2nd Pharmaceutical HR conference held in Moscow

2nd Pharmaceutical HR conference dedicated to ‘Lack of skilled personnel in the pharmaceutical industry. Searching of decisions’ took place on April 25, 2018 in Moscow. The event was sponsored by the Federal State Institution ‘State Institute of Drugs and Good Practices’.

Representatives of government agencies, developers of the Pharma-2030 program, higher education faculty, top managers of pharmaceutical business, HR directors of pharmaceutical companies, HR managers and heads of training departments participated in the conference.

The participants discussed current issues with qualified personnel in pharmaceutical industry, shared solutions to personnel training and pharmaceutical personnel shortage. After 5 case studies, the participants voted using WhenSpeak platform, and identified areas of underperformance and determined further development steps in solving personnel issues within the development program ‘Pharma-2030’.

‘I am delighted to eye witness recent positive changes with skilled workers joining pharmaceutical industry, and having great numbers of professionals capable of developing and producing competitive medicines,’ – said Mr. Sergey Tsyb, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation.

Conference participants reported that the most important ideas included: involvement of outsource counsels for direct knowledge transfer; distance learning technologies and educational programs; evaluation system for assessment of training quality; and employees’ self-assessment of their performance and knowledge. ‘Contracting employees with proper qualifications is just one step of a long trip. Rapid development of the industry demands that employees renew their skills and knowledge regularly, this is the only way to make our products competitive on the international market’, – greeted the audience Mr. Vladislav Shestakov, Director of the FSI ‘SID & GP’.

The votes also revealed the importance of pharmaceutical research and development, technology, risk management, transfer, validation, and project management, as well as establishing working groups for creation of competency profiles (HR, experts, and managers).

In the end of the day, it became clear that universities, businesses, and recruitment agencies speak in different languages and pursue different goals, i.e. HR managers are more interested in training of their staff, while business circles are more likely to focus on economic benefits. At this stage, it is important to work out common terminology and agree to move forward in the same direction.

‘In today’s rapidly changing world, it is very important for companies to be flexible and keep a sharp eye on new digital trends. We are living in the times of the fourth industrial revolution, automation of processes, and demographic shifts. This is why it is vital to catch the departing train of digital training of employees soonest,’ – said Damir Samigullin, managing partner of WhenSpeak.