A contract pharma maker produces medicines for other companies' brands, so it runs many products and many customers on the same lines. Its people problems are constant changeovers, client audits and teams that must keep each client's work apart.
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Share your requirementsA contract pharma manufacturer makes tablets, capsules, liquids or other forms under the brands of other companies. Each client has its own products, specifications and documents, and visits to audit the site. New products arrive through technology transfer, where the client's recipe is scaled and proved on the contract site, often by a small team of scientists and engineers. The same machines run different clients' products in turn, so cleaning and line clearance between lots are central to every shift. Plans change when a client moves an order or adds a rush. The business is only as good as its reputation with clients, and that rests on operators, quality staff and the tech transfer team who carry it out on the floor. See also HR for pharmaceuticals and life sciences.
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
Different clients on one line mean frequent cleaning and checks, and the speed pressure grows when a rush order lands.
Teams scramble to tidy records and rooms, and the same few people answer every question.
A handful of scientists and engineers scale each product, and when they are stretched, launches slip and quality slips with them.
Documents, labels and materials from different clients sit close together, and a lapse puts one client's product in another's box.
They promise dates to clients and ask the plant to meet them, and are blamed by both sides when plans change.
Operators are asked to run an unfamiliar product with a short brief, and mistakes follow.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Organisation Design; Performance Management; Learning and Development. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for pharmaceuticals and life sciences, not in general.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
The pieces a contract pharma manufacturers business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
A named team and a planned slot for each clearance.
What this coversHideA named team and a planned slot for each clearance. Link it to the attendance, shift and leave process so cover is clear.
Simple sessions on how to answer plainly and where to find records.
What this coversHideSimple sessions on how to answer plainly and where to find records. See the training consulting page.
Grade the roles, plan workload and review pay with compensation benchmarking.
What this coversHideGrade the roles, plan workload and review pay with compensation benchmarking.
Named custodians for each client's labels and documents, with checks at issue and return.
What this coversHideNamed custodians for each client's labels and documents, with checks at issue and return.
A written rule on who confirms dates and who says no, in the role design and job descriptions work.
What this coversHideA written rule on who confirms dates and who says no, in the role design and job descriptions work.
A short session and sign-off before an operator runs a new client's product alone.
What this coversHideA short session and sign-off before an operator runs a new client's product alone.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirementsConfirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
Rosters and cover that plan for changeovers instead of fighting them.
Clear remits for liaison, planning and quality so dates and decisions have owners.
Pay checks for the tech transfer scientists and experienced operators clients depend on.
Training for audit readiness and for new product briefings.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in pharmaceuticals and life sciences, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Why people leave pharma and life sciences roles, and how to ask about qualification, shifts, territory and quality culture in an exit conversation.
7 min readRead article
A flat structure works until the founder becomes the only route to a decision. How to tell when you have passed that point, and how to redesign without a reorganisation.
8 min readRead article
A review can only judge what was agreed beforehand. How to set expectations that are specific, written and revisited, so the review stops being a surprise.
5 min readRead article
A calendar of courses, a budget spent by March and no record of what any of it changed. What a learning and development process contains when it starts from need rather than from the catalogue.
7 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Plan a named crew and a time slot for each, and give the plan priority over rush orders. Review the time it takes each week.
Practise plain answers, make records easy to find and spread the load among more people. Debrief after each audit.
Plan their workload, recognise the work and offer a growth path and market pay. Do not rely on goodwill alone.
Client contact and dates, with a clear rule agreed with planning and quality on what can be promised. Write it down.
Brief before the first lot, pair operators with someone who has run it and sign off. Keep a record of who is cleared for each product.
We would count changeovers on your busiest line, ask the last audit team what they would change and check how tech transfer work is shared. A good first piece of work is a changeover crew plan and a clear remit for client liaison. Scope is then agreed in writing.
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