"Rightsizing" Administrative Support for Pharma Commercial Operations and Brand Teams

Overview

At many pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, ongoing cuts in administrative staff headcount have begun to impact brand and product manager effectiveness. Key marketing personnel are spending more time scheduling travel and filling out expense forms and less time on product strategy and execution. World-class companies maintain a competitive edge in today's fast-changing market by ensuring a healthy balance between administrative support staff and managers. They also use administrative staff deployment and management models designed to maximize brand productivity. The purpose of this 24-slide presentation, which investigated administrative /executive ratios and staffing-level trends, was to develop benchmarks for optimal staffing ratios and deployment models for administrative staff in U.S. pharmaceutical/ commercial operations and brand marketing teams. Pharmaceutical executives can use this information to determine whether their administrative staffing ratios are competitive with those at leading companies in the industry.

Key Topic Areas

• Ratio of Pharma Operational FTEs to Administrative FTEs
• Ratio of Administrative FTEs to Promoted Brands
• Targeted FTEs per Administrative Staff
• Centralization of Administrative Staff
• Frequency of Administrative Performance Reviews
• Handling of HR Management Tasks for Administrative Staff
• Flexibility of Administrative Headcount
• Trends in Administrative Support Levels
• Executive Support

Sample Key Findings

• A majority of HR activities for admins are decentralized at the team or functional leader level. Setting grade ranges, recruiting and setting salary are the most frequently centralized activities.
• Seventy-five percent of companies operate with a fixed admin headcount number plus the flexibility to hire contractors as needed.

Methodology

Surveys and follow up interviews were conducted with leading pharmaceutical companies. The study was completed for a Business Excellence Board member.

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