How Myovant Sciences Upholds its Culture

Myovant Sciences (NYSE:MYOV) is a biopharmaceutical company committed to redefining care through purpose-driven science, empowering medicine and transformative advocacy. Their medicines help people dealing with uterine fibroids, prostate cancer, endometriosis, and infertility get the support and solutions they need to thrive.

Myovant also partners with cross-sector coalitions to raise awareness for women’s and men’s health issues—and reduce stigma. In the last year and a half, the company has received two FDA approvals for their medicines, and been published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine.

In the process of securing their FDA approvals, Myovant needed to expand their team. They went from roughly 270 employees in the fall of 2020 to roughly 500 employees in the spring of 2021. During their intense growth stage, the company turned to Sparrow for employee leave management support to create a better employee experience so that any employee on leave can stay focused on the reason they went on leave – which is core to their company culture, where each employee’s well-being is taken very seriously.

Supporting employees who support patients

At Myovant Sciences, employees are united by one common goal: to improve people’s lives. To do that, Myovant has created an empathetic, energetic company culture, one where employees are motivated to uplift patients through innovative solutions.

Part of that unique company culture is a commitment to employee well-being. “We have an amazing benefits package,” said Taylor Eichhorn, Senior People Operations at Myovant Sciences. In addition to providing comprehensive, affordable health coverage for employees and their dependents, Myovant gives all employees $10,000 for fertility treatments, an education stipend, six free mental health therapy sessions every year, access to a financial wellness platform, and 12 weeks of paid parental leave.

On top of those benefits, Myovant also has a health and wellness program for employees. “Our wellness program is a chance for employees to step away from their day, to take a break and clear their minds,” Eichhorn said. Employees can join a yoga class, attend a speaking event, or connect with teammates in other countries.

“Our employees are so important to us, and we really believe in helping them in all the areas that will impact their lives,” she explained. “12 weeks of paid parental leave is amazing, but if an employee can’t stay focused on their child and is mired in the process of taking a leave, the benefit is muted. With Sparrow, our employees can give their full attention to the reason why they went on leave, whether that is welcoming a new child into their family or other events in their life.”

The challenge: Scaling employee leave management to align with internal growth

Before Myovant kicked off their rapid growth phase, the company was handling employee leave administration internally. “We were very manual,” Eichhorn said. “We tracked everything in a payroll change form, and one person did all the payroll calculations herself.”

Though the company had fewer employee leaves at the time, managing each employee leave was tedious, said Eichhorn. “There are so many different laws to account for and liaising with employees and providers can be tough. It was difficult to know if we were doing everything correctly,” she explained.

Corresponding with employees and coordinating dates wasn’t just confusing—it was also time-consuming. When Myovant ramped up their hiring, they realized their current system which was simply a leave project management platform wouldn’t be scalable, and that the goal of creating a world-class employee experience would not be achievable through it.

“Once we got closer to our first FDA approval and had employees all across the United States, we knew we needed to find a leave management solution” Eichhorn said. “It was hard to keep up. We got Sparrow just in time!”

The solution: Leveraging an end-to-end leave management solution to handle every aspect of leave.

Instead of trying to adapt their manual leave tracking system to accommodate nearly triple the amount of employees, Myovant Sciences reached out to Sparrow for end-to-end leave management. The company needed better technology, as well as hands-on guidance and service levels for their employees.

“I really love working with Sparrow,” Eichhorn said. “It’s really great to have our Sparrow Leave Specialist there, not only as a partner in administering the leaves, but in helping me understand the full picture so I know what’s going on.”

Sparrow doesn’t just coordinate employee benefits and make payroll adjustments on Myovant’s behalf—they also handle compliance. Myovant has employees living in 43 different states—and Sparrow stays up to date on all the various state laws. What’s more is that the overall complexity created across 4 federal leave laws, 396 state-specific leave laws, 67 county-specific leave laws, (and growing), is now mitigated – which means Myovant is free to hire in anyone in the U.S. and Canadian-English province and to know that employee leave will be handled in a world-class fashion.

The result is dozens of hours saved per employee leave. “I took over benefits last year, and I’d be frightened to know what my days would look like without Sparrow,” Eichhorn added. “With me not knowing every nuance related to leaves, especially state-wide guidelines, it’s great to have a knowledgeable partner who will take the time to help educate me.”

The technology Sparrow provides Myovant with is also critical. “The system is quite important because it needs to be easy and smooth for all parties to understand what’s going on,” she explained. With the Sparrow platform, Myovant admins can easily view the details and progress of any employee on leave. They can view critical details such as the kind of leave, the timeline of it, milestones, documentation, payroll, and more. Whereas each employee can also see their personalized payroll plan, return to work dates, paperwork filed, amongst other details.

Myovant’s people and payroll teams can also view employee leaves and reports. “As a team of one, our payroll manager really appreciates the reports Sparrow generates,” Eichhorn added. “She knows what’s going on, and rarely has questions.”

Enhancing the employee experience

Working with Sparrow doesn’t just save Myovant’s people and payroll teams’ time, it also enhances the overall employee experience. “Going on leave can be a confusing time for employees. But Sparrow is so knowledgeable and nice; they make the leave process really smooth for employees,” Eichhorn said.

Sparrow leave specialists are there for Myovant employees every step of the way—from leave preparation to returning to work—to explain their options, gather the right forms, help them file for state benefits, and answer questions.

“Although we’ve recently had immense growth, we’re still a fairly small company. We like to keep the personal touch when employees are going on leave,” Eichhorn explained. “All the positive feedback about Sparrow from our employees just shows that they’re a great extension of our team.”

With help from Sparrow, Myovant Sciences’ employees are continuing to uphold and further their mission and cultural values. “We are awaiting word from the FDA on our third health indication, endometriosis, and we’re excited.” Eichhorn shared.

To find out how Sparrow can help your company achieve pain-free leave management, check out our services.