The Pf Survey measures the happiness of the pharmaceutical sales industry workforce, what motivates them and which pharmaceutical companies are viewed as the best employers. The latest results reveal that many pharma companies are not striking the right balance in meeting the needs of their employees. Pf’s Diana Spencer provides an overview.

The Pf Company Perception, Motivation and Satisfaction Survey, now in its ninth year, provides an annual temperature check of workforce attitudes to their own and other companies within the pharmaceutical sales industry. It also compares remuneration packages and use of technology such as ETMS systems.

The latest research has shown that many respondents are worried about the future. It is evident that there is concern over the industry’s pipeline and lingering insecurity following recent pharma company mergers and redundancies amongst the sales force. On a positive note, however, the majority of respondents have great belief in the products they are currently promoting.

The company with the best external perception as an employer has remained consistent, with Boehringer Ingelheim securing the top position as an employer of choice for the third year running.

The respondents
As usual, response to the survey was high, though the lowest in recent years, which could reflect lower numbers of medical sales representatives in the industry.

Figure 1 provides an overview of the survey’s respondents. Data from the last eight years demonstrate that there has been an overall increase in the average age of respondents, which was 25-34 until 2006, and that there is a trend towards a decreasing number of people in pharmaceutical representative roles. This is hardly surprising given the large number of redundancies that have taken place and a lower rate of recruitment in the last few years. However, the table also shows there has been consistency since 2007 in the average age of respondents and the number of representatives that responded, which could reflect greater stability across the healthcare sales industry over the last three years.

One striking difference in the demographic of respondents is the reduction in those with more than eight years’ experience within the industry. Despite a fairly steady increase in numbers between 2002 and 2008, the percentage of respondents with more than eight years in the industry dropped in 2009 from 66% to just 13%. The data also show a higher number of people with two years’ experience than last year, though this is still a significant drop on the previous seven years.

There could be various reasons for this disparity. It could be due to job cuts among more experienced and therefore expensive members of staff as a result of company mergers, due to people leaving the industry or, more positively, that people with long pharmaceutical careers are securing promotions to other departments or new roles and feel they are either too busy or no longer qualify for the survey.

Top pharma companies
The Employer of Choice section of the survey asks respondents to rank pharma companies, with the exception of their own, on how desirable they feel they would be to work for.

2009 was another successful year for Boehringer Ingelheim, which keeps its crown as the most admired employer for the last three years. Indeed, both Roche and Boehringer Ingelheim have succeeded in securing the top two positions since 2005.

A previous top employer, Eli Lilly has also performed well since the origins of the survey and has improved its position this year to reach third place. Bristol-Myers Squibb too has performed well in improving its ranking by three places.

Recent large-scale company mergers have obviously had a significant impact on the survey results in the last few years. It is notable that Schering-Plough has dropped out of the top ten following its merger with MSD. However, Bayer Schering Pharma’s ninth place position perhaps reflects a higher level of success in the management of this fairly large-scale acquisition.

Newer additions to the top ten, Novo Nordisk and Leo have consolidated their positions, Novo Nordisk maintaining its third place after moving up four places last year and Leo improving its top ten ranking after its first appearance there in 2008. The most impressive rising through the ranks for 2009 were achieved by Ipsen, improving seven places to 29th, Eisai, up six to 27th, UCB, up five to 29th and Norgine, up five to 21st place.

Future plans
The survey also asks respondents whether they are planning a move in the next 12 months, and Figure 4 breaks this down by the key roles.

The fairly low numbers of respondents intending to remain in their current role over the next year could be due to the low levels of satisfaction with important work factors (see article The Pf Survey: what is most important to pharma employees?). However, this could also be attributed to a greater number of roles becoming available and people expecting to receive promotions.

The pharma sales industry professionals revealing greatest unhappiness in their current roles are hospital specialists, with a high 24% planning to move company in the next year and just 49% intending to remain where they are. These results could reflect an increased number of opportunities for these professionals across the industry. It is also significant that high numbers of healthcare development managers (HCDs) and key account management executives (KAMs) are planning to move position, as many of these could be looking towards a role in sales management.

Career development, improved benefits and job security were top reasons given for a move of role, indicating that most professionals have hopes of moving onto ‘better things’. Lifestyle, work recognition, relationship with manager and product quality also featured in the top ten.

The Pf Company Perception, Motivation and Satisfaction Survey has been conducted annually by HSP, publishers of Pf, since 2002. It provides a benchmark of pharmaceutical sales force remuneration, motivation, satisfaction, perception and recruitment. The survey is managed by Dr B Payne of Conker Statistics (A fellow of the Royal Statistical Society) and respondents are anonymous. These latest results were gathered in early 2010, but relate to 2009.