Why Do Pharmaceutical Companies Do This?

Staff training MUST be fit for purpose

This post, previously on LinkedIn, received over 5000 likes!

Placing 10s and 100s of procedures in front of your new starter does not really add any value to the individual, nor the company. These ways of working must change.

Our solution would be to train the individual, right from the first day, on the procedures that would apply to their day to day job. Either train them on the procedure as a class room training, taking them through the critical steps of the procedure, or through practical on the job training with the procedure to hand. Even if the procedure did not apply to their day to day job, then find a suitable time near to their start date to take them through those procedures in a classroom training so that you as the trainer, know that the learner has understood the key aspects of the procedure that applies to them.

The ONLY time we would suggest that read and understood is practiced, is when staff need to acknowledge the existence of the procedure/s. This would typically apply to the Managing Director and Senior Leadership Team for their accountability for the business and departments they head with respect to Good Manufacturing Practice / Good Distribution Practice.

Information overload is not the best way to onboard a new starter and it does not add any REAL value.

Written by: Sanjay Nadarajah, GMP/GDP Consultant