| Building successful recruitment and retention strategies is vital to the enhancement of organisational productivity across the pharmaceutical industry. Jo Causon of the Chartered Management Institute identifies the challenges ahead
In a highly competitive job market, recruiting and retaining high performing managers at all levels of the organisation has become an increasingly important issue for pharmaceutical businesses. To attract staff and encourage continued engagement, organisations are under greater pressure to offer more opportunities internally. Many consider recruitment and retention as the remit of HR; however all managers need to understand their role in staff retention and the action they need to take.
The reason for this is clear, as findings from this year’s National Management Salary Survey suggest. Published by the Chartered Management Institute and Remuneration Economics, the research shows that in most business sectors, resignations have increased because of employee frustration with company pay structures and a lack of job satisfaction. However, the research has revealed an interesting difference with organisations in the pharmaceutical sector; people are changing roles internally more frequently, perhaps suggesting that they are happy to seek new challenges with their current employers. This could also suggest that, rather than looking to other organisations, they are finding what they want by working with their employers to identify different opportunities.
EMPLOYMENT AND THE PHARMA INDUSTRY
Within such a highly competitive environment, where many individuals are working on areas of projects alone or in small groups, pharmaceutical companies appear to be working hard to keep their talented workforce. In fact, for the 12 months to January 2006, pharmaceutical organisations reported a labour turnover rate of 16.9 per cent; of this, 13.9 per cent results from internal transfers. The remaining three per cent accounts for resignations, redundancies, retirements and other reasons. This shows that managers in the pharmaceutical industry resign less often than those in other business areas (1.5 per cent compared to 4.6 per cent across all industries). Perhaps we can conclude, then, that the industry is leading the way in terms of career opportunities for individuals who wish to progress through their organisations. |
