TeamLease perceives a lull in the hiring pattern of pharmaceutical industry in the country for the period April to September 2015. This is because the pharma industry is not reflecting its growth in value terms.

When revenues are impacted, the efforts to take on new employees would be on a decline. However for the job openings could only be for strategic postings in departments of finance, information technology and front line sales.

“Right now there is moderation in the recruitment in the drug manufacturing sector. We would not see a spike in the number of new entrants till Q3 of this fiscal,” Hussain Tinwala, general manager, TeamLease Services, told Pharmabiz.

There is also a visible slow demand in the research and development space. Therefore, R&D openings are stalled. These could cover personnel who include entry level scientists and experienced researchers driven by a dearth of projects and drying up of the drug pipeline. No doubt the stagnation in the pharma sector is imminent and as far as assignment momentum is concerned for the next six months, we are not expecting to see a splurge in expansion of personnel in the pharma sector, he added.

The companies will engage in training candidates to update their skills. They would also embark on multi-tasking to provide a variety of exposures in pharmaceutical industry operations.

 Even in the clinical research organisations and in contract manufacturing and research services, there is a lull in the number of projects which is leading to control the recruitment plans, pointed out Tinwala.

“However, during this phase, the pharma industry will be able to control its high attrition. In fact, in February this year, the hiring rose to 88 per cent from 82 per cent. For instance the front line sales, the attrition was around 25 per cent to 30 per cent and for middle level sales, it ranged from 18 per cent to 20 per cent. Now we would see job openings in companies for front line sales,” he said.

“Moreover, the after effects of appraisals will now see employees not opting for change of jobs because of slowdown in the hiring plans. There is a year-on-year drop in attrition because of lack of openings and lucrative jobs. We see the situation to prevail till September 2015 and expect to see an uptick in job openings only after the Q3”, said Tinwala.

The fall in attrition percentage will positively ensure smooth functioning of the business. Companies will be determined to implement better employee engagement programme, support higher education aspirations etc. They will also work to devise in managing with existing employees who are yearning for change by investing into encouraging succession planning and spend time on innovative projects, said Tinwala.