Indian Institute of Health Management Research (IIHMR), Jaipur has organised the national conclave on ‘Human Resource Management in Pharmaceutical Industry: Challenges and Future Directions’ at Hotel Grand Hyatt in Mumbai today.

The conclave, supported by Organization of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) – the umbrella body representing mostly MNC pharma companies, analysed the importance of human resources in a start-up, budding or a well-established pharmaceutical company.

It has been predicted that by the year 2015, the Indian Pharmaceutical industry would be the third largest all over the world with an output of US$ 20 billion. Research & Development is the core function of pharmaceutical companies and to deliver the required high-skilled employees.

The focus of product patent era in India has shifted to ‘Research & Development’ for the pharmaceutical companies to survive in the global market. In pharma industry no one can rely on generic drugs and innovation is the need of the hour. India falls short of highly qualified individuals suited to perform these functions.

Dr S D Gupta, MD, PhD (Johns Hopkins), FAMS, director, IIHMR, says, “By introducing courses such as hospital and pharmaceutical management, IIHMR strives to resolve this issue of talent crunch by producing well-qualified students capable of making a real difference in the field of pharma, by preparing them for the corporate roles.”

The growth of organization is depended on the strength of its employees. The first step in developing a strong employee base in an organisation starts with identifying and recruiting the correct human resources. It must have an eye to pick the right candidates from the market, sift out the less-than-optimum candidates, based on qualification, technical and soft skills. These criteria will greatly reduce the time gap between screening and appointment. The ongoing goals for human resources are talent development, employee retention and conflict management. These form the core of HRD.

“Human Resources must not be selected using ‘one approach fits all companies’ formula. An ideal mix of technical and managerial skills specific for each role makes for a good candidate able to do justice to his role in an organization. And our course of pharmaceutical management prepares the students just for that,” added Dr Gupta.

The role of IIHMR is not confined to provision of education. “We work at state as well as national level. We strive to build attitude towards accepting evidenced-based and not hunch-based policies. We at IIHMR also organize workshops on policy formulation,” adds Gupta.

Talent acquisition, employee retention and management are some of the important topics which experts at the conclave discussed in the context of what more can be done to improve the organization. Employee retention is a big challenge nowadays. Job-hopping is a common trend which employees adopt for quick growth in terms of money and designation.

The attrition rate in the pharmaceutical industry is 20 per cent as per Dr Gupta. This can be reduced by providing a positive atmosphere to its employees in terms of supportive culture, training programmes, a policy in place for conflict management and adequate ‘rewards and recognition’ programme is crucial to employee retention, which in turn, contributes to the company’s growth. As per reports, this year's salary hike will be the highest for the Indian pharmaceutical industry, with a projection of 13.3 per cent hike. With this in mind, it becomes the responsibility of an organization of creating proper slabs for salary hikes for its deserving human resources.

Talking about his vision for India for the year 2020, Dr Gupta says, “Only 35 per cent of India’s population can avail of the benefits of healthcare. Our goal for year 2020 is making good quality medicines available to the Indian public at low cost. And this is only possible for when there is highly talented manpower capable of drug R&D. And providing an education capable of producing such students is the first step in doing so and the goal of IIHMR too.”