Change in hiring trends

Talent acquisition in the pharma industry is going through a dramatic new phase. Sudipta Dev focuses on the strategic changes in the pharma recruitment market.

The pharma industry in India has been a witness to dynamic changes in the last few years, which has majorly impacted the recruitment scenario in the sector. Improvement in the job market has necessitated rethinking of the hiring strategy in most organisations. Multiple opportunities, influx of talent from diverse fields, along with unheard of salary hikes have changed the normally traditional bastions of the industry.

The hiring trends have in fact changed dramatically in recent years. With manufacturing being outsourced to India, most of the pharma companies are revamping their manufacturing teams. CRO expansion leads to type-II and type-III R&D work being outsourced, hence more hiring. "Furthermore, Indian pharma companies are doing well overseas and prefer to hire Indian talent for their operations abroad. There is resurgence in the sector which had reached a certain level of stagnation, with new companies being set up as well as expansion of the domestic sales team," says Varda Pendse, Director, Cerebrus Consultants.

"The Indian companies are better than the multinational pharma organisations at building relationships with campuses as it has been a resurgence for them from early 2000s" - Varda Pendse Director Cerebrus Consultants

As far as the demand and supply of talent in the industry is concerned, the war for talent has become acute, in particular for certain roles in manufacturing, R&D etc. Pendse points out that pharma manufacturing talent, particularly for quality roles, have been hired by the top companies and there is short supply of skilled manpower in the market. Another significant fact is that since the last 15 years, most of the traditional pharma companies focussed on hiring only sales staff, neglecting the manufacturing and R&D talent. The short supply of talent has been compounded by the fact that students passing out from pharma colleges have not increased dramatically.

Wider spectrum

"This has been the 'holy grail' in this industry where 'grey hair', to a large extent, was always considered higher in pedigree than 'grey cells' in a manner of speak" - Vikram Bhardwaj Partner Redileon

The change is evident from several facts. Hiring is now not just limited to people with marketing or research backgrounds, but professionals from diverse domains. Vikram Bhardwaj, Partner, Redileon believes that from an ad-hoc, 'need based' approach towards talent acquisition, companies have realised the importance of maintaining a talent pipeline, well-meshed with the other HR tools. "There is a dearth of talent for 'industry specific' roles where skills from other sectors cannot be either 'transported' or 'transferred'. For roles where skills have a direct precedent in other sectors, the talent yield is manageable," adds Bhardwaj. The industry now looks for talent in critical roles linked to business, such as finance, strategy, IPR and legal, etc. Organisations are also realising the value a search firm brings to the table in terms of industry knowledge, relationships, recruiting expertise-all in a metrics driven environment. This has led to increasing partnerships with select search firms who have such expertise for critical leadership jobs. Mumbai-headquartered EmmayHR has seen a 200 percent hike in the number of pharma clients in the last few years. "This is clearly demonstrative of the fact that an increasing number of players are seeking to harness professional expertise to attract the right talent, as versus the old way of pure rolodex networking," says Monisha Advani, CEO, EmmayHR. She asserts that it is important that companies professionalise their talent acquisition agendas by partnering with recruitment companies that are invested in tracking their sector rather than merely funneling CVs.

Commonly targeted segments

Changes in the hiring trend has been marked by transformation of sought-after profiles. The skill sets that they require now covers a much wider spectrum-from production to supply-chain management expertise, and from vanilla marketing to FMCG experience. "Also, compensation trends bring additional concern to the normally traditional and conservative salary budgets of this industry," states Advani. For sales force recruitment, the previously plundered BSc population has now expanded to include BMS and BCom candidates as well. Advani informs that for production and R&D workforce, companies are sweeping the region rather than limiting their recruitment grounds to India. For corporate or management positions, there is a greater openness and preference to individuals from sales-oriented sectors like the FMCG and consumer durables. Of course, classically, headhunters are always suggested to look into the neighbour's backyard as well.

Bhardwaj albeit points out that apart from leadership roles in functions like the HR, finance, legal, sales & marketing, which are most often than not sourced from outside the sector, specific leadership roles in R&D, clinical research, etc. are industry specific.

Response from the 'old guard'

The interesting question is how has the old guard in the industry responded to the new changes. The problem, believes Pendse, is that the old guard is unable to comprehend the need to attract talent, which is in short supply as the younger generation has many opportunities. "This has been the 'holy grail' in this industry where 'grey hair', to a large extent, was always considered higher in pedigree than 'grey cells' in a manner of speak," says Bhardwaj. This is however fast changing and the talent inflexion curve has been well understood and adjusted to by the old guard.

A change is being witnessed among the vanguards of the old traditions. Advani, in fact, feels that the 'old guard' has responded more adeptly in the pharmaceutical sector than others, "It helps that this has been a private sector from the onset and has always attracted a greater international influence, which helps it to keep up with the times."

Campus recruitment

Campus recruitment is a part of the recruitment strategy of a few of the leading pharma companies, though most do not have any linkage to campuses and are still learning the ropes of developing the relationship. "The Indian companies are better than the multinational pharma organisations at building relationships with campuses as it has been a resurgence for them from early 2000s," states Pendse. Advani is quick to point out that traditional employers now have to fight for week two slots in light of the money-muscle of the new economy and services sector employers.

Strategic workforce planning does not just mean formulating the best way to attract and retain the best talent, but also anticipating the future workforce needs of the organisation. This includes dealing with the issue of attrition, which is a challenge for many companies. The need for future workforce planning, keeping in mind the business needs in the next three to five years is imperative for pharma organisations. Their talent acquisitions plans need to be streamlined and in tandem with their business plans.

editorial.ep@expressindia.com