M’s the word: Pharma’s got talent

Why pharma should recruit faster when replacing key talent



The English can be very cynical, about just about everything. The older we get, the more cynical we seem to get.  So I guess I should be really cynical by now. Fortunately, I was once helped by a truly great manager who put me right. He sent me through a 360-degree review, and I learned the impact my cynicism was having on the people I worked with.

So I was definitely not cynical about the recent management conference I attended.

One of the most useful presentations was from an HR manager, about managing talent. It is better to manage talent than watch it walk out of the door if we fail to manage it properly. It is just surprising how many people fail to do it properly.

If we are lucky enough to have real talent in our groups, we should invest the time to develop it to the best of our ability. We should use it to best advantage while we have it. We may not have it for long. Then we should devote time to making sure it moves efficiently through the organization to places where it can grow further and where it can make the best contribution to the business.

What irritates me, though, is that when we move such talents on, we leave big holes. The bigger the talent, the bigger the hole it leaves when it moves. So what incentive do we have to move talented people through the organization if the rest of the team in our business area suffers? Because it certainly does suffer.

It takes an average of four months to hire someone who can replace our talent. During that time, the pressure on the remaining staff is intense. It becomes obvious just how much of the load that talent was carrying. The others, perhaps almost as talented, feel jealousy, perhaps anger, that someone has been identified from among them and promoted and now they are carrying the extra load. They have been un-recognized, their own contribution was not good enough to get the promotion, but they are now good enough to have all the extra work to accomplish.

At times of resource focus, of course, the recruitment of a replacement is actually slowed down. So apart from the loss of one of the hardest workers, those left behind will have to carry the load for an extended period of time. We have all witnessed this, usually just before Christmas. I am not wise enough to properly understand this approach. It seems to me that this generates negative emotions in the organization, as it hurts the poor bloody infantry who keep the business going. 

So here is my idea. Let’s make recruitment faster when we are replacing key talents. That way, the donor as well as the recipient can feel the benefit. That way, there would be an incentive to promote talented people and the organization would not suffer.

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