Upskilling and rapid learning applications will lead the way in future

Ahmedali N, Mentor, Cornucopia - V5 Global - a unit of FirstMeridian talks about the shifts in pharma hiring and training since the onset of the pandemic and elaborates on the emerging trends and strategies in talent management, sourcing, retention in the pharma sector, in an interview with Viveka Roychowdhury

- Viveka Roychowdhury

Pharma companies had to work through the lockdown as essential services. What were some challenges related to staffing, accommodation, training younger staff to perform without seniors who might have been in the higher age risk group, permits, etc.?

Pharma companies have both blue-collar and white-collar employees. They typically operate across different models and are involved in manufacturing, R&D, field sales and more.

In the last few months, many companies were operational around the clock to meet the demand for products. The industry, as a whole, had to adapt to newer ways of working in a very short period. There were various challenges with the supply chain, procurement, retaining quality and meeting production deadlines.

One of the biggest challenges has been staffing. All sectors have seen their share of attrition in the past few months, which has created challenges for training and maintaining quality and continuity of operations.

In pharma and other sectors, a solution to this has been adopting contract staffing and managed services. These services allow companies to expand their workforce without undertaking the pain of training and managing the staff.

In the current situation, while the industry needs to add people, constant disruptions are a challenge to training. Many companies have been addressing this issue by virtual training programmes for their employees.

With these challenges in place, upskilling and rapid learning applications will lead the way in future, which will help companies train their staff virtually.

A lot of pharma companies who worked through the lockdown had a sizeable section of staff getting the COVID-19 infection. How are they coping with staffing challenges, especially as the second wave looks to be worse than the first?