Roche, a branch of Hoffman-La Roche, selected Escazú Village as the new headquarters of its Costa Rican Global Shared Information Technology Services Center. The center will serve the company’s operations in Canada and the United States, said a report in Costa Rica’s Summa business magazine.

F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG is a Swiss multinational healthcare company that operates worldwide under two divisions: pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Its holding company, Roche Holding AG, has bearer shares listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. The company headquarters are located in Basel, said information compiled on Wikipedia.

The new center will be located on the sixth floor of the office tower at Escazú Village, a recently inaugurated complex next to Walmart in San Rafael de Escazú, and will cover an area of approximately 2,300 square meters.

The Roche IT center started operations in June 2017 in the Ultrapark Free Zone in La Aurora de Heredia, and will transfer to Escazú at the end of the year. The IT center serves the company’s pharmaceuticals and diagnostics divisions by handling calls originating in the United States and Canada.

The company said their strict requirements for workplace safety and benefits led them to hire Cushman & Wakefield AB Advisory, a company specializing in commercial real estate, to evaluate different options for office space, which led them to choose Escazú Village, according to Domingo
Rojas, director of Roche’s Global IT Shared Services Center, in an interview with Summa.

The decision was based on aspects of worker demographics, and also contemplated access to public transport, the availability of quality infrastructure, and the existence of complementary amenities that contribute to the balance between personal and professional life of the company’s employees. The company consistently ranks one of the highest in the world on employee satisfaction.

This operation joins other Roche IT shared service centers in Budapest (Hungary) and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). In addition, it joins key sites in information in Madrid (Spain), Basel (Switzerland), Warsaw (Poland) and South San Francisco (California, USA).

Roche’s Costa Rica center aims to boost their current workforce of about 17 people to 100 employees in the next five months.

Currently, openings are available at Roche Costa Rica in the areas of customer service, analysis, operations, and management. Candidates should possess fluency in English, excellent customer service and IT support experience.