Internal Communications in the Pharma Industry 2024

  • October 23, 2023
  • 10:21 am

Communication plays a vital role in every organization, be it big or small. Employee communication stands as a pillar to support the smooth and efficient operations of any organization. The bigger the companies get, the more complex internal business communication gets, and the importance of the same increases further.

While practicing external communication is a standard protocol observed in the majority of companies, some of them tend to overlook internal office communication. One should not miss out on the same as only internal operations can lead us to serve external clients/stakeholders.

Pharmaceutical companies are often large and involve various internal members across departments, working simultaneously from multiple locations, toward a common goal. This article focuses on these companies and highlights the importance of internal communication in an organization, along with the challenges faced by them and how to combat the same for efficient operations.

SIGNIFICANCE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION IN PHARMACEUTICALS

Effective internal communication serves as the lifeblood of large organizations and industries such as pharmaceuticals. Prioritizing internal communication strategy ensures that employees across all levels and locations receive timely and pertinent information, fostering a deep understanding of corporate objectives, priorities, ongoing projects, initiatives, and emerging challenges.

With the world evolving and new challenges coming up daily, chronic health conditions have forced the healthcare sector to develop modern solutions for modern problems. The healthcare sector in recent years has faced immense challenges due to the rise of chronic health conditions, leading to a higher dependence on pharmaceutical companies to develop innovative solutions. This pressure to develop new innovative solutions has been magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic, which required the urgent development of vaccines and treatments to deal with the pandemic promptly.

 Therefore, effective company internal communication plays a critical role in the success of such projects. Within pharmaceutical companies, the manufacturing department, for example, relies greatly on face-to-face communication due to their close working relations.

 Setting up clear internal workplace communication parameters within the organization is very important. One must know how to communicate within the team and how different teams should communicate within the organization. If the pharmaceutical companies lack effective communication, the following detrimental results may occur among the employees:

  1. Without effective communication, the employees might become disinterested in the company, and their morale may suffer.
  2. Costly mistakes could be made by the workers of the organization, which could have an impact on both finance and product quality.
  3. The employees may become less fruitful for the company.
  4. Undesirable risks could be taken.
  5. Customer service may be affected, leading to unsatisfied customers.

A Holmes Report study found that companies with strong internal communications can deliver 47% higher returns to their shareholders.

Boosting internal communications can only lead to positive outcomes rather than a downfall in the company. It also optimizes global corporate communications.

INTERNAL COMMUNICATION OBSTACLES FACED BY PHARMACEUTICAL

The pharmaceutical sector faces its own set of unique problems, like any other industry, which can act as a hurdle to effective internal communication. Thus, the following obstacles should be handled carefully to form effective external and internal communication within the organization.

1. Engaging and retaining the employees:

In pharmaceutical companies, one of the major human resource challenges is keeping the employees interested and occupied with the work as well as holding on to talent.

As there is a scarcity of skilled people across the industry, there is a high salary expectation by individuals as people are getting opportunities with higher incomes. Due to this shortage of skills, when people change jobs and carry their experiences and knowledge with them, it is becoming difficult for employers to replace them in the current scenario. Furthermore, there are various other reasons why people leave their jobs.

According to a New York Times study, employees who are passionate about their work and feel as though it gives them a sense of purpose are three times more likely to stay with their companies than those who do not.

Disinterested people are more likely to leave their jobs so that they can pursue their interests somewhere else.

 There are various reasons why people become detached from companies, but the core of these reasons often lies in ineffective internal communication. This incorporates issues like lack of clarity in direction, inability to establish a connection with the organization, lack of comprehension of the organization’s goals, poor company culture, and poor leadership. If these factors are refined, then both engagement and retention can be improved.

 Various internal communication strategies can be employed to enhance engagement. These incorporate employee surveys to understand their engagement levels and then implement other strategies to overcome any issue, identified. Additionally, employees should be given rewards and recognition at programs, the work arrangements should be made flexible; team-building initiatives and improving the quantity of internal news items could be helpful to enhance communication within the organization.

2. Compliance communication in the pharmaceutical industry:

One of the most essential concerns of the pharmaceutical industry is compliance. This industry has a multitude of regulations that demand strict adherence. Failure to comply or take shortcuts would lead to the downfall of the industry and its reputation. It is important to ensure that all the employees are aware of all the rules and regulations and understand them and their importance.

Establishing a corporate compliance program can help to keep in check the various regulation requirements. Within this program, the implementation of a focused internal communication team is aimed at constantly reminding the employees of their obligations, due dates, and deadlines. Furthermore, incorporating compliance training programs, involving refresher training should also be a component of this effort.

3. Continuous manufacturing and remote working:

This industry requires attention to detail and continuous manufacturing to keep up with the unmatched demand. The employees are usually burdened with workload and more often than not, work around the clock, working across various shifts. With various people working in shifts, it is essential to ensure proper communication between the employees. Just like a relay race, the baton needs to be passed on seamlessly, for efficient and smooth transition and operations.

Furthermore, some organizations even have multiple locations, spread across the globe. This makes it even more challenging as people can not communicate directly at times. 

This problem has brought up multiple solutions such as email and other software. The organization needs to adapt itself to the changing environment and encourage effective internal communication tools for smooth operations.

4. Quality Control:

It is always suggested to focus more on quality rather than quantity, as good quality ensures that the customer will be happy and will bring in more volumes. Quality control is a standard protocol that should be followed by every organization to avoid major issues such as product recalls or patient deaths and lawsuits.

It is paramount to follow effective internal communications to ensure timely notifications and updates to all employees regarding the latest updates. Communicating the problem is as important as identifying one.

5. The rise of cybersecurity:

With the current pace of advancements in technology, it is difficult to stay up-to-date with technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT). Moreover, it is also challenging, as with every advancement, the associated cost also increases. With the latest developments, vulnerabilities in cyber security also open up.

Cyber Risks have been increasing every single day, the attackers have been finding unique ways to enter the system and hack the entire circuit. Phishing, ransomware, and many such attacks are a daily sight now.

Intellectual property theft and personal data theft are the biggest risks faced in this space. The pace at which this is taking place is alarming and requires organizations to take suitable actions before it is too late.

New technology is coming up every day, and organizations must adapt themselves to the latest technology to match the pace and sustain themselves in the market.

Communicating internally about these risks and raising flags at the right time is of utmost importance, as every employee plays a role in protecting not only the organization but itself and all other stakeholders such as patients. Educating them and sending timely reminders will act as a pillar of support and ensure safety-optimized operations.

6. Emergencies and Lockdowns:

The world is evolving at an unparalleled pace. Life is so uncertain that anything can happen at any time, with little or no warning at all. Starting from a natural disaster to even a global outbreak, anything is possible.

It makes it more important than ever to stay alert and pay attention to the situation and environment to safeguard oneself. Employees need to be aware of every safety protocol and accessibility to resources to ensure timely and safe execution to protect everyone. Hence, all safety communications should be focused on and passed on thoroughly and clearly. One should promote internal crisis communication.

2B INNOVATION, THE INTERNAL COMMUNICATION SOLUTION

With the above-mentioned challenges and significance, we realize how dynamic the world of pharmaceuticals is. Internal communication plays a vital role here than in any other place as it can lead to a life-or-death situation.

2B Innovations is your one-stop solution to ensure effective internal communication practices. Whether your resources work in different shifts or different cities, we will take care of it. DeskAletts is an internal communications software system available on many devices such as PCs, Macs, Apple, Android, or even Tablet Devices. It offers various features and options to communicate internally. It has a variety of digital internal communication tools that ensure a timely and accurate flow of communication among the employees.

Best tools for internal communications available in 2B Innovations:

  • Pop-up alerts
  • Scrolling desktop tickers
  • Surveys, quizzes, and polls
  • Video alerts
  • Emergency alerts
  • SMS messages
  • Digital signage displays
  • Corporate screensavers
  • Corporate wallpapers
  • Custom lock screens

In addition to the above types of internal communication tools, it also offers you the option to schedule messages in advance and sort and filter them as per your needs. The system is crafted to be deliberately intrusive to ensure that no one misses out on any information.

HOW VARIOUS TEAMS IN YOUR PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY CAN MAKE USE OF 2B INNOVATIONS?

One of the main advantages of 2B Innovations is that it offers various internal communication tools for employees which can be used by all teams of the organization, which requires effective communication with their employees regularly. Following are the ways various teams can use 2B Innovations to carry out their communication effectively:

  •   Internal Communication Team: This team can use 2B Innovations to spread general news, updates, and employee engagement emails as well as convey policies and procedures.
  • Human Resource Team: HR can use 2B Innovations for sending reminders and invitations about various training programs, policies, payroll, health and wellbeing, benefits of employees and their entitlements, management of performances, job opportunities, and initiatives of development.
  • Information Technology Team: The IT team can send notifications to the employees about outages, maintenance advice that is planned, send reminders about cybersecurity and alerts, training programs, and updates about software and hardware projects, and can also send hints and tips which might be helpful for the employees.
  • Admin Team: Admins can send reminders that are very general, like reminders about due dates and deadlines, events, and other periodic communication.
  • Compliance Team: 2B Innovations can be used as a valuable tool by the compliance team as they can remind the employees about policies, procedures, regulations and legal obligations, deadlines and make them understand how to report non-compliance and other issues.
  •   Customer Service Team: With the help of Deskalers, the customer service team can help all the employees identify the emerging customer issues and trends that have been recognized.
  •   Sales and Marketing Team: This team can use 2B Innovations to give regular updates to all the employees about the sale and marketing campaigns, targets for sale, key performance indicators (KPI), and guidelines for branding.
  •   Operations Team: 2B Innovations can act as a critical tool for the operations team as it can help them alert the employees about any issue in production, maintenance, outages, issues in quality control, and logistics and transport.

CLIENTS OF 2B INNOVATIONS IN THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY

KRKA

KRKA is an international pharmaceutical company which has its headquarters in Slovenia. KRKA uses 2B Innovations to save its time and workforce as it sells its products to more than 70 countries globally.

KRKA recognized a need for an effective communication system with the employees, especially those working in manufacturing units about system failure, maintenance, and other important events. The main reason for this is all the employees use different devices like terminals and company intranet.

Therefore, KRKA has taken the help of 2B Innovations and integrated it with its intranet to establish effective internal communication tools with all the employees to inform them about all the events promptly. Before using 2B Innovations, the company had to use several people to send emails and call the employees to inform them about important information which would take hours. However, with the help of 2B Innovations, the company is now able to do the task in a timely and efficient manner and the calls to the technical support department have also decreased significantly.

BAXALTA

Baxalta is a biopharmaceutical company employing more than 16 thousand people globally, which used to be a subsidiary of Baxter International.

Baxalta sought a reliable method to keep all its employees aware of critical information about system outages and downtime. The company has integrated with 2B Innovations in its Austrian operations, where they have installed the software in not less than three thousand employees’ devices.

They depend on Active Dictionary integration, to notify the relevant departments for addressing the relevant issues when the issue arises. According to them, 2B Innovations also helps in saving time in employee training.

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 In a pharmaceutical company, the employees should be well informed so that they can overcome various obstacles in the organization. You can get in touch with the experts of 2B Innovations today to discover how you can establish efficient internal and external communication.

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