Tablets, capsules, injectables and syrups are made under strict written procedures, and every step is signed by a person. This page covers hiring, training records, shift discipline and retention for a formulation or bulk drug plant.
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Share your requirementsA pharmaceutical plant runs on procedure. Operators weigh, blend, granulate, compress, coat, fill and pack, and each step is written down and signed. Quality control chemists test samples, quality assurance staff review batch records, and engineers keep the utilities and cleanrooms in order. Most of the floor works in shifts, wearing gowns, and moves between zones by a set routine. A wrong entry, an untrained hand or a skipped gowning step can hold up a whole batch. Good people are hard to find, and the best analysts and operators are courted by larger companies. Related reading: HR for manufacturing.
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.
GullyHR runs talent acquisition for permanent roles in pharmaceutical manufacturers. For each role we agree the job description with you, find and screen candidates against it, and support the offer through to joining. Tell us the role and the number of people, and we start there.
We recruit permanent employees. We do not supply contract or temporary staff.
Every business interviews, but few have a written process that works the same way for every role and every interviewer. GullyHR designs yours, from the role brief to the offer, trains your managers to run it, and can run it for you on the roles you hand us.
We agree what the role must deliver, the must-have and nice-to-have skills, and how each will be scored.
Screening call, assessment, interview rounds and decision points, sized to the role and the number of people you hire.
Structured questions for each role family and a rating guide, so two interviewers judge the same answer the same way.
A short briefing for your managers on what to ask, what to avoid and how to give a clear yes or no.
Who approves, how the offer is made, and how candidates are kept informed from first call to joining.
People are moved to a new machine or procedure before the training is signed off, and the file shows a gap when it is checked.
Supervision is thinner after dark, and small shortcuts in entry routine grow unless someone owns the standard.
A QC chemist with two years on the HPLC is easy to poach, and the lab is left short mid-month.
Overwriting, missing signatures and late entries are handled by scolding, so people hide mistakes instead of reporting them.
Many hands in packing are on short terms, and their induction is rushed when a dispatch date is close.
Targets press the floor while QA holds the batch, and the people in between carry the quarrel.
The technician who knows the blister machine or the air handling unit is one or two people, and a leave or exit stops a line.
Weeks of rushed record clean-up before an inspection leave staff tired, and the pattern repeats each year.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Learning and Development; Policies, Compliance and Governance; Retention and Attrition Management. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for manufacturing, not in general.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
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.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
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.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
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 pharmaceutical manufacturers business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
A grid of every role against every procedure, showing who is trained, when and by whom, with refresher dates.
A grid of every role against every procedure, showing who is trained, when and by whom, with refresher dates. The learning and development process holds the structure.
A short, signed induction for each area, such as dispensing, compression or packing, before a new hand works unsupervised.
A short, signed induction for each area, such as dispensing, compression or packing, before a new hand works unsupervised. See employee onboarding.
Separate duties for operators, reviewers and approvers, so the person who performs a step is not the one who checks it.
Separate duties for operators, reviewers and approvers, so the person who performs a step is not the one who checks it. See HR documentation.
A roster that puts an experienced lead on every shift and handles leave without pulling trainees into critical steps.
A roster that puts an experienced lead on every shift and handles leave without pulling trainees into critical steps. The attendance and shift process covers this.
A simple way to report a documentation slip or deviation early, with coaching first and discipline only for wilful breaches.
A simple way to report a documentation slip or deviation early, with coaching first and discipline only for wilful breaches. See grievance and disciplinary process.
A visible ladder from trainee to senior analyst or line lead, with pay checked against rivals through compensation benchmarking.
A visible ladder from trainee to senior analyst or line lead, with pay checked against rivals through compensation benchmarking.
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.
A training matrix and refresher calendar so every signature on a batch record rests on a recorded, current training.
Zone-wise induction that gets a new operator safe and careful before they touch a product.
Routines for solvents, dust and heat, plus rest and shift planning for tired night crews.
A view of what chemists, operators and technicians earn elsewhere, so you know where leaving is likely.
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 manufacturing, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Why the best operator often struggles as shift supervisor, what it costs the line, and a practical way to choose, prepare and back new supervisors in any kind of plant.
7 min readRead article
A founder's guide to hiring freshers and running a first-year programme: campus or open drives, a screening round, a training plan by quarter, mentors and checkpoints.
6 min readRead article
How an India head can sort a global parent's HR policies into apply, adapt or replace, write an India addendum with advisers, and keep headquarters on side.
7 min readRead article
What really keeps mobile app and web developers in a small firm: stay conversations, growth paths, fair release rules and a risk sheet an owner can use this month.
6 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Show a career path, pay fairly against nearby plants and give analysts real responsibility early. Many exits come from unclear growth rather than pay alone.
The procedure, the date, the trainer, how competence was checked and when a refresher is due. Ask a qualified professional what your regulators expect to see.
Yes, if they receive a proper induction, work under a trained lead and are not placed on critical steps early. Confirm contract worker rules with a qualified professional.
Train on why each entry matters, simplify forms where possible and treat early reporting as good behaviour. Punishing every slip teaches people to hide them.
Put an experienced lead on every shift, visit the floor at odd hours and use the same checks as day shift. Standards fall where nobody looks.
We would ask how training is recorded, who is on each shift and where staff leave from. A good first job is a training matrix tied to job roles. After a first talk, scope and fee are put in writing.
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