Dear Friends,
The high rate of attrition, especially amongst medical representatives in the pharma industry has always been a sensitive issue for all organizations. If the attrition rate is high, it becomes a matter of concern as it means there is something in the working of the company which demoralizes the field staff.
The attrition rate is dependent upon the kind of relationship the organization builds with its staff. How do we define rate of attrition? If a company had 1000 medical representatives in April 2010 and 1200 in April 2011, it means it had an average 1100 medical representatives. If 600 medical representatives left during this period, it means the attrition rate is 600 as a percentage of 1100 i.e. 54.5%
In Volume I, Issue XI of ‘The Enablers’, Mr. Dhiren Vyas looks at this problem from a different perspective and throws light on how this can be reduced, if not completely eliminated. Mr. Dhiren Vyas has worked with Ciba-Geigy (Novartis) for over 28 years, starting as a medical representative and then moving on to various senior positions. He now runs a consultancy agency called Acumax India. He is also an associate with ‘The Enablers’. His many clients include Dr. Reddy’s Foundation.
With this backdrop, Mr. Vyas is really qualified than to write on this subject. The article is brought to you in two parts. In Part I, he discusses the issues related to attrition and in the 2nd part i.e. in Volume I, Issue XII of ‘The Enablers’ he will offer some practical guidelines to the first-line managers to address this.
Mr. Vyas can be reached at acumaxindia@yahoo.com or on his mobile at 9327637474
With warm regards,
Vivek Hattangadi
Editor
079-26601479 / 9376100041
High Attrition – A challenge to first-line sales managers
- By Dhiren Vyas
Part I – Reasons for Attrition
A nation which is moving forward by leaps and bounds is flooded with graduates and educated youth to embark on new employment. With so many options available in a cross-section of industries like finance, insurance, retail marketing, hotel management, telecommunication, FMCGs, the preference for the youth to join as medical representatives and remain with the pharma industry is low. Working in the field when the temperatures are over 450 C and times sub-zero is a far harsher alternative than working in the air-conditioned environment of the 5-Star hotels, IT offices and retail marketing.
Gifted people with a flair for selling are no longer attracted towards the pharma industry. While on one hand the industry is unable to attract the right kind of talent, on the other hand, job hopping is the order of the day. Attrition of sales and marketing personnel is a matter of great concern in this milieu. The days where people joined and retired from the same organization may only appear to be a fairy tale. An industry HRD chief says the rate of attrition in the industry is 36% and amongst medical representatives and product managers it is over 55%. Is it just the availability of more options or is there something beyond this?
In the good old days, medical representatives were eponymous with a brand or the company name. Today it is very rare to see a medical representative who has a long innings in a company. The species which spent their whole professional life with one company is almost extinct, and replaced by the new breed of job hoppers. Why people leave an organization is exemplified by a statement of a medical representative from a 5th ranking Indian MNC who joined a 15th ranking Indian MNC. She says “If I stick to this company, my friends and peers may get a feeling that I am an incompetent professional and therefore unable to find another job”.
Once loyalty was considered as a virtue and people were proud of it. Even in those days, effective medical representatives were lured by competing companies with better compensation, but people did not fall prey to this tactic – they wanted to grow up in the same organization.
If we examine the reasons, it was evident that companies took great care to nurture the medical representatives. They were trained extensively for months together by experienced and competent professionals before they were sent to the field.
A leading Indian company from Baroda trained the medical representatives for over three months at their corporate office and then for another nine months in the field before they were given charge of an independent territory. Such medical representatives were projected as ambassadors of the company and were instrumental in building corporate image and brands for the company. As a result, they were greatly respected and welcomed by the medical professionals.
Companies also took deep interest in the medical representatives. They were coached and their skills upgraded continuously. The right ones were groomed up for higher responsibilities. They were given recognition with long service awards. Today it is unfortunate to see that even some of the companies from within the top 20 look for talent from outside for the position of first-line managers. The induction training program hardly lasts two weeks while in smaller companies the proprietors consider training as a waste of time and resources.
If in those days first-line manager had a great role in keeping people intact, today they have a greater responsibility. They need to coach and mentor their people. First-line managers need to provide the badly needed emotional support and provide a congenial environment to retain talent and arrest attrition.
A recipe where first-line managers can harness the sincere efforts of the HRD and top management to recognize and reward performers in all possible ways, including career growth aspirations of the most deserved, should encourage medical representatives to stay with the organization and enjoy their working.
We shall see in Part II how we can address this issue.
Mind ticklers
1) List the medical representatives who have left you in the last one year
2) Why did they leave?
3) How you could have prevented it?
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