Having the right balance where company culture is concerned is vital to a successful and growing organisation. Pf’s Iain Bate focuses on where companies often get it wrong.

Company culture is very much like gravity. You may not be able to see it, touch it, smell it or hear it, but, good or bad, it’s everywhere you turn in every organisation. But just what is it? And, more importantly, what makes the difference between a productive company culture and a damaging one?
In 1966, Marvin Bower from global management consulting firm, McKinsey & Company, described company culture as “how we do things around here”. Sure, it can seem to be as simple as that. But company culture is far more than preferences or working habits. It’s in the metaphorical bloodstream of a company. Or at least it should be. During induction days at a new job, company culture is very rarely mentioned. In fact, you may go throughout your whole working life in a job and it never be discussed. You may be given tips on sales techniques or how to walk in a single line to exit offices during a fire drill, but training on company culture is seldom given or heard of.

Gabrielle O’Donovan, a company culture expert who penned The Corporate Culture Handbook, said in an interview in 2007 that the role of company culture is to preserve the past via tradition while stimulating via innovation. However, if organisations are neglecting company culture and failing to express the principles from which they were founded upon, then how can they possibly move forward?

There are many facets of company culture. In fact, no two companies’ methodologies will be the same. These may include having a strong mission clarity, having committed and empowered employees, forging strong relationships between staff and highly effective leaders and a commitment to learning and development. Whilst there are many more to mention, if one element of these is badly wrong within an organisation it can affect ideologies towards company culture – especially from an employee’s point of view.

Each year, Pf’s Company Perception, Motivation and Satisfaction Survey gives those working within the medical sales industry the chance to vent their frustrations or express their gratification on the issues which matter the most to them. Participants are asked to outline what it is like working for their current employer and what they consider to be the most significant things that characterise their past twelve months in their job. Behind a shield of anonymity, respondents rarely pull any punches. And this year’s survey was no different. Pf took a look at some of the latest responses, and examine what they say about the key components of company culture. The following are real examples of feedback from the Pf Survey 2010/11. They outline some of the ‘deadly sins’ of company culture that, where they exist, can be very damaging.

1.  Job security
“It’s at an all-time low. My new manager is one of the most unprofessional, unethical and dishonest people I have ever come across with no integrity, drive or desire to assist in any way. I have been bullied and harassed; I’m demoralised with low self esteem.”

At a time of widespread industry job losses, one thing that employees value more than anything in the current market is security. Immediate managers and their seniors have an important role to play in ensuring a sense of security in the workplace. Dr Jill Miller and Rebecca Clarke, research advisers, CIPD, note that although job security may not seem an obvious or important factor in company culture, acknowledging and delivering this to employees not only eases any office-based worries but also creates loyalty and promotes retention – something which is important in an era when employees are less likely to have company affinity or search for a ‘job for life’. 

2. Leadership
“The Managing Director has been parachuted in and knows very little about the industry. He behaves like Napoleon and morale is at rock bottom. After 2009 being the best year ever, a 0% pay rise leaves everyone in the wrong frame of mind.”

As in any organisation, those at the top of the career ladder must lead by example. How are employees on the ground expected to promote a healthy and successful company culture if their superiors flaunt expected values? For example, the banking sector has again come in for wide-spread criticism recently for its bonus culture for senior leaders despite huge losses, whilst those working behind counters up and down the country still struggle to pay the bills. The same principles apply in any sector. If company culture is seen as the heartbeat of a company, then the brains – its leadership – must promote these elements and find ways of improving upon these at every opportunity.

3. Management
“The new line manager is not a great people person. He doesn’t answer his mobile and is slow returning calls. He also sends very blunt emails!”

The behaviour of line managers is equally important as those in senior positions. While staff on the ground may never even see or speak to a company chairman or a managing director, they are likely to have daily interaction with their boss. Dr Miller and Jill Clarke explain that managers throughout an organisation have a key role to play in “maintaining the company’s culture, role-modelling expected attitudes and behaviours”. As a result of the absence of training in expected values, many organisations find that articulation and communication of the expected values of the company, and how to maintain these, is a vital step in ensuring staff are aware of what is expected of them. Line managers are in the perfect position to do this on a daily basis.

4. Training
“My company is too self engrossed and not willing to develop talent. Instead it is more keen on supporting those who have worked for the company for longer despite knowing results are not being achieved. There’s no logic or rationale for recognising individuals. It is more likely to put people off trying to progress.”

At a time when pay rises are well below the rate of inflation – if you’re lucky to have one at all – and the fear of the axe looms large, training is seen as an avenue of progression. Sure you may not get paid for a promotion, but it looks good on your CV and new skills and qualifications can be gained in the process. But when training programmes are withdrawn or neglected by organisations there’s an immediate impact on the ground. These schemes offer a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. Without these in place, staying in the same role – or even company – for the next 12 months may seem a dark place to be.

5. Career development
“It’s difficult, as the company move the goal posts with reference to development.”

There’s nothing worse than being stuck in the same routine without a glimpse of career progression. But, as companies have tightened their belts, opportunities to work the way up the career ladder have decreased. The need to work longer has also seen positions which would’ve come available after retirement blocked by established colleagues. Dr Miller and Jill Clarke believe that a new approach is needed by organisations to increase the amount of opportunities open to staff. “Organisations need to think smarter about their approach to training and development, taking a strategic approach to ensure the development offered is closely aligned to the current and, most importantly, future needs of the business.”

6. Salary and bonus
“I love working for my company; there’s a great culture and the management are very approachable. However, there’s a lot of responsibility and the hours I commit cut into evenings and my personal life with a low salary.”

No-one likes to think they’re overworked and underpaid. But human nature suggests that many of us do. In last year’s Pf survey, the median salary of respondents was £46,000 – of which 46% were unsatisfied with. The Office of National Statistics published results in 2011 which revealed that median gross annual earnings for full-time employees was around £26,000 – considerably less than those working within the medical sales industry. However, where money is concerned, there’s never enough. With food, clothing and energy prices continuing to rise – coupled with low interest rates – every penny spent needs to be justified. So if companies are squeezed and cannot budget for pay increases, they need to consider other means of rewarding, recognising and, ultimately, motivating staff.

7.  Work-life balance
“It is competitive with a lack of regard for personal needs. There is a lack of recognition unless you are in the clique! Ideas and individuality are not respected. It’s very administration focused with more and more time being spent on the computer. We are expected to do the same daily job of seeing face to face customers contributing to a very one sided work-life balance.”

Despite being well paid compared to other professionals and the UK average, there’s no point earning thousands of pounds each year and not being able to enjoy it. The balance between time spent at work and with the family has been placed under the microscope recently when staff are expected to work longer hours without any reward. Employers have a responsibility to improve work-life balance. Full time employees in the UK now average 42.7 hours a week at work. It’s arguably more for those travelling up and down the country visiting clients. But a refreshed and happy worker is a productive one. While employers may be happy to drain every last ounce of energy from their staff, in the long run it’s doing them no good. Danish workers, who only work 39.1 hours a week, are unsurprisingly more productive than UK counterparts. It’s no surprise.

Culture change
So how can companies address issues with job security, leadership and management, training, career development, work-life balance and issues with remuneration? In its report, Developing organisation culture, the CIPD advises companies to plan any attempted switch in values. A clear, public plan of action should be devised that communicates the need for new working measures and thinking, and outlines how the new approach complements the overall vision of the organisation.

Next, employees should be engaged for their opinions with managers also encouraged to play an active part in discussions. Senior leaders and managers on the ground need to ‘buy-in’ to any new measures and be seen to be transparent in their approach.

The report says it’s also important to identify and develop the necessary skills and behaviours required from staff to incorporate any new elements set to be introduced. If resources are tight, companies are encouraged to be creative to develop staff capabilities.

Finally, it’s important to measure and assess the impact of the new culture change. Without having staff onside and willing to help introduce change, any attempts will be futile. Staff need to buy into a vision they really see and hear the next time they look around the office.

Dr R K Powar continues her series of blogs on management skills by looking at the application in the workplace of Maslow’s theory of human needs and their impact on motivation.

Most of us have heard of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, probably coming across it in training sessions, team building, management courses etc. However, it is something that is applicable to almost everything we do, including the working part of our lives.

Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs states that each of us is motivated by needs. Our most basic needs are inborn, having evolved over millions of years. Maslow's theory helps to explain how these needs motivate us all.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs states that we must satisfy each need in turn, starting with the most important: the basic needs for survival itself. It is only when the lower-order needs of physical and emotional well-being are satisfied that we are concerned with the higher-order needs for influence and personal development. However it must be noted that if the things that satisfy our lower-order needs are swept away, we are no longer concerned about the maintenance of our higher-order needs.

The Hierarchy of Needs as defined by Maslow is:

1. Biological and physiological needs – air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc.

2. Safety needs – protection from elements, security, order, law, limits, stability, etc.

3. Belongingness and love needs – work group, family, affection, relationships, etc.

4. Esteem needs – self-esteem, achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, managerial responsibility, etc.

5. Self-actualisation needs – realising personal potential, self-fulfilment, seeking personal growth, etc.

Levels 1 to 4 are deficiency motivators (we are driven by lack); level 5 is a growth motivator (we are driven to achieve growth) and is relatively rarely found.

Organisations spend a great deal of time and resources motivating staff, usually by offering training, and all too often it is thought that when employees have had training they will automatically become experts at understanding their own needs as well as those of their work colleagues. The two examples below show that the crippling of needs is usually a cause of stress, particularly at level 4:

• You can’t motivate someone to achieve their sales targets (level 4) when they're having problems with their marriage (level 3).

• You can’t expect someone to work as a team member (level 3) when they're having their house repossessed (level 2).

So while Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs can be useful in providing depth in understanding people, it can only prove useful if there are good listening and communication skills in place and the time and trouble is afforded to learn about the needs of staff in the workplace, i.e. using the softer skills of management.

Dr R K Powar has over ten years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry and provides a range of tailored programmes to help staff improve on their Softer S’s skill base.

E-mail: r11osyconsultants@yahoo.co.uk

LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/r11osyconsultants

Twitter: @ravipowar

Fearless pharma blogger Maxine Vaccine takes a look at some key issues affecting the industry – this week, a seasonal recommendation for anyone driven to drink by the pre-Christmas routine of motivational meetings and on-message corporate communications.

This week, in the festive spirit, I’m going to recommend something nice. (I’ll be carving the roast beast next.) It’s a small book of captioned photos, ideal for an office Secret Santa – especially if you’ve drawn the boss’ name. The book is Management Boll**ks by Richard Havers (Mirrorpix, £7.99).

As we’re not appearing on the shelves of W.H. Smith’s, we can safely inform you that the theme of Richard’s book is management bollocks. Otherwise known as empty jargon, business cant, doubletalk, Newspeak or just plain bullshit. The common language of all the piss-poor presentations, mind-numbing meetings and cretinous conferences you’ve ever had to get through by painting wide-open eyes on your eyelids – and afterwards, pretend it all had motivational value.

Management Boll**ks is as simple as its theme is tortured. It consists of images from old films and newsreels captioned with management-speak. There’s a night-club manager saying to three hostesses with identical skimpy outfits and hairstyles: “Good, I see you’ve all read the corporate identity manual.” And a butler saying to a despairing baroness: “I think we need to keep going forward in order to achieve a win-win, while not losing sight of our exit strategy.” And a very drab middle-aged man leaning over a terrified young lady and muttering in her ear: “Cheryl, I want you to be part of our ambitious change agenda.”

The beauty of this book is how it gently demonstrates the absurdity of office dialect by showing how far it is from any real experience. This is not the language of the street, the sports field or the home, however much your boss may pretend it is. This is the dead air of pretension and intellectual decay. It has all the spontaneity of a politician’s jokes, all the natural grace of a drunk trying to prove his sobriety by walking in a straight line.

Make it your New Year resolution not to think outside the box, push the envelope, identify the win-win, benchmark the blue sky or future-proof the bottom line. Because if you send out bullshit, you will undoubtedly get nothing but bullshit back. And you’ll deserve it.

Maxine Vaccine is keen to receive your feedback on these and other pharma industry issues. Be nice (but don’t be NICE)!

Fast-blogging bundle of attitude Maxine Vaccine takes a look at key issues affecting the pharma industry – this week, some worrying evidence that UK employers have lost the trust of their staff.

UK company bosses have mostly lost (or never gained) the trust of their employees. That’s not just my view: it’s the conclusion of a recent report from the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD). They also note that mistrust of your manager is a major driver of the decision to look for a new job. Finally, their results point to a regional trend: trust in senior management is lower in the North and in Wales than in the South.

The survey asked UK employees “Do you trust your senior management teams?” The overall response indicated that if all those team meetings are getting staff to sing from the same hymn sheet, the songs are mostly from Nick Cave’s Murder Ballads.

The ‘net agree score’ to the question was –26 in North East England, –25 in Wales, –16 in North West England and –12 in Scotland. Even the more affluent London (–10) and East of England (–6) showed signs of wanting to think outside the box – after putting their boss in it and burying it six feet deep. Only South West England showed a positive overall trend towards trust in management (+13).

Interestingly, no result was given for the West Midlands. Perhaps because the only answer to the question from that region was “Is the Pope a Protestant?”

CIPD also found that 47% of employees who strongly mistrust their senior management team are looking for a new job, compared with 8% of those who strongly trust their leaders. But then, a lot of sales and marketing employees fluctuate between the former and the latter category depending on the state of their bloodstream.

What lessons do these grim figures offer to managing directors, sales managers, HR managers and other movers and shakers in the pharma industry? One is that all that moving and shaking just makes you look like a cokehead. Another is that HR is an unenviable role: you spend your working life with your face towards management and your backside towards the staff, then wonder why it hurts when you sit down.

A third, more useful lesson is that trust is not gained by printing a staff handbook or by buying a round of drinks. If you’re a team leader, the trust of your team – whether their role is sales, marketing, R&D, manufacturing, distribution or even management – has to be earned by straight talking and by showing, on a daily basis, that you mean what you say. Even if they like you a bit less, they will trust you a lot more.

Maxine Vaccine is keen to receive polite feedback on these and other pharma industry issues. She is fully compliant with the ABPI Code – but not anything (or anyone) else. You have been warned.

Medical device outsourcing company Vention Medical has acquired ATEK Medical Group, a leader in medical device assembly, packaging and injection moulding.

Dan Croteau, CEO of Vention Medical, said, “Our partnership with the ATEK Medical Group management team will allow Vention to provide an enhanced customer experience. Like Vention, ATEK Medical Group aspires to continually satisfy customers through intense focus on services that improve quality, innovation, and cost.”

The acquisition will incur a variety of combined capabilities and services, including product design and development, innovative component technologies, along with the manufacturing space of 175,000 square feet at its Costa Rica campus.

ATEK recently opened a second facility in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to support customer demands in the US.

Chris Oleksy, President of ATEK Medical, and Tom Houdeshell of ATEK Plastics, said that Vention’s experience and capabilities in design, components and assembly makes Vention “a very appealing partner for us”.

Vention Medical specialises in components and services used in interventional and minimally-invasive products, including medical balloons, advanced extrusions and heat shrink tubing, clean room injection moulding, assembly and packaging services.

University College Hospital (UCH), London has purchased the UK’s first Biograph mMR hybrid molecular MR system (pictured) from Siemens Healthcare.

In the same month, the hospital’s Institute of Nuclear Medicine brought together clinical scientists to celebrate its 50^th anniversary.

The Biograph mMR – one of the first to be installed in Europe – will be housed in the UCH Macmillan Cancer Centre and used for diagnosis and planning of patient treatment, as well as research.

The world’s first simultaneous whole-body PET-MRI scanner. the Biograph mMR has won the red dot design award 2011 and the Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Award 2011 for its integrated design and scanning capabilities.

At the Institute of Nuclear Medicine’s 50th anniversary, Bruce Rosen, Professor of Radiology, Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard Medical School, gave a lecture on the future of combined PET and MR.

UCH Chairman Richard Murley thanked the UCLH Charity for funding the purchase of the new scanner.

Professor Peter Ell, former Head of the Institute of Nuclear Medicine, summed up half a century of medical imaging, including the first European nuclear medicine brain scanner in the 1970s; the first dedicated mobile renal function apparatus in the 1980s; and the introduction of PET-CT in cancer management.

With financial experts warning of another global recession it’s a worrying time for both healthcare professionals and those currently without a job.

The Government in its ultimate wisdom last week revealed plans to eliminate certain discrimination laws in an attempt to make it easier for employers to do away with unproductive workers and replace those with a willingness to work.

But while the principle may sound simplistic, one boss’ judge of a productive medical representative doing their upmost to sell a dated product may be different to the person struggling to succeed in a crowded and competitive marketplace.

Instead of casting aside one unproductive worker for another, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has called for the Government to scrap its intention to remove certain discrimination laws and instead focus on those with healthcare jobs, for example, to increase their skill set to improve productivity.

The CIPD’s calls aren’t exactly rocket science – yet they do make sense. Questions have to be raised why so many employees are unhappy with the level of productivity of their workforce. The reason may be closer to home.

More than a third of the workforce in the UK has managerial responsibilities. But how many of those dedicate time to improving the skill sets of their staff? Whilst training days or programmes may not provide immediate results the long term skills gain can yield rewards for years to come.

The key to unlocking productivity levels may not be with those set for the axe, but those wielding it in the first place.

EKR Therapeutics has appointed Robert Roche Jr as an independent director to its Board.

John Bailye, President and CEO of EKR Therapeutics, said that Mr Roche “brings a wealth of operating and management experience to our company at a time when we are working hard to expand our business”.

Mr. Roche currently works as Independent Director of NuPathe in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. His previous positions include executive vice president of Worldwide Pharmaceutical Operations at Cephalon as well as various sales and marketing roles at SmithKline Beecham.

EKR Therapeutics is a pharmaceutical company that provides acute care products to the hospital marketplace.

As many as 238,000 pharmaceutical jobs may be lost in a decade in the US if President Obama’s proposed American Jobs Act is introduced, a new report warns.

The Act proposes that manufacturers of prescription drugs would pay rebates to the federal government for medicines used in both the Medicare and Medicaid health schemes and Medicare’s prescription drug benefit, known as Part D.

The report says that mandatory Part D rebates would see jobs cut, increase the cost of medication for the elderly and slow R&D with pharma absorbing the new charges.

This would result, it adds, in reduced payroll employment, reduced profits and possibly higher prices for other buyers.

President Obama introduced the bill in September, but faced stiff opposition from Republicans in the Senate who rejected the measure in the chamber vote.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) estimates that if the Act were introduced, the rebates would result in $135 billion paid to the federal government over the next ten years.

The report, published by the American Action Forum, a free-market policy think tank, says that “at a minimum, these additional rebates would constitute a direct, dollar-for-dollar reduction in revenue to the pharmaceutical industry”.

It also forecasts that hundreds of thousands of job losses would come from direct employment within the pharmaceutical industry and indirectly from suppliers.

After the rejection by the Senate, President Obama is now touring the US with the aim to increase support for the Act, which according to some economists, could actually create up two million jobs and see the economic growth by two percentage points.

Merck’s chairman of its board of directors, Richard T. Clark, has decided to take retirement in December.

The former president and CEO of Merck will be replaced by Kenneth C. Frazier as the board’s new chair.

Mr Frazier thanked the outgoing chairman for the “leadership and the innumerable contributions he has made to our company and our industry”.

He first joined Merck back in 1972 and went on to lead the company for five years between 2005 and 2010. Mr Clark has served as a director at the company since May 2005 and became chairman in 2007.

“I have been a part of Merck for more than 39 years – I always have and always will consider Merck to be an important part of my life and my extended family,” said Mr Clark. “It has been a great pleasure to work with the talented, dedicated people of Merck who are so committed to our mission of saving and improving lives around the world.

“I am confident that under Ken Frazier's leadership, the company is well positioned for continued success in the future.”