As Santa starts to think about who he is going to reward for good behaviour, it would seem appropriate for Pf to look at which pharma companies deserve the biggest slice of Christmas cake, what made them stand out during 2012 and the resolutions they have for the New Year.

There can be no denying it’s been another turbulent twelve months for the pharmaceutical industry. Job losses across the majority of departments, generic exposure on key products and failing pipelines have been enough to make bosses choke on their deep-filled mince pies and turn to the brandy butter.
Yet there are still plenty of gifts under the tree to get excited about. Last year’s survey found that pharmaceutical employees continue to get paid well above the national average. Meanwhile, fewer people are looking to move company compared to the year before and pharma reps have maintained a belief in company culture, despite major departmental reforms.

Here is a selection of the standout companies who defied the recession to top the Employer of Choice charts.

Abbott

Offering an open and supporting environment where employees can develop a career path across a diverse portfolio of businesses, Abbott sees the development of its people as “key to long-term commercial success”. The company boasts an “exceptional compensation and benefits package”, plus strong pipelines for all its businesses, from biologics and molecular drugs to medical devices.

After being voted one of the Best Multinational Workplaces in Europe by the Great Place to Work® Institute and listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index for the seventh consecutive year, the company hopes to build on these successes in 2013. The company adds that “ethics and compliance will continue to underlie” everything it does to continue to improve access to treatment for patients across the globe.

Astellas

Size matters at Astellas. It says it is “small enough to be agile but big enough to make a difference.” This, coupled with a focused approach, has enabled it to achieve category leadership in urology and transplantation and a major presence in the anti-infective market. Collaboration between all team members and customers is “key to achieving success as outlined in our core values of teamwork, adaptability and mutual respect,” the company says. 

A recent company survey showed that almost 90% of employees were proud to work for Astellas and would recommend the company to a potential colleague. Astellas successfully implemented two patient information campaigns within the last 12 months to address dispensing errors in transplant medicine, enhance patient safety and to increase over-active bladder awareness through an extensive campaign. 

Boehringer Ingelheim

After recently celebrating 50 years of being in the UK, Boehringer Ingelheim went on to top the EoC rankings for the sixth year in a row. BI was also ranked one of the best companies to work for in the 2012 Sunday Times Top 100 ‘Best Companies’ survey. Using a culture of transparency and respect for individuals, it aims to “empower people and listen to their ideas”. An excellent standard of training is complemented by the emphasis being placed on personal development and improvement.

The company will now be focusing its efforts on ‘Painting BI’s Future’ – a strategic review in response to the changing environment. Recommendations are now being further developed through the initiative, with eight cross-divisional teams exploring how to make the recommendations a reality. Additionally, ‘Making more health’ is a global partnership with Ashoka focused on identifying and supporting innovative health solutions. 

LEO Pharma

LEO’s unique Foundation status allows it to be financially independent and means that decisions are based on “what is best for the business in order to build long-term growth”, it says. This also provides a platform from which to implement focused, long-term R&D programmes – 17% of global annual turnover is allocated to R&D, enabling LEO to make fast decisions and respond quickly to innovative ideas.

The company has enjoyed a successful 2012 with double-digit sales growth in its two focus areas – Dermatology and Thrombosis – plus continued US growth and a robust pipeline. A series of patient-centric initiatives have also been successful. Ambitious plans have recently been released outlining how LEO intends to build a global and patient-centric organisation designed to bring it even closer to patients around the world and better listen and respond to their challenges.  

Napp Pharmaceuticals Ltd

Napp has two key strengths that underpin its commercial success: its people and the culture they create. The company believes that everybody should have the “opportunity and responsibility to perform to the best of their abilities”, which ensures employees are supported to develop and have the opportunity to play an active role in planning for its future.

The Company has introduced Napp Account Selling, an approach to key
account management through which all departments work together to find innovative ways to support the NHS in achieving its goals whilst ensuring business sustainability. In 2012, it launched a new respiratory product, and is committed to becoming a long-term partner to the NHS in respiratory medicine, whilst maintaining its position as a leader in pain and continuing to grow its oncology business – focusing on treatments for patients with blood cancers.

Roche Products Ltd

Roche says its values – integrity, courage to reach beyond boundaries and passion for they do – allow its employees to “express themselves in an open and respectful environment”. Its evolving business creates numerous internal opportunities both locally and globally for staff. Highlighting the importance of collaboration, Roche uses feedback, knowledge sharing, debate and co-operation as the foundation of its performance culture. The result, it says, is “one of the most exciting and open-minded places to advance your career”. 

After celebrating more than a century of innovation, the company continues to carefully balance long-term investment decisions with near-term deliverables. Roche continues to improve motivation through instilling energy, creativity and passion into all of its staff pursuits. Expertise in the field and leadership are displayed through a host of cross-industry initiatives to address inequalities in access to medicines for eligible patients.

The Pf Company Perception, Motivation and Satisfaction Survey – which launches in January 2013 – gives key account managers and their colleagues a chance to air their opinions on the good, the bad and the ugly sides of the industry.

The Survey also includes the coveted Employer of Choice guide – where respondents get the opportunity to voice who they’d most like to work for – not including their own company, of course!

Why have employees kept a belief in company culture despite major structural reforms to sales forces?

If you cast your mind back to the mid-1990s you’ll probably recall tapping along to a song sang on screen by a warthog and a meerkat in one of the most memorable scenes in The Lion King. The moral of hakuna matata was that regardless of your surroundings you have to make the best of them. The same could be said for key account managers working within in today’s medical sales sector.

There’s no getting away from the fact that the way pharmaceutical companies conduct internal operations has changed and continues to evolve. The same could be said of their philosophies. A few years ago – in an era of feet on the ground before the patent cliff – pharma companies could rightfully claim holy values, visions, beliefs and habits. However, after widespread job cuts where thousands of people have lost their jobs can the same still be said?

It seems the answer may be a resounding ‘yes’ – and that’s coming from employees! Respondents to the Pf Company Perception, Motivation and Satisfaction Survey again highlighted the importance of company culture after it was voted the fifth highest motivating factor for more than 1,200 people working in the medical sales industry. However, its fifth placed ranking shows there’s still room for improvement.

Employees working for contract sales organisations placed less emphasis on company culture than those employed on a permanent basis within the pharmaceutical industry. Interestingly, it was younger respondents who felt more motivated than older colleagues. Respondents aged less than 25 voted company culture as their main motivating factor whilst at work. But those aged 54 or over said it was only the seventh most important factor to them.

But what have the sweeping job cuts done to satisfaction levels? Overall, 59% of respondents claimed to be satisfied with their company culture with slightly more than a fifth (22%) claiming to have concerns. Women (61%) were slightly more satisfied then men (57%), with a higher proportion of males (26%) saying they were disillusioned with existing policies. Despite ranking company culture as only the seventh most motivating factor, those aged between 25 and 34 were the most satisfied of respondents with 68% saying they were happy. But those aged 54 and over said they were the least satisfied with 27% voicing their opposition.

Leading the way
The importance of company culture has long been recognised. It forms the environment in which people judge the appropriateness of their behaviour and their actions. A positive company culture – one which staff ‘buy in to’ – will influence how individuals work on a daily basis and reflects their motivation and performance.

As the pharmaceutical industry strives to be more transparent the emphasis placed on company culture has increased. The importance of leadership where company culture is concerned cannot be underestimated. The leadership structure of an organisation almost drip feeds the principles it wishes to be known for. However, overall success usually results from effective leadership, an engaged workforce and good lines of communication between the two.

Yet open conversations only play a minor part in establishing and developing company culture. There has to a commitment by managers and their own leaders to act in a way which they would expect from those at the lowest run of the ladder. Training and competence, compliance with procedures and organisational learning also make up essential values.

While it’s not easy to establish and maintain company principles it’s even more difficult to change and introduce new methods. A cultural change can take several years to introduce. Humans are creatures of habit and employees are no different. Teaching old dogs new tricks really is a time consuming process – regardless of how much investment there may be.

Choosing the one
The website learnmanagement2.com says there are four main types of company culture. The first, usually found within small or medium sized organisations is power culture. Here, control is a key element. Decisions within a business are usually centralised around one key individual. That person usually has control over decisions and the power to enforce them. This allows efficient decision making. However, this method does have its problems. A lack of consultation between other members of staff can lead to a feeling of being undervalued and a lack of motivation. A high turnover of staff is also associated with this type of company culture.

Then there’s role culture – possibly the most common and logical in organisations across the globe. Here, businesses are split into divisions or groups where individuals are assigned particular roles and responsibilities. This has the benefit of specialisation where bosses can rely on individual skill sets and employees to highlight their worth to a company through performance measures.  

Task culture sees a team-based approach assigned to a particular project. Popular in today’s business society, task culture offers benefits both to staff and their employers. Individuals feel motivated when tasks are completed or achieved and a sense of value after being selected for projects by senior management. NASA is one high-profile organisation which promotes task culture through its missions into space.

Finally, there’s personal culture. This is more commonly found in charities or non-profit organisations. In this instance a focus is placed on the organisation without any thought for personal progress or gain.

Changing principles
Research has shown that the most successful companies all have a strong culture – whatever it may be. The two are interlinked. But it’s not a question of luck either bringing the two together. The CIPD says that evidence has shown that organisational success is dependent on having the “right mix” of human resources in place. Also, there must be an ability, motivation and opportunity for staff to support cultural ideologies. Firstly, companies must recruit the correct people with the ability to understand and promote set values. Managers must then ensure that staff are effectively motivated in the workplace and to provide them with the right opportunities to use their skills in well-designed roles. 

It’s in the initial stages of recruitment where company culture CAN be defined and discussed between employees and their bosses. During induction days it’s rare for company culture to be discussed, let alone a handbook given out. However, during the interview process, bosses can get the chance to assess whether those sitting in front of them will be able to meet and enhance set beliefs.

So there you have it. If you want to improve your levels of company culture it’s important to find an organisation with the same philosophy as yourself. If you can find a company whose values match your own you’ll soon be tapping along again to hakuna matata – it’s a problem free philosophy!

Research suggests that the best work-life balance involves strong commitment to both areas.
Does that happen in pharma – or only in Narnia?

Medical sales professionals are likely to be wary of work-life balance (WLB). The traditional sales model has been associated with a workaholic mindset – the more you work, the more commission you earn – and an attraction to the freedom of the road. But these days, travelling light is likely to mean you have nothing to come back to. As medical sales has developed towards long-term selling and key account management, so its professionals have come to rely more on domestic stability as a support.

A perfect circle
A recent study by Working Families challenges the idea that home life and work are competing priorities. They surveyed over 2,000 high-achieving professionals, mostly female, working in the private sector in South-East England – supposedly the yuppie heartland. What they found was a strong, bidirectional correlation between ‘work engagement’ and ‘relationship quality’. As either factor improved it strengthened the other factor instead of detracting from it.

They also found that problems at work affected home life and vice versa – but whereas many professionals could escape from domestic stress at work, few could leave work issues behind when going home. Where a vicious circle existed between the two, the driving force was usually trouble at work. Where steps were taken to reduce stress at work, the domestic picture normally improved.

Working Families concluded: “Work-life balance is not the bringing together of two separate and competing domains, but rather the two need to be understood as two aspects of the same dynamic. Those who are more fulfilled at work may also be more fulfilled at home.”

These important findings suggest that work-life balance does not have to be seen in terms of managing a conflict. Far more importantly, it can be seen in terms of creating a mutual reinforcement to the benefit of the individual and the company.

Bending the rules
The big question for employers is how they can achieve this perfect circle for the dysfunctional individuals who make up their sales teams. Giving staff more flexibility – in terms of when and where they work – is the most popular solution among companies and staff alike.

However, Working Families notes, flexible working is no bed of roses. For women in particular, flexible working is likely to impact negatively on home life by allowing a conflict to develop. Conversely, men tend to take up flexible working “far less often” than women, perhaps due to fear of such a conflict. Employers should therefore ensure that there is an “embedded culture of flexibility” in which such conflicts and anxieties can be resolved.

The Work Foundation even makes flexible working definitive of WLB: “Work-life balance is about people having a measure of control over when, where and how they work.” But the truth is that WLB cannot be wholly separated from other issues such as accountability and autonomy.

The CIPD’s Employee Outlook for summer 2012 notes that 60% of employees report satisfaction with their WLB. Women are more likely to feel that they have the right WLB (65%) than men (55%). The CIPD reports a strong positive correlation between employee engagement and satisfaction with WLB.

A delicate balance
The Pf Company Perception, Motivation and Satisfaction Survey 2012 shows that for medical sales professionals, work-life balance ranks fourth in a list of 18 priorities (after salary, relationship with direct manager and job security). Overall, 42% of survey respondents are ‘satisfied’ with their WLB and 28% are ‘dissatisfied’.

These figures suggest that WLB is neither a major problem nor a big success for the pharma industry. Given that WLB is a predictor of work engagement, they do not encourage complacency.

Women surveyed are happier with their WLB (44%) than men (39%), which may reflect greater skill in balancing the relevant factors. Employees working part-time are happier (49%) than those working full-time (41%), which may reflect a trade-off between income and WLB.

Industry satisfaction with WLB is fairly consistent across regions in England, but is much lower in Wales (31%) and Scotland (30%). In Scotland, the proportion actively dissatisfied with WLB is 35%, making the issue a negative one for the nation’s pharma companies.

The age-related figures show highest satisfaction with WLB (68%) among employees aged below 25, with lowest satisfaction (35%) among those over 55. That does not suggest that starting a family is a trigger for major WLB concerns – and indeed, Working Families states that such a view is a myth. Rather, WLB becomes steadily more important with age.

Employees whose sales are above average are more likely to feel they have the right WLB (45%) than those whose sales are average or below average (both 36%). However, for those with the highest sales, WLB satisfaction drops to 34%. That suggests that the correlation between professional success and WLB works only up to a certain point.

Roles associated with associated with industry average or better WLB are nurse advisor (57%), primary care specialist (47%) and KAM (45%), while sales management is associated with WLB well below average: 31% for first-line managers, 26% (with a shocking 58% dissatisfied) for second-line managers.   

WLB satisfaction drops steadily with time in role, from 48% after less than six months to 37% after eight years. This contrasts with the effect of time in the industry, where WLB satisfaction rises to a peak between four and eight years (53%) before trailing off.

The whole picture
The Pf survey broadly supports the view that work-life balance is about the mutual reinforcement of work and home life, rather than managing a conflict. But it also shows that conflicts are possible in certain kinds of role, notably sales management, and where individuals may be aiming too high.

Companies need to support WLB, especially with older employees, and understand that WLB is a predictor of good performance. They should promote flexibility without seeking a ‘one size fits all’ model. Above all, they should be mindful that the strongest driver of successful WLB is fulfilment at work.

With jobs at a premium and the cost of living continuing to rise, job security has suddenly become a main priority for employees.

The global recession has affected each and every one of us in one way or another. Sweeping job losses throughout the medical sales sector – and in the pharmaceutical industry in particular – have seen even the most experienced personnel joining the queue at the job centre. For those lucky enough to have avoided the dreaded axe, it seems to have made us appreciate our job a whole lot more.

Last year was somewhat of a breakthrough year for as far as job security is concerned. Results from last year’s Pf Company Perception, Motivation and Satisfaction Survey highlighted how job security had gone from a passing thought to one of the main motivating factors for respondents. Ranked behind salary, relationship with manager and work-life balance in the 2009 survey, job security was suddenly thrust into the top-two motivating factors last year.

It has maintained its position this year behind salary as the second highest motivating factor after pharmaceutical companies continue to introduce ‘efficiency’ plans in an attempt to sustain profits and counter bleak pipelines. During an uncertain last twelve months it would seem that satisfaction levels in job security have also improved. Job security moved from 14th position last year to 11th in the latest set of results. Are companies doing more to reassure staff their jobs are safe, or are employees learning to live with the fact that their week at work may be their last?

Moving on
Attitudes towards job security have also affected respondents’ outlook on where they’d like to be within 12 months’ time – see Figure 1. In last year’s survey, 15% of respondents indicated they were searching for a move away from their current employers with 56% content to stay where they were. However, this year’s results show a slight increase in those figures with 13% of people within the medical sales sector looking for a new job and 59% happy where they are. 

Its men that indicated a stronger desire to change companies with 17% wishing to move organisations and a further 24% saying it was a possibility. However, female respondents were less sure about joining a new organisation with only a tenth wishing to move away from their current employers.

The importance now placed upon job security may also arise from the fact that employees are still very mindful of a turbulent few years – despite a glimpse of light at the end of a very, very dark tunnel. Dr John Philpott, Chief Economic Adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) recently told a panel of directors from Yorkshire that modest economic growth in the UK would see unemployment levels stabilise this year. He also discussed the potential of a stronger recovery resulting in a sudden, sharp fall in unemployment levels and employers again going on the hunt for talented staff to meet increasing demand.

Job security works both ways. It shouldn’t be something that only staff on the ground worry about. Stability and medium to long-term assurance ensures employees are engaged and motivated enough to be committed to company goals and objectives.

Although job security may be a state of mind, there are ways of improving one’s mindset. If a company can ensure or encourage career development and progression, an employee will feel a greater sense of loyalty and commitment. With this in place a sense of dedication allows employees to focus on their individual skills and capabilities and become a consistent performer. In turn, an employer gets a happy and productive employee in the work place.

Trust levels
However, it’s not always that easy it? Memories of colleagues and friends being made redundant can last for a very long time. Geoffrey James, argues on the website inc.com, that job security is defined by who you are, what you do and who you trust. If you’re an individual who is happy going along with your job, undertaking everyday tasks and playing second-fiddle to other staff then you’re more than likely to receive your marching orders, James says. Individuals should strive to stand out from colleagues and be different to the majority of the workforce. “If you really want job security, there must be something about you that’s different, that makes you more relevant than anybody else who does what you do. More importantly, other people must perceive that difference and see it as valuable,” he says.

Then, of course, there’s the trust issue. Do you think you can rely on your boss not to put a red cross next to your name if there are further redundancies? James – who pens one of the world’s most-visited sales-oriented blogs – suggests a novel approach to assessing trust whilst at work or in the field. People that you speak with on a daily basis – be they family, friends, colleagues or business associates – should be placed into three categories: those who trust you completely, those who moderately trust you, and those who vaguely trust you. When these have been grouped together, remove the people in the final two categories – these are the people unlikely to return sales calls, James adds – and then calculate the number of people who you believe completely trust you. If, he says, you have more than 20 people on that list, then you have a greater sense of job security. If you haven’t, it might be time to start building some bridges.

So there you have it. Job security ultimately comes down to who you can trust and who trusts you. Can you hold on to trusted colleagues at work whilst the UK tries to climb out of a double-dip recession. Or, are the people who you believe you rely on merely providing a crocodile smile during work hours? It’s probably wise to start drawing up that list...

Medical sales executives continue to lead the way in the pay stakes, but how do they continue to defy remuneration odds?

A recent Channel 4 documentary exposed just how sensitive the issue of salary is in the workplace. Employees at a leading plumbing firm in London were asked, face-to-face, to reveal their salary to their colleagues. The outcome wasn’t pleasant. Employees working alongside each discovered they were, in some instances, paid tens of thousands of pounds less than the person working only a few feet away from them. Whilst employees’ pay was eventually brought in-line with their unsuspecting workmates, the moral of the film highlighted just how much people dislike being short-changed – especially in their wage packet. 
The Pf Company Perception, Motivation and Satisfaction Survey – now in its 11th year – again highlighted the importance of salary to those working within the medical sales industry. It’s of little surprise that in an era of austerity salary came out on top as the main motivating factor for respondents. While the significance of money is there for all to see, the satisfaction respondents feel when they open their wage slips is somewhat surprising – despite being paid well above UK average. Satisfaction ratings showed salary placed as the 13th out of 18 options.

Figures from the website Payscale.com show that the average salary for men in the UK is now a slightly more than £30,000. For women it’s around six thousand pound less. Short change when compared to figures from the Pf Survey where the median salary from men is £45,000 and women £40,000. Despite nearly all pharmaceutical companies announcing plans to tightening its belts, employees in the medical sales sector are clearly still extremely well paid.

Overall figures from the survey show that annual remuneration packages range from £11,000 up to a wallet-busting £107,000. The median salary for full-time workers travelling from job to job around their territories was £43,000. Even those on part-time hours earned a medium salary of £26,702 – with the highest earner working reduced hours taking home a cool 54k.

The going rate
A career in the medical sales industry pays. The median salary for respondents who have less than six months’ experience within the sector was £23,000 - see Figure 1. One individual began their career within the industry taking home £58,000 per year! The median salaries of those with additional years of experience continued to rise with those clocking up eight years or more earning an average of £45,000. 
Age also plays an important factor.  The median salaries of those aged 25 and under continue to rise to respondents aged between 45 and 54 years old. Individuals in that age bracket reported a median salary of £45,000, yet those aged beyond their 54th birthday saw their median annual wage fall by two thousand pound. With an ageing workforce, has the medical sales industry targeted this age group to make savings?
Patients may suffer as a result of the postcode lottery but it also seems that medical sales executives do as well – see Figure 2. Median salaries ranged from £42,125 in Scotland up to £47,000 in London. The south east, south west and Wales all clock up median salaries of £45,000 with the north east and Midlands/east slightly behind.

Individual roles
Pharma’s switch in methodology away from a traditional headcount approach to a key account model is reflected in the survey with the median salary for Key Account Managers being £10,500 more than that of a Primary Care Representative (£33,000). Primary and Secondary Care representatives reported a slightly better median salary at £38,880. However, that figure is almost doubled by the median salary of second-line managers at £74k. At the other end of the pay scale, nurse advisors reported the lowest median salary at 30k – as highlighted in Figure 3.

Although public sector workers may have had to endure pay freezes, the same can’t be said of medical sales executives. For the second year running respondents have again reported hearty pay rises – one lucky individual banked a £20,000 rise! Overall, the median salary increase was slightly more than a thousand pound. Key Account Managers reported £100 on top of that figure with second-line managers again enjoying the largest slice of the pie, after receiving a median rise of £2,778.

On top of generous salary increases, respondents also enjoyed bonuses the majority of workers from other sectors – banking aside – could only dream of. In total, the survey found that sales executives received a median bonus of three thousand pounds. The maximum bonus was £50,000. Key Account Managers saw their bonuses fall in line with the average median figure, primary and secondary care representatives were rewarded a thousand pound less than everybody else, and first-line and second-line managers again enjoying generous gratuity sums.

However, very much like salary, respondents were clearly unimpressed with their bonuses. In the satisfaction stakes, only share scheme finished behind bonus in the minds of respondents. It would seem, much like pharma’s shareholders, medical sales executives are a difficult bunch to please – despite enjoying above-inflation rewards.

Keeping hold of key members of staff has always been an issue for successful organisations. To avoid head-hunters, Anton Franckeiss explains valuable measures to increase employee retention and satisfaction.

Although the pharmaceutical industry is one that consumers tend to depend on to provide instant cures or magical remedies to our all too human frailties, it actually operates to a longer timeframe. Any new treatment for our remedies may take only seconds to swallow, but will have been in development for many years, and possibly even decades. But despite its foundation in long-term projects, the industry also experiences higher than average staff turnover rates – a circumstance that the industry shares with IT and financial services. While the requirement for specialist knowledge and professional skills is a common factor across all three of these sectors that should not be ignored, human resource (HR) professionals within the industry should resist the temptation to believe that there is a single cure that can be prescribed and administered.

Although the analogy may be a simplistic one, especially in the industry context, adopting a holistic view that sees retention rates as one of the vital signs of the ‘patient’ (ie the workforce of each pharmaceutical company) may be helpful. Recent surveys, both by Pharmaceutical Field and by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, have shown a slowing of staff turnover rates in the industry. Yet the reasons may be at least partly a reflection of the broader labour market and economy.

In an era of slow economic growth after a sharp recession, employees are seeing redundancies elsewhere – or even closer to home – and may have drawn the conclusion that the metaphorical frying pan might be a happier place to be for the medium-term than the unknown quantity of the metaphorical fire. There is, however, no room for complacency here. If the factors at play are limiting turnover rather than actively encouraging retention, the ‘condition’ could flare up again at short notice depending on movements in the broader economy: a chronic condition, after all, requires monitoring and management to ensure that any chances of it becoming acute are minimised.

Road to recovery

The analogy of a chronic condition, however, should be challenged. A continuing situation of poor retention does not imply that this either must simply be lived with or will inevitably get worse. There is no reason that the prognosis should be gloomy, although a combination therapy approach will be required and the regime will need to be maintained for some time before improvements in the underlying condition are secured. The key to success lies in the depth of understanding that the doctor – in this case the HR functions of companies in the industries – can acquire about their patient.

Without research, dialogue and communication, companies can too easily assume that they understand the retention factor priorities of their workforce, while the employees actually see the outlook rather differently. A 2006 survey by Talent Drain, for example, showed that employees rank ‘cooperation’ as the second most important factor, while employers listed this in ninth place.

Employers also typically overstate the impact of pay and financial rewards, while underestimating the importance to employees of opportunities for personal growth. What appears as a mission critical role contribution through one end of the telescope looks more like one component of an on-going personal biography from the other. In an industry that embraces great diversity of roles – from sales to scientific specialists – there is likely to be a similar diversity of outlook – the intelligent response is to seek understanding rather than to assume that a single remedy can be applied in all cases. Feedback to HR from line management in different operational areas could be helpful here, so keep lines of dialogue open.

The right prescription

Employee motivation and engagement requires similar treatment; although recent surveys say suggest turnover is reduced, they also suggest what an earlier Pharmaceutical Field article, called The Fear Factor, highlighted. Pro-actively seeking to increase engagement will enhance the chances of turning a cure into a preventative approach. The highly engaged will be less easily tempted away when external economic factors change. Again, an appreciation of potential complexity will be helpful. Scientific staff may be balancing a need to supervise and manage others and commercial encouragement from the organisation to develop their leadership skills with their personal commitment to their professional discipline. Acknowledging such a potential conflict of factors will be a far more productive way of identifying motivational approaches than failing to address it.

There are also industry-specific challenges to address, one of which was highlighted in an interview between the BBC’s Evan Davis and GSK Chief Executive Andrew Witty in the former’s recent book, Made in Britain: “One of the things we say to our scientists is that you have to be comfortable with failure. [There are] great scientists in this company who will never succeed in their entire career … Of 10,000 new molecules that we might synthesise, so that we might create 10,000 possible new drugs, probably one will be a drug.”

Strategies that promote innovation – the use of multi-disciplinary project teams where each can make their own distinct contribution and gain inspiration from other – can help here in other ways. But also allow staff with specialist skills to receive peer, as well as line management, feedback on the value of their contribution. It was a point by Alistair Flaister in a People Management article, Organisational learning: The social network, when he made the important point that: “The real engine of creativity and organisational success is to be found in internal networks of friendship and collaboration.”

Line managers have other contributions to make, not least in listening acutely and in building a supportive and encouraging team culture. It’s a point underlined in the 2010 Work Foundation report, Exceeding Expectations: the principles of outstanding leadership, which identified two elements common to the approaches of outstanding leaders in creating a working environment:

The first is the need to develop an open and supportive atmosphere to create the conditions for trust and respect, and the second is to ensure the workplace enabled success and satisfaction.

Part of the latter element may require support from HR in terms of fresh thinking. Depending on the severity of the case, HR might also ponder the benefits of making a referral to a specialist consultant. Helping specialist staff to make the transition to a leadership role is not simply a progression or promotion through a series of levels of leadership. It requires them to make a fundamental transition from development of a professional discipline to that of a broader organisational and commercial role. It also requires the transfer and application of new behaviours that challenge and enhance their performance and contribution. Two other factors that The Work Foundation found as common to outstanding leaders is a willingness to be flexible in their approach to process, and a willingness to adapt roles to give individuals the maximum opportunity to achieve personal growth and job satisfaction. An organisational willingness to be similarly flexible in role definition and organisational design can support good leaders within the company to deploy this approach successfully.

Never say no

Think of a talented individual that the company should seek to retain, and then imagine how they might feel if they heard the words “I’d love to be more flexible, but I’ve spoken to HR and they said …” It’s also helpful to remain mindful that disengagement is unlikely to be a proactive personal choice – employees are more likely to become disengaged as a reaction.

Ultimately, employee retention is not so much a condition as a symptom. An indicator that employee engagement is low, that opportunities to satisfy personal motivations are too limited, that opportunities for progression are overly limited or unclear, or that employees are not receiving positive feedback on their performance and/or contribution when praise is due. The answer is not to treat the isolated symptom, but to investigate the underlying condition and develop a comprehensive talent management strategy that will systematically improve organisational health. Even in an industry where specialist skills are a key requirement in many roles, an employee value proposition and a recruitment strategy that identifies employees with a strong cultural fit are still important requirements. Any industry dependent on innovation and intellectual property should appreciate that human resources are its critical input. And most employees – who will, after all, have chosen to make an application to join the organisation and done so in good faith – are ultimately looking for something relatively straightforward: regular reminders of several good reasons to stay. That, of course, is easy to say, but there’s something positive to be said for making it easy to do.

Anton Franckeiss is the Managing Director of ASK Europe.

For decades analysts have been trying to find the perfect formula for workplace satisfaction. Dr R K Powar explains how organisational behaviour can bring together essential cogs in the workplace to improve levels of productivity.

All businesses from the smallest enterprise to the largest of corporations consist of people designed to fulfil human objectives, and organisational behaviour seeks to understand how best to do this. Therefore, organisational behaviour can be described as the study of how individuals, groups and structure affect and are affected by behaviour within organisations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge towards improving an organisation’s effectiveness.

Management as a discipline, along with other disciplines, has been around for centuries. However, serious interest in the study of management did not emerge until the turn of the twentieth century, making organisational behaviour a relatively new subject. Also, the initial players interested in studying organisations were economists, who generally looked at management practices as efficient and effective, focusing on economic policies and industrial structures, rather than the internal structure of organisations.

A brief history

The Scientific Management Approach: this was developed by F W Taylor, who worked on the assumption that human beings are largely motivated by money. Taylor advised that managers pay monetary incentives to efficient workers, making employees work harder and faster, reducing them to machines. As this approach did not take account of the human facet of labour, it was heavily criticised and today is considered inadequate.

The Bureaucratic Approach: while the scientific approach worked on the interaction between workers and the task, this theory focused on devising the best organisational structure for workers and managers. Max Weber, the theory’s most prominent advocate, proposed a ‘bureaucratic form’ of structure which he thought would work for all organisations.

The Hawthorne Studies: The above two approaches were heavily criticised as they failed to take into consideration that the human aspect was important in the workplace. Whilst the Hawthorne Studies have had their share of criticism, they had a dramatic input in the field of organisational behaviour, highlighting that workers are influenced by social factors and the behaviour of the individual is influenced by the group.

Over the years, the study and practice of behaviour in the workplace has developed from initial human resource theory to the system approach and on to organisational behaviour, which has grown through creating alliances with disciplines such as leadership and anthropology. Today organisational behaviour is highly influential in the business world with practitioners like Peter Drucker and Peter Senge, who turned academic research into business principles – please refer to the article on the concept of the Learning Organisation in the April 2010 edition of Pharmaceutical Field.

The importance to pharma

Organisational behaviour is important to help us learn about ourselves and how to deal with others. It needs to be noted that people are complex and, whilst they have a need to acquire, individuals are multi-faceted and work for several reasons, such as the need to grow and develop and bond with others.

The pharmaceutical industry, like all industries, is in a constant state of flux faced with business competiveness and the need for increased networking and globalisation – where there is a greater need for individuals to work with people from diverse backgrounds and cultural values. Consequently, the pharmaceutical industry needs to be increasingly concerned with organisational behaviour, as it needs all employees to perform well to sustain success and in a nutshell become more productive.

At a practical level, these are some of the advantages offered by organisational behaviour:

Having more self-insight and perceptual skills to bring about the desired outcomes: The various facets of organisational behaviour can be used by all of us to understand our own feelings and behaviours. Starting from the premise of understanding ourselves is important in helping us understand others. The concepts of organisational behaviour can be used to bring about the desired outcome behaviour in others by sometimes modifying our feelings and behaviours towards others.

The ability to do this would be beneficial in all walks of life, and especially in the pharmaceutical industry. For example:

• Manager to employee: Having a greater awareness/understanding and appreciation will help bosses modify their management style to lead their staff appropriately to attain goals and hence become more productive.
• Motivate self and others: Organisations that perform well have a culture that promotes ongoing growth, learning and development. At the core of organisational behaviour paradigms rests the notion of how to bring out the best in others, so developing a good understanding of the principles of organisational behaviour and putting them into practice can help with motivation.
• Managers and employees’ interaction with external customers and stakeholders: Having a good understanding of organisational behaviour can help managers develop a better understanding of processes. This in turn can help managers interact with the various individuals outside the organisation, such as suppliers, competitors and customers. Managers can gain a better understanding of the environment in which they are working by using organisational behaviour to help them appreciate how and why things happen, giving them the advantage of being ahead in today’s competitive environment.

The ability to analyse situations correctly: A good understanding of the concepts of organisational behaviour can help staff and managers analyse situations correctly. All too often misunderstandings arise when situations haven’t been correctly understood. This can prove useful in the following ways:

• Avoid/manage conflict: A small amount of conflict can prove useful sometimes. However, where possible, if it’s likely to be destructive it needs to be avoided in the first instance, or be managed appropriately. With the sheer size of most pharmaceutical companies, the number of employees and the numerous relationships with the various stakeholders the probability of conflict arising can be quite high. Therefore, being able to curb this is of significant importance for the human relations and media departments.
• Better observational skills: This can be extremely useful for sales teams that need to be able to pick up on the buying signals, deal with obstructions and work with the complex set of interrelationships and dynamics that exist within the NHS.
• Recruitment and retention of skilled staff: A great deal of time and expenditure is involved in recruiting the right staff and the majority of the techniques and methods to do this employ organisational behaviour concepts in the form of questionnaires, psychological profiling and role-playing exercises at interviews. People work for several reasons and a better grasp of organisational behaviour concepts could be applied to retain staff, instead of developing them and then allowing them to leave and take the skills and knowledge they have gained elsewhere.

Limitations of organisational behaviour

• Having an understanding of organisational behaviour can help in situations of conflict but not eradicate them completely.
• Organisational behaviour is resistant to change due to human cognitive processes and defensive routines which can lead to ‘behavioural biases’, where the focus is on satisfying employees but overlooking the objectives of an organisation.
• The law of diminishing returns also applies to organisational behaviour: as this needs to be practised to an optimum point, when that point is exceeded there is a decline in returns. This highlights that organisational effectiveness is achieved when all variables work together.
• In some cases the knowledge and techniques of organisational behaviour could be used in a manipulative manner.

The future of organisational behaviour

Organisational behaviour has evolved over the years: initially from the need to create productive organisations, followed by a philosophical desire by many people to create more humanistic workplaces. Although organisational behaviour has certain limitations, hopefully by building a better working climate for people there are many advantages which should have longterm effects, not only in the quality of an individual’s life, but in improved harmony among people and among organisations.

The future success of organisational behaviour revolves around the related processes of theory development, research and managerial practice in areas such as communication between and among foreign business operations, cultural differences and motivation techniques in different countries, career development in the global economy, and the differences in leadership and decisionmaking practices in various countries.

The challenge faced by the pharmaceutical industry is to employ organisational behaviour to bring the various stakeholders and actors involved with different values together to create processes by which it can be efficient and effective in exceeding goals and objectives.

Dr R K Powar is the founder of R11OSY CONSULTANTS.

It’s long been said that men are from Mars and women from Venus. Iain Bate explores the findings from the latest Pf survey to establish if, in pharma at least, the sexes really are worlds apart.

For decades studies have been evaluating whether men or women make the better boss or employee. Questions have also been asked time and again about who works harder or more efficiently with the resulting arguments commonplace in boardrooms, bedrooms and everywhere else in between. And, like every other industry, the world of pharma has not been immune from the debate. Now in its tenth year, Pf’s annual Company Perception, Motivation and Satisfaction Survey provides a confidential way for medical sales professionals to express what they really think of working within the UK pharmaceutical industry, and provides a useful benchmark of field-force remuneration. Once again, this year’s survey shows that the difference between men and women is not as clear as the X and Y chromosomes that separate us.

In 2007, Total Work, Gender and Social Norms, a study from the US National Bureau of economic Research, by Michael Burda, Dan Hamermesh and Philippe Weil, aimed to put an end to the age-old argument of who actually works harder. Although on the surface the majority of respondents claimed that women work harder than men, the survey found that across northern Europe and America the total workload – combining activity at work and at home – is now shared almost equally.

There are reportedly just 78 genes that separate men from women. But the feedback from the Pf survey would suggest masculine and feminine thinking is far closer together. Women slightly outnumber men in the survey accounting for 53% of respondents. They also outnumber male counterparts in almost every age group as well – a surprising statistic considering it’s usually females who sacrifice, or at least put their careers on hold, when starting a family. This social norm is reflected with the only age category in the survey where men outnumber female counterparts by almost 2:1 is those aged 55 or over.

The pay gap

Pay discrimination has always been a major issue and one which campaigners have tried to balance for decades. On the 1st October 2010, the Equality Act 2010 came into force. The brainchild of Harriet Harman and one of the Labour Party’s 2005 manifesto commitments it was supposed to finally bridge the gap in salaries between men and women. Forging together nine different laws, including the Equal Pay Act, the legislation gives the Government the power to require large private sector companies with more than 250 staff to establish whether there is a pay gap and to publish their findings.

But so-called ‘gagging clauses’, which stopped people from discussing their salary with colleagues, remained and several other provisions were left out of the Act, including the gender pay audit.

The Act was supposed to finally end the years of discrimination women have faced – particularly in respect to pay. However, if anything, the survey reveals the pay gap is actually increasing. In last year’s survey, the pay difference between the combined median salaries of medical representatives, hospital specialists, NHS liaison officers and first-line managers was £1,539. But that figure has now leaped to £4,000 in the space of 12 months See figure 1).

Despite the pay gap increasing, women are again more satisfied with their salary than men with more than half (51%) of female respondents admitting to being happy with their remuneration. Needless to say the amount of men who said they were satisfied with their annual remuneration increased from 46% to 49%. But more surprisingly is that 61% of women believe they are on an appropriate salary, compared with 57% of men – maybe the Government’s ‘gagging’ clauses remained for a reason…

Experience and expectations

Although there are more men within the medical sales industry aged 55 and over than women, it is the fairer sex that has more experience within the industry in the early stages of their careers (see figure 2). More than double the amount of women (14%) have up to four years experience in the trade. Women who have worked within the sector for between four and eight years also marginally outnumber men. But more than three-quarters of male respondents said they have eight years of more total experience, compared with 67% of women.

When analysing the amount of time in a person’s current role, it would suggest that the Equality Act is bridging any divide or favouritism towards a certain sex. Exactly a quarter of men have been with their current employer for less than a year with women only one per cent behind. Results also found that employers would now seem to favour an evenly balanced workforce of men and women. In fact, more than a third of both men and women (37%;35%) have been in their current role for between two and eight years. Over that, 17% of men and 14% of women say they have been employed for nearly a decade by the same company.

Often accused by women as having commitment issues, it would seem men do have itchy feet after all with 40% admitting to wanting to move company or position within the next 12 months (see figure 3). More than a third (35%) of women also admit to considering a change of employer or role by this time next year. But a higher number of women (59%)compared to men (53%) said they were happy to stay with their employer and within their existing role.

What really matters

In the current economic state it’s no surprise that both men and women claimed that their salary was the main motivational factor whilst at work (see figure 4). With pharma companies still content on cutting budgets and wielding the axe on sales teams it’s also of little shock that job security is now the second most important factor for employees within the industry. Interesting when you consider in the 2009 survey job security just managed to make the top-twenty motivational factors. The number of redundancies has obviously taken its toll on all respondents within the last twelve months with more people than ever keen to hold on to their job.

Women put a greater emphasis on work-life balance than men who said the relationship with their immediate manager was of more importance. This opinion again may reflect a more maternal instinct and a willingness to find the right balance between time spent with the family at home and at work. Men also said that company culture was of more importance than women with females having a greater belief in products than male counterparts.

Where satisfaction within the workplace is concerned there is no separating men and women. Both sexes said that a belief in products, relationship with manager, accountability, autonomy and pension scheme were the top-five satisfying factors. As the survey suggests, men and women have never been more similar…

Whether in the playground or the boardroom, the question of gender supremacy always causes heated debate. Using Pf’s Company Perception, Motivation and Satisfaction Survey, Iain Bate highlights some interesting differences between the sexes.

The recent cases in the US against two of the pharma industry’s major players has seen the ugly issue of gender discrimination dragged through the courts once again. Since the 1970s when the Equal Pay Act and the Sex Discrimination Act were introduced in the UK great strides have been made towards equality. However the US court cases have clearly shown that despite all the laws in place both here and across the pond gender discrimination is still alive and kicking. 
In the pharmaceutical industry it’s clear that women are fighting back this trend. A growing number of women now hold presidential or vice-presidential positions in various capacities in many high profile organisations. In the age of equality, this should come as no surprise. However, two main issues continue to bedevil the battle for a level playing field; does sexual equality extend to company pay structures? And, the age-old debate – who makes the better boss: man or woman?

Sex(ist) Machine
A study by UK recruitment firm www.ukjobs.net showed that two-thirds of women agreed that men make better bosses. Female managers being hormonal, talking behind employees’ backs and an inability to leave personal issues at home were all main factors in the conclusion. Yet in America it’s the other way round for Carol Smith, Senior Vice President and Chief Brand Officer for the Elle Group.
“Hands down women are better. There’s no contest,” she said in an interview with the New York Times. “In my experience, female bosses tend to be better managers, better advisers, mentors, rational thinkers.”     
This isn’t a view necessarily shared by Charlotte Rayner, Professor of Human Resource Management, Portsmouth Business School, who argues that both males and females boast attributes which contribute to the age-old argument.
“There’s no reason why men or women should be better bosses,” said Professor Rayner. “This is an area of ordinary human skill and competence and both genders should be able to perform just as well as each other. A man making a better boss than a woman is a matter of perception. Throughout all of history it’s often been the case that men have been profiled as the major leaders and it could be that we still perceive men as the archetype for those sorts of roles.
“This perception results very much from stereotyping which happens almost from day one where girls are dressed in pink and boys in blue. There’s very deep seated assumptions and stereotyping which goes on.”
While it may seem obvious that gender stereotyping involves males and females the reality may be that women are hindering the progress of other women in the workplace due to these long standing judgements.
“In the studies I’ve been involved in we continually look for gender differences,” Professor Raynor added. “We ask people what experiences they have had in the workplace. This includes gossip and rumour and we continually find no differences between males and females. But what might be happening, for example, is that when a woman boss talks behind somebody’s back it’s gossip, but when a man does the same thing it’s then rumour. From a male boss perceptive it could also be seen that he’s asserting his position and working through the politics. Whereas a woman might be seen to be undermining and gossiping and that all comes back to basic stereotyping. It’s exactly the same behaviour but what we do is label it differently.”

Payback
The main bone of gender contention relates to pay. The debate appears to plague every industry – and pharma is no exception. The Pf Company Perception, Motivation and Satisfaction Survey includes a detailed section on remuneration. As ever, the 2009/10 poll provides some interesting insights – not least to the gender debate. Completed by more than 1,200 employees from UK pharma sales, 53% of which were women, it revealed some interesting statistics when comparing individual (figure 1) and overall salaries (figure 2), and also motivational factors between men and women.
When the median salaries are scrutinised by gender, and combined across all the standard sales roles, the Survey reveals that the average median salaries for men in 2009/10 was £1,539 more than women. Only four years earlier the difference in median salaries was just £850. The latest Survey figure does however show an improvement of more than £1,000 from 2008/09.
Despite the existing gap Professor Raynor says salary divide could have more to do with men being more willing to ask their superiors for a wage increase rather than companies trying to scam females out of thousands of pounds each year.
“It’s quite often that men are more assertive in this area by often asking for pay rises,” she said. “But sometimes women are not pushing their own pay claims as much as they might. My advice to women in terms of pay would be to think like a man!
“Generally the pay gap is getting smaller. What has been very helpful around the country, and certainly in the private sector, is there are much better job descriptions being produced and better human resources processes. Companies are assessing what a job is worth and not what a person is. People are being much clearer that they’re paying for a job and not a person.”

Get on the good foot
The UK pharmaceutical industry remains an attractive one for women. Of the respondents in this year’s survey 70% who had less than six month’s experience in the industry were female. While this high number suggests a career in pharma is appealing to women, that fact that half of those with more than eight years of experience were also female confirms this.
In fact, despite the salary gap in certain roles, results from the Survey indicate that women are more satisfied with their annual wage than their male counterparts. More than half of women revealed they were happy with their wage packet at the end of the month compared with 46% of men. This continues an annual trend with the Pf Survey.

Papa’s got a brand new bag
Across all industries, data suggests that women still feel uneasy about stepping off the career ladder to start a family. But Professor Raynor says this unease at switching from a business woman with responsibilities to a housewife with children is not solely reserved for females. 
“We’re seeing more women deciding not to have children and taking the career route because they look around and see it’s difficult to combine career and children,” she continued. “Although I feel that men experience this as well. When children come along, their focus on why they’re at work starts to change. It’s very good to start to see paternity leave come in. In many ways what we’re talking about now could be an end to those stereotypes. Actually, males have a hard time too but we hardly ever talk about this.”
Although men might not suffer as much in the pay stakes as women do when children come along there are a number of decisions which can ease the process, especially for women. Those leaving a career to start a family are encouraged to set their priorities early; get the support needed from their family required to balance the long hours and added work load; to decide from the outset what is right for them personally and consider the implications in the long term.

I feel good
Professor Raynor says the equality divide which still exists today is still some way from being eradicated where work and pay is concerned. But the more women in positions of power the more likely it is they will break down the barriers and we’ll see the balance and fairness suggested in the soon to be implemented Equality Act 2010. 
“We are still a long way from gender equality that a lot of people would want,” she concludes. “For males it’s the balance between paternity rights and a career. For women it’s pay, maternity rights and a career. Things are changing though. Women in senior positions are seen as role models for other women working within the organisation. Other women look and say ‘if she can do it then so can I’.
“This also applies to people who take career breaks and who are still able to succeed. It would be very positive if we had more leeway for paternity leave and a positive attitude from society about a genuine openness about men and women switching the caring roles in the home.”
Although in the Survey both sexes agreed that salary was the main motivational factor (figure 3) at work, responses from women showed that work-life balance was more important than their relationship with their boss. A trend reversed in men. The link between relationship with manager and job security for men suggests that keeping the boss sweet in order to maintain in work during a period of recession is far more important than it is for women – who consider the balance between being at work and spending time with the family more important.  
Whether or not the age-old argument of who makes the better boss will ever be agreed, or whether true equality in the pay stakes will ever be resolved remains to be seen. However, as the motivational factors in the Pf Survey show, it’s still obvious that where work is concerned men come from Mars and women come from Venus.

Results from the Pf survey find medical sales executives are slowly adjusting to NHS reforms and widespread company restructures. 

It’s been another eventful 12 months within the medical sales industry. As the industry continues to announce job losses the Pf survey provides sales executives with an anonymous voice to have their say on the good, bad and ugly sides of their job. 

It’s an uncertain time to be working in the medical sales industry. Pharmaceutical bosses might be making the right noises and towing the company line but the industry is fighting against a number of forces. Within the last twelve months a series of large pharmaceutical companies have been forced to use the two words no medical sales professional wants to read on an internal memo: austerity measures. 

The result of price cuts across Europe, as governments continues to tighten their belts, and pipelines continue to fail has been a formula even the most trusted research and development teams have failed to solve a way around. But where do these measures, and what they mean in the long term, leave sales executives working within the industry? The Pf Company, Perception, Motivation and Satisfaction Survey provides an annual temperature check of those working within the pharmaceutical and medical sales industry to gauge opinions.

The survey – now in its 11th year – lets respondents have their say on the things that matter the most to them. It focuses on everyday factors which either make going to work a joy or a struggle and reflects the opinion of staff on key issues such as remuneration, motivation, satisfaction, perception and recruitment. 

Motivation and satisfaction 

The results of the 2012 survey, which relate to 2011, show that once again money makes the work go around. For the fifth year in a row, salary was chosen as the main motivating factor from the 1,215 respondents. It’s also no surprise that job security was chosen as the second highest motivating factor with the wide spread job cuts employees will have witnessed in the last year. 

In fact, there was only change in the top 18 motivating factors (see Figure 1) from last year’s survey – personal development swapping places with autonomy. Surprisingly, respondents appreciated being given the freedom to make individual decisions more than the opportunity to progress up the career ladder. 

Motivational factors may not have changed much in the last twelve months, but satisfaction factors certainly have. Belief in present products again came out on top but there were big declines in satisfaction levels in company culture and salary – which dropped four places, respectively – and in car policy which dropped from 10th last year to towards the bottom of the chart in 16th. Companies abandoning their principles to make people redundant, whilst trimming or freezing wages and taking back company cars and fuel cards did not go unnoticed by the field force. 

But it’s not all bad for organisations – they have been doing other things right. Satisfaction levels in pension schemes, work-life balance and training all improved slightly. Accountability for sales and recognition of achievements also improved. But it was in job security where respondents said they were the most satisfied. After being voted as the 14th highest satisfying factor last year, the survey found pharma companies had made improvements in assuring staff their jobs were safe in the last twelve months as it improved three places.   

Facts and figures 

The number of total respondents – see Figure 2 – totalled almost an identical number to the 2009 survey. For a third successive year, the number of primary care and primary care and secondary care sales executives fell slightly – and now accounts for a third of overall respondents. The number of hospital specialists also dropped slightly. However, numbers of first-line managers (10%) reverted back to their usual figure after falling the year before. 

Although numbers of primary care, secondary care and hospital specialists are down when compared to the turn of the millennium, the recent raft of job losses in the industry doesn’t seem to have impacted experienced and valued team members. The number of respondents with more than eight years’ experience within the industry continues to grow. Almost three-quarters (73%) of respondents say they have now worked in the medical sales industry for eight years or more – nearly double the amount that could say that nine years ago. However, those with between two and eight years’ experience may have been presented with their P45, after figures dropped slightly. More worryingly, the amount of people who said they had started a new job within the industry in the last year totalled only 2.3%.  

Employer of choice 

Away from motivational and satisfaction factors, the survey also quizzes respondents on the company they would most like to work for. For the fifth year running Boehringer Ingleheim again topped the charts as the 2012 Employer of Choice. In recent years, Roche has followed closely behind but lost the runner’s up position this year to Eli Lilly – who moved up a position from third. Novo Nordisk again established its position within the top five, with Abbott Laboratories the biggest mover as it improved on last year’s 10th position to finish fifth this year. 

Napp and Bristol-Myers Squibb – which jumped seven places in the chart – both made a return to the top ten after missing out on a place last year. Astellas also had reason to celebrate as it entered the top ten for the first after respondents voted it in eighth position.  

The Pf Company Perception, Motivation and Satisfaction Survey has been conducted annually by HSP, publishers of Pf, since 2002. It provides a benchmark of field force renumeration, motivation, satisfaction, perception and recruitment. As the Survey is managed by Dr B Payne of Conker Statistics – a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society – and respondents are anonymous, it is able to provide a unique and impartial snapshot of workforce attitudes at the time the research is conducted. These latest results were gathered in early 2012, but relate to 2011 and the early part of the year.