Complication in Pharma industry with stability issue and salary expectation in Indian scenario

Now a days the pattern of interview is very interesting in pharma industry. The main argument comes with following points,

• Expected designation 

• Experience 

• Expected salary 

• Expected Stability  

As we know the vertical is different from organization to organization. Normally the company followed below mention designation

Trainee officer/ technical trainee: It is the initial or entry phase for fresher or less than 1 yr experience of candidate and after that the flow is

Officer - Sr. Officer- Executive-Sr. Executive-Dy. Manager- Assistant manager-Manager-Sr. Manager-Deputy general manager-General manager- Sr. general manager- Vice precedent-Sr. Vice Precedent-Managing director- Sr. Managing Director.

So, during joining to any organization please confirm the level of designation they have. If you not done proper assessment you will be in trouble.  

The category of qualification is available in the pharma industry is mention follows,

Technical qualification: Diploma pharmacy, B. Pharma, M. pharma. , Graduate and post graduate in Engineering

Non-technical/general qualification: Science Graduate (Bsc.), Master of Science (Msc.).

When we have compare with the salary expectation then we have seen that,

Expectation for technical education personnel is 

• Expected salary for graduate engineers (in lac/Yr.) = 1.00 x No of experience 

• Expected salary for post graduate engineers (in lac/Yr.) = 1.25 x No of experience 

• Expected growth in salary for joining new organization for both type of candidate is 30% of current scale (standard Company).

For example Ram has done B. Pharma/BE, he has work 5 year with pharma organization. His salary scale will be 1.00x5 = 5 Lac/yr. and his expected salary will be 5Lac/Yr. + (5X30/100) = 6.5 Lac/Yr.

Expectation for Non-technical/general qualification candidates is 

• Expected salary for graduate candidates (in lac/Yr.) = 0.75 x No of experience 

• Expected salary for post graduate candidates (in lac/Yr.) = 1.00 x No of experience 

• Expected growth in salary for joining new organization for both type of candidate is approx. 20-25% of current scale (By considering standard company).

So, the General stream post graduate candidates are competing with Bachelor Degree Engineers.

You should always discussed in a justifiable way while talking with HR personnel. High experience should not always correlated with designation or expected salary. There is a definite scope for bargaining with HR personnel based on your knowledge level. In pharma knowledge level is very important and parallel to that way of representation as well as communication capability is very important. So, the key skill is a) Knowledge b) Communication skill c) Representation capability.

Stability is the major issue in pharma industry. The average stability of a candidate is 2.5-3.0 yr. maximum and 1.5yr-2.0 year is minimum (by considering experience of minimum 3-4 company). Above statistic is drawn in case of the candidate native place dose not belongs to the same job location (different native place) or nearby location (less than or equal to half day journey by train/bus is consider as nearby location). Anyhow for a stability issue candidate and organization are equally responsible. 

I would like to assure that, don’t worry of you facing trouble with stability issue or other related issues in your exist organization, try to maintain minimum 2.5 yr stability / each company until you satisfy with your job profile or expectation. Because if we consider 15 good company we have in India and you have started your carrier in 24 ye age. Then minimum stability in one as per below mention statistics,  

·     The Retirement age is approx 60yr.

·     and the job joining age is approx. 24 yr.

So, Total expected duration of Job is = Retirement age of 60yr. - Join in job age of 24 yr. = 36 Yr. of duration 

Minimum option if we consider that we can change 15 company then, stability require in each company is as mentioned follows,

Require stability = 36 yr. (Total expected duration of Job)/ 15 (By considering good pharma company)

= 2.4 yr. per company; don’t worry You no need to left 15 organization because once you get more experience your stability will be more. Initial phase people use to change the company for growth in salary. But after getting 10-12 lac/yr.   package people stop finding more job. They are showing minimum stability of 5 yr.  

So, HR should do the proper assessment why candidates are leaving the organization. If the candidate is capable for good position and salary package for the next company then HR should retained the candidate in the same organization.  If the candidate not having any personal issues. Because following are complication if any candidate left frequently from the same position, 

•  Minimum one month candidate will spend on training 

•  2-3 month candidate will take to understand the system 

•  2-3 month to compete with the systemic complication

More over totally approx. 6 month one newly join candidate spending time to understand the whole system. After that he/she will make some good strategy. If they left organization in min 2yr, then company will get output of 1.5 yr only because they spend 6 month to understand the system.  

Recommendation for recruiters /organizations 

• Try to retain old employee 

• Assessed his or her expectation based on the merit and capability/performance don’t consider experience always for assessment 

•  Try to know the valid reason for leaving the company  

So, it’s better to go with the exist employee and assure better job environment to the newly join employee to avoid unexpected resignation.  It is not expected from the regulatory authority also that your employee are moving out from your organization frequently. Some time is caused quality issues too.

Hope whatever clarity I have drawn here that is useful for all pharma candidates those who are working in pharma manufacturing as well as HR personnel those who are working for pharma industry.