Main Subject - Business

Keeping the cost of doing business down, yet providing a quality product or service, is one of the most critical components of success for today’s leader. What many fail to realize is that employee turnover can represent a very substantial price

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

tag to a company's productivity and its bottom line.

Turnover is costly – just how costly? Research studies have shown that the cost of replacing a professional or managerial employee runs 1.5 to 3.0 times his or her annual salary. And it can

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

cost up to five times annual salary if you are looking at the intellectual capital – what a key person knows – when he or she walks out the door.

For example, to replace a $50,000 top notch sales person with a large customer base can cost you $1

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

71,500. And a $150,000 technical manager can ultimately cost $380,000 to replace. That’s no small pocket change.

Therefore, in almost any business situation —g rowth, downturn, merger, or even stability — it makes business sense to retain your

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

best people. Here are four steps to get you started:

Calculate the True Costs.
This includes the direct administration cost of recruitment (ads, background checks, assessments, paperwork plus the manager’s and HR’s time

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

or interviewing, training, orientation) PLUS the indirect costs of performance differential (lost productivity, impact on customers, disruption to the team, lower morale and the lost institutional wisdom).

Study the Demographics.
ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc
>
Understanding and conquering turnover requires probing into the details. For example: Who is leaving (high performers or low performers, older versus younger people, recent hires or people with long tenure)? What job categories or depart
easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi
ments are experiencing the most turnover (production staff, systems analysts, salespeople, nursing staff)? When are they leaving (after two weeks, six months, five years, or ten years)? Where are they going (your competitor, another industry
nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically
, back to school, out of town?)

Focus Your Attention.
Not all turnover is equal. Simply looking at a turnover rate of 17% per annum does not tell the complete story. The loss of a top engineer with ten years of experience, s

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

trong customer contacts, and good relationships with suppliers is obviously more troubling than losing a filing clerk you hired a month ago.

Therefore, target key jobs that are critical to long-term company success. High priority positions

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

re those that require extensive knowledge of customers, products or services, especially where there is a long learning curve. The cost of turnover is often highest for these strategic jobs.

Identify the Real Causes.
First, you

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

need to understand the current state of mind of your workforce. Start by identifying why people are staying and what you are doing that creates that desire to remain. Then find out what troubles people and would lessen their commitment to your o

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

rganization.

Focus groups and employee surveys are effective ways to obtain real time employee feedback; to identify the ‘push’ and ‘pull’ drivers of employee satisfaction; and to develop realistic solutions.

Then, examine the data for the

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

key reasons people stay and leave. Do further research on selected individuals or employee segments. The person who left because their spouse got a fantastic job in a different city may not be worth further exploration. But the outstanding per

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

former who left for ‘better opportunities’ or ‘personal reasons’ may be worth a follow-up call, even a year or so after.

An Example
In one company, a detailed analysis revealed that 30% of its IT and 40% of its MBA new h

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

res were leaving in less than 36 months. It then estimated both the direct and indirect costs for these segments. And it came out to a whopping $1.5 million dollars.

Focus groups were conducted with current and departed IT / MBA employees. C

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

ompensation and benefits were not the key turnover drivers, but rather, the day-to-day work was not challenging. These young ‘bucks’ were bored and fearful of losing their edge. In addition, supervisors lacked basic management skills and were un

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

able to state clearly performance expectations or provide meaningful feedback. Only then could solutions be developed to deal with the real causes of employee dissatisfaction.

No One Magic Bullet
Employee retention is an extraordin

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

arily complex issue. What I have consistently found is: That it’s NOT the money. When someone leaves for ‘better opportunities’, what has happened is that certain dissatisfactions - like the ones above - caused the person to put out feelers, or

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

to become curious about recruiter calls, or to start surfing the job boards.

Make sure this is not happening with your key people - the most critical, difficult-to-replace, top-performers - because they are the ones you can least afford to lose

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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Main Subject - Employee Turnover: Is It Eating Up Your Profits?

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