Title Pag Evaluation of Staffing Policies and Practices of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Firms in Bangladesh

Abstract

The pharmaceutical industry of Bangladesh has been growing at a considerable rate in the last two decades. In terms of contribution to the national exchequer, the position of pharmaceutical sector is next to the Readymade Garments. After meeting local demands, the pharmaceutical companies have earned a substantial amount of foreign currency in every year by exporting pharmaceutical products to abroad. In the fiscal year 2017-2018, this sector has earned US $ 95.30 million. In the meantime, many pharmaceutical companies have invested huge funds for installing new state of the art manufacturing facilities in their companies according to the requirements of overseas markets so that they can get certification from UKMHRA, EU, TGA Australia and GCC. Some pharmaceutical companies have already obtained and some pharmaceutical companies are in the process of obtaining certifications from these international regulatory authorities. In addition to that the pharmaceutical companies of Bangladesh are producing different types of medicines by using free of cost imported formula from the abroad. According to the rule of WTO, the pharmaceutical companies of Bangladesh will be enjoying this facility up to 2033 if Bangladesh will not graduate from the LDC group. But the government of Bangladesh has the plan to come out from the LDC status by 2024 and in this case the pharmaceutical companies will lose the opportunity to enjoy the preferential treatment for producing different pharmaceutical products. As a result, the cost of production will be increased which lead to hike the price of medicines. Beside these, the pharmaceutical manufacturing firms in Bangladesh might have been facing ample challenges due to the radical advances of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), emergence of the knowledge economy and increasing global competition. In this regard, if the pharmaceutical companies of Bangladesh want to cope with the situation effectively and efficiently, the companies need competent, qualified, committed and dedicated human resources which are only possible through practice of standard staffing. The present study focuses on the existing staffing policies and practices of pharmaceutical manufacturing firms in Bangladesh. In this regard, this study selected ten pharmaceutical manufacturing firms randomly considering sales, market share, growth rate, human resources and reputation operating in Dhaka City to conduct the research. The general objective of the study was to evaluate the staffing policies and practices of pharmaceutical manufacturing firms in Bangladesh. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in this study for evaluating the staffing policies and practices of pharmaceutical manufacturing firms in Bangladesh. Since the study objective requires both qualitative and quantitative data as the study intended to collect essential data and information using various tools and techniques from both primary and secondary sources. To collect primary data from the field as well as from secondary sources for this study, an intensive field work was undertaken. The primary data and information were collected from two different tiers of respondents, such as managers and employees of selected pharmaceutical manufacturing firms in Bangladesh. The secondary data and information were collected from related study, research, survey, assessment reports, journals, articles, publications, and national and international conference papers. Besides, websites of selected pharmaceutical companies and other organizations have been consulted to collect necessary data and information for this study. The qualitative data and information were collected through in-depth interview, informal discussion, Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and contents analysis. For conducting the survey, questionnaires were developed to get the opinion of the managers and employees and the reliability of the questionnaires were checked from pilot survey. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) and MS Excel were applied by the researcher to analyze the data in this study. The analysis was conducted using Factor Analysis, Multiple Linear Regression, Analysis of Variance and Independent t Test of 4 (four) independent variables, such as recruitment, selection, induction and placement and 1 (one) dependent variable, such as overall satisfaction to find out the opinion of managers and employees towards the existing staffing policies and practices of selected pharmaceutical manufacturing firms in Bangladesh. The study reveals that the selected pharmaceutical companies have no uniform and sound staffing policy. As a result, they could not practice standard staffing for the betterment of the companies. The study also reveals that placement has higher influence on overall satisfaction of the managers and the employees. The pharmaceutical industry of Bangladesh needs skilled personnel to ensure the continuous growth and development and facing the present and future challenges with skilled at hand. It is recommended that the government of Bangladesh should establish a separate organization through the proper consultation with the owners of pharmaceutical companies to formulate and review uniform staffing policies and practices and also to monitor the staffing functions of the pharmaceutical firms regularly. It is also recommended that an “Expert Committee” may be formed under the HR department of the firms and this committee will place the human resources in various departments throughout the organization considering academic background, experiences, knowledge, skills , abilities, competencies and so on. It is expected that this study will play a significant role to create interest among the government, policy makers, employers and employees of pharmaceutical industry in Bangladesh to formulate time bound staffing policies and practices for the pharma sector of Bangladesh.