Case study

Vaccine and Co. is a medium sized (250 employees) innovative biotechnology firm that produces vaccines for healthcare providers, usually at a national level, across the globe. Vaccine development for a totally new virus and indication (e.g. the HPV vaccine for girls) can take 5-10 years (the more innovative the longer) and can only be shortened to a point even if there is huge demand. They can all be shortened if the state prioritises it, e.g. for Covid-19 the Government supported developing a database of volunteers for the trials so trials got off the ground faster. They also asked the Medical and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to prioritise the review and do it all in parallel, as data came along rather than at the end when all the data was complete. Contracts are usually not negotiated until the clinical development is almost finished. Covid-19 is an unusual one, but even there, the trials were running before the contracts were signed. The company's Business Development Partner (BDP) will stay involved with the ultimate client and the Program Leaders (PLs) as it is very much a team effort.

The principal tasks of the BDP and the PLs at Vaccine and Co. are to plan and run the program, from the lab to the market, and to build a relationship of trust with the relevant drug approval agencies to ensure the development program is likely to gain approval across as many markets as possible. The company's leaders must also develop a good working relationship with the healthcare providers in the key markets, keeping them informed regarding development progress and on results, as they become publicly available. Not until the final results are available will the risk /benefit profile be clear, leading to crucial discussions with the regulators as well as the healthcare providers. Any delays in vaccine roll out can result in significantly increased patient mortality if the disease is severe, in addition to loss of revenue, possibly irreversible damage to the company's reputation and cash flow. The key post incumbents must have the skills to develop a strong network of relationships with everyone involved in completing these essential orders. Although a Drug Development Plan will contain the key details and requirements for completion, it is up to the PLs to track performance, often in parallel streams so that any disconnections can be prevented or dealt with, as necessary.

The skills and abilities required of the PLs have evolved over the last few years and now more than ever before needed to have alongside their excellent technical skills, superior communication, teamworking, organisational and influencing, time management and problem-solving skills so that they can identify any potential progress delays and come up with safe, innovative, creative, and cost-effective solutions. Vaccine and Co. employs two PLs who can between them be responsible for several vaccine developments at a time, usually at different stages of completion. During a period when four vaccines were in progress, it became evident that some key stages were not being completed against schedule the company's key investors being alerted to the prospect of not meeting this urgent global need for these vaccines, on time, as planned upset them (as they had a strong understanding and appreciation of the societal need for these products and the company were delivering it at cost price). Further, evidence revealed that there were numerous tensions and pinch points between the PLs, their clinical trial teams, and the production staff, particularly when they moved from pilot manufacturing to full scale production.

Two particular key investors of Vaccine and Co., who previously worked themselves in the business, after some consideration and reflection, decided to take a closer look at what was happening within the business. It soon became clear that there were tensions between the PLs and the production staff which were not being delt with effectively. One senior production staff member stating he was being frustrated and having to work exceptional 'unpaid overtime' due to the general "technical incompetence" of the two PLs. He stated that neither of the PLs seemed to have the necessary talent or required attributes for the job and that both were associated with dissatisfied customers, delayed deadlines and a general lack of communication and crisis management approach to their general working lives, which impacted on everyone else in the workplace. It had become apparent that employees generally, particularly the experienced post-doctoral staff were already considering leaving and going to work elsewhere for better reward packages and now there was a general feeling across the staff of "stress and anxiety". Additionally, although the organisation had significant employee diversity on entry to the company across all employment areas, this was disappointingly not evident at the first- and second-line management levels (unlike the majority of the other UK pharma businesses which tended to have diversity across all areas and levels). On top of all of this, the Director with HR responsibility had been on sabbatical for 6 months and no-one had really taken up his role in the performance management process which had in fact become very informal over the last 18 plus months.

The two PLs were also upset and feeling rather fragile as they had never worked so hard themselves over the last year due to Covid and they felt tired and overworked, indeed, nothing could have prepared them for this pandemic year or what would be required of them! Despite Vaccine and Co's 'best efforts' they were not able to attract new trainee PLs to replace the three trainees that had left eighteen months ago. The new scaled up production processes adopted by both PLs a few years ago was problematic causing a lot of anxiety and tensions between the production and the PL's development teams.

The two key investors (who had previously worked within the company at senior levels) were challenged by what they found and had identified a number of'risks to the business, their investment and long-term livelihood of Vaccine and Co.' relating to the practices and organisational culture described above. First, they believed that it was imperative that their ramping up of production be increased to meet 1 billion doses by next year, utilising the agreed new production processes with good PLs was the only way that they could ensure continued company growth in the long term. Second, they believed that attracting and retaining new trainee PLs and scientists would maintain and encourage creativity and innovation to be embedded across the whole business. Losinganykey staff would be tricky since they were few available in the external labour market, due to current labour market demands. Additionally, the company's internal home-grown clinical and production staff had tremendous tacit knowledge gained over many years on the job, with many nearing retirement age. It was imperative that they got their HR in order, to become more attractive to new experienced post-doctoral researchers, to facilitate the retention of their own staff and to attract new talent when required within the marketplace.

Source: adapted from Gold, J, Human Resource Management Theory and Practice, Bratton and Gold (2017)

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1.Your task is to suggest what resourcing strategy would help this company and to suggest what actions might be taken to deal with the issues raised within Vaccine and Co.

There are 8 areas listed below covering each section of the employee resourcing module.You should chose only 6 of these areas and your assessment should be structured around the 6 sections you chose.

1. HRP and talent management
2. Flexible working and downsizing
3. Performance management
4. Reward
5. Job and competency analysis
6. Managing diversity
7. Recruitment and selection
8. Health at work

2. Each of the 6 section should be approximately 700 words and should include consideration of the following.

1.What are the organisational issues and how are they relevant to the content of this particular unit

2.Provide a summary of developments in theory/research and best practice from the unit that is relevant to the HR issue within Vaccine and Co. and what can belearnedfrom this to help understand/explain or improve the situation within Vaccine and Co.

3.Consideration of the implications of not addressing the issue within Vaccine and Co.

4.Clear justification for actions and recommendations that you are suggesting, specifically considering any revisions to current HR policy/process/procedures and how these might be implemented.

5.Consider resource (who will action this) and time (long, medium or short-term) considerations for each recommendation.

6.Clear explanation of how these actions would enhance, add value and help improve HR practice within Vaccine and Co.