, we can’t hire 100 people to hire staff for that plant; it’s not sustainable because we won’t be hiring at such a high rate for too long.
“So we have a global team of recruiters, based in the Philippines, and we deploy them to different ramp-ups around the world. If we need 20 people in France, we won’t hire local HR people to do it, we’ll deploy this team.”
Update technology
DexCom ensures that its human-capital management technology is state of the art, Stern says. For example, about two years ago, the company upgraded its HR software to the Eightfold “talent intelligence” program, a technology that “helps us use AI and other technologies to match candidates with jobs, both active and passive candidates.”
Unleash ERGs
Stern says that DexCom has “the most active employee resource groups of anywhere I’ve ever worked.” One reason is that employees are or know people who are CGM users, which “helps constantly shape the product. It’s not unusual for employees in our ERGs to say how to make it better. We listen and react.”
ERGs also have helped shape a DexCom hybrid work environment that has evolved. In 2021, in the wake of the worst of the pandemic, the company was “well down the path of a return-to-work approach,” Stern says. “But it wasn’t what employees wanted” if they weren’t required at manufacturing sites. “We talked about what our employees were saying, and what they wanted, and it didn’t feel right” to exert the policy. “It didn’t feel like our culture.
“So we pivoted and gave global direction to management to figure out what made sense for different offices and groups and teams, and that has successfully led to a very hybrid workforce.”
