National Pharmaceuticals: The Art of Employee Retention

Student ID: 65579187

Section Number: Comm 203 101

Short Answers:

1. For now, National Pharmaceutical’s already has some old organizational

strategies in different departments. For training and development, they invest ₹50

million–₹70 million annually on training and development and have management

development program (MDP) sessions that cover topics related to work ethics,

business hygiene, leadership, people management, and many more issues

(National Pharmaceuticals: The Art of Employee Retention, 2020). For the

performance management department, they have an e-Sampark platform to

acknowledge the success of our employees. This platform not only enables

employees to get feedback on their work, especially the new employees, but also

provides new hires with corrective measures that they can take for specific issues

and concerns they are facing at the workplace. Therefore, they do not have to wait

for a formal training intervention to get their concerns addressed (National

Pharmaceuticals: The Art of Employee Retention, 2020). For the talent

acquisition and recruitment department, the recruitment and selection standard

operating procedures (SOPs) looked particularly at three traits: curiosity, passion,

and accountability. The company received applications through referrals, the

corporate website, social media portals, and third-party job application sites, and

most of the applications are received through referrals. After the HR team
meeting, the goals concluded by Sharma where we need not only to control

attrition in the company but also to hire good talent to meet our expansion plans

in the near future. In addition, it is critical for the company to improve the

company culture and address attrition immediately and prepare for the hiring

drive. The HR team can create several strategies that reach the organization’s

goals. Firstly, they should change their salary level of marketing executives and

have more compensation in some zones. Secondly, the team should focus on

manager- and work-related problems which caused 45 per cent of the employees

resigned from their job. By doing this, the current programs are not sufficient

since the career progression program looks only at internal job postings for

managerial vacancies and it has not inculcated the other aspects of career

progression (National Pharmaceuticals: The Art of Employee Retention, 2020).

The number of training days for employees should be increased even with

increasing the cost of training and development, but this is an essential part of

building the organizational culture and getting employees up to date with the

skills and processes of the organization. Thirdly, the team should have

performance management that is including an upward appraisal. As important as

it is for the managers to evaluate their subordinates, it is equally important for HR

to know how managers are treating their subordinates. Fourthly, they should

create an environment for employees where they can trust the team and be

comfortable to share their concerns with the team, so that the performance

management system can reflect its real functions.

There is an e-Sampark platform in his department that can acknowledge the

success of our employees. And currently, they conduct appraisals twice a year

(half yearly and annually) with the co-operation of the reporting managers and the

divisional heads. Because Roy is the head of this department, he is taking into

consideration only the feedback, performance reviews, and ranks that we receive

from the divisional heads, but it is easy for him to ignore who will review the

divisional heads and other managerial staff? Roy thought that this upward

appraisal system will be time-consuming since it needs to train the employees

once again on how to use it and it is hard to find the proper employee to do the

appraisal.

Long Answers:

Part 1: The first problem is the salary issue under employees’ rewards. In the case, the

company offers 80 per cent as fixed pay and the remaining 20 per cent as variable pay.

There is a slight difference between the National salary level and the industry. Besides

this difference, salary issues varied in different sales zones. The variable pay component

was more than 20 per cent in the East and North sales zones due to the emphasis on

targets (National Pharmaceuticals: The Art of Employee Retention, 2020). Therefore, no

employees have salary issues in the East sales zone, but in the North and South sales

zones, six people left the organization because of salary. Salary issues will be one of the

factors that cause employees to leave the organization but not the most important one.
This will be part of the considerations when employees evaluate the company under this

competitive market environment.

The second problem is the attrition rate still does not match with the industry’s

benchmark at 12-13 per cent, this is under recruitment. Talent acquisition and recruitment

departments have introduced so many programs and initiatives over the years and most

have been developed based on the findings of the dipstick analysis conducted over the

years. These initiatives have given fruitful results as the attrition has come down

(National Pharmaceuticals: The Art of Employee Retention, 2020). But it is not enough,

the company still need to arrest it further as we have to embark on fresh recruitment for

the new expansion plans. If the attrition rate cannot reach the industry’s benchmark, it

will not meet the company’s expansion plans in the near future.

The third problem is manager- and work-related problems under performance

management, especially the upward appraisal system. The latest dipstick analysis

conducted in 2017 looked at 144 employees who left the organization in less than a year,

the data state that 45 per cent of the employees resigned from their job at National

Pharmaceuticals due to manager- and work-related problems and only 19 per cent

accounted for salary issues (National Pharmaceuticals: The Art of Employee Retention,

2020). In the performance management department, they have an e-Sampark platform to

acknowledge the success of our employees and they conduct appraisals twice a year (half

yearly and annually) with the co-operation of the reporting managers and the divisional

heads. However, Roy ignore the other side, who will review the divisional heads and

other managerial staff? How do company drive away biases and scope for being

revengeful on subordinates by the superiors? The company do not have upward appraisal
system which might cause unfair performance reviews and a mistrustful or stressful

environment for the employees, since there is no place for employees to complain and

give suggestions.

The fourth problem is the recruitment process under the recruitment domain. The current

recruitment and selection standard operating procedures (SOPs) were reviewed and

modified only last year, so it is too early to say if the results have been positive or

negative (National Pharmaceuticals: The Art of Employee Retention, 2020). The

company receives applications through referrals, the corporate website, social media

portals, and third-party job application sites, and most of their application are received

through referrals. As a result, this fresh blood can bring in new perspectives, solutions,

and working methods, but they are not home-grown employees and organization culture

learning is needed. This recruitment process is related to the organization culture

building.

Part 2: The first recommendation should be increasing the salary level of marketing

executives and the necessary compensation in different sales zones. For now, there is

only a slight difference between the fixed and variable pay structure provided by National

Pharmaceuticals and the industry structure. Just because of this small difference, the other

company might offer a slightly higher salary level compared to the industry’s offer which

might cause a lower attrition rate and acceptance rate. In addition, for different sales

zones, different compensation should be implemented, the variable pay component was

more than 20 per cent in the East and North sales zones due to the emphasis on targets.
Therefore, the compensation between East and South sales zones should be slightly

different.

The second recommendation should be developing the current training program both in

direction and training length. The talent acquisition and recruitment department have

introduced so many programs and initiatives over the years, but the attrition rate still does

not match with that of the industry’s benchmark at 12–13 per cent. Most of the training

programs lasted for two to three days, except for the basic training provider (BTP)

program, which was 10–15 days. They need to relook at most of their programs, policies,

and initiatives in place to make sure the career progression program is not only looking at

internal job postings for managerial vacancies, but also inculcated the other aspects of

career progression. For the training length, they should increase the number of training

days for employees even with the higher cost, but this is an essential part of building the

organizational culture and getting employees up to date with the skills and processes of

the organization as well as the industry.

The third recommendation should be creating an upward appraising system for the

employee to evaluate their supervisors. For now, they only have a platform to

acknowledge the success of employees, and conduct appraisals twice a year (half yearly

and annually) with the co-operation of the reporting managers and the divisional heads.

All of these are for the managers to evaluate their subordinates, however, it is equally

important for HR to know how managers are treating their subordinates, and that can

only happen when the subordinates also do an upward appraisal. Only by doing this, the

company can create a space and environment for the employees where they can trust us

and will be willing to give their honest feedback on what they think and feel about the
organization they are working in, more importantly, this action will give the company the

freshest feedbacks and opinions, so when the company can keep their data updated when

they doing some analysis.

The fourth recommendation should be developing the recruitment process and

encouraging internal job postings and promotions. The current recruitment and selection

standard operating procedures (SOPs) received most of the application through referrals

which is similar to the industry standard, where, in 2018, 60 per cent of the workforce in

the industry was recruited through references, 20 per cent through job portals, 10 per cent

through walk-ins, and 10 per cent through internal recruitment. If they are more focusing

on internal promotions, increase that 10 per cent to a higher figure that will help them

retain home-grown employees, and it reduces the amount of resources we need to invest

for those employees to learn about the organization and its culture. But this is not mean to

put all the chances and bets on one source.

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