Abstract

Insourcing contract staff allows pharmaceutical companies to reduce fixed headcount expenses while ensuring sufficient staff are on hand to get the work done. This flexibility is particularly useful in processes that have natural peaks and troughs. It also allows the company to retain greater control than if the work is outsourced. Before insourcing personnel, however, managers should consider the potential pitfalls and how to avoid them.

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A growing trend is to turn to outside providers to fill these gaps by "insourcing" skilled staff. In some cases, just a few staff members are brought in, while in others, an entire job function can be handed off to suppliers in either a managed team or functional service arrangement.

In insourcing arrangements, the insourced staff are not employees of the pharmaceutical company. A third-party supplier retains responsibility as the employer of the insourced staff, while the pharmaceutical customer is responsible for their day-to-day supervision during the project.

The Benefits of Insourcing

The benefits of these types of arrangement are numerous. Reducing fixed headcount expenses is the most obvious. Such arrangements offer excellent flexibility, because early termination clauses allow the client to easily "switch off" the additional resource should the demand be reduced suddenly, for example, if a clinical study closes early or if development on a drug candidate ends because of unfavorable clinical results. In such cases, there may be a need to quickly reduce headcount to save costs. Insourcing staff also can be used to fill short-term resource gaps caused by planned absences such as maternity leave.

Another benefit of insourcing staff that often motivates large companies is that it allows the client company to retain tighter control of the work involved than if the work were contracted out.

A further benefit of working with insourced staff is that not only does the hiring manager get the pick of the best available qualified staff from across many sources, but the time a contract staffer spends on site also can serve as an extended interview. When headcount positions become available, contract employees often apply, removing a large degree of uncertainty for the hiring manager. In addition, should these insourced employees have worked with the client for a considerable time, there may be minimal take-on fees, thus making this a very cost-effective recruitment solution.

In the clinical trials arena, insourcing experienced staff also has an advantage over contracting out a study when the product is close to commercialization: The insourced staff represent the pharmaceutical company with key opinion leaders and investigators, thus retaining relationships with future potential prescribers.

Pitfalls to Avoid

When considering personnel insourcing, there are several pitfalls and a few simple rules to consider.

Contractor retention may be a concern, because insourced staff do not have the same degree of loyalty to the company and can, in theory, leave at any time. This concern can be mitigated, however, by clauses in the insourced staff's contract with the staffing supplier. For example, insourced staffers, as employees of the supplier with associated company benefits, have notice periods and are subject to the supplier's human resources (HR) processes.

Another concern raised by pharmaceutical customers is that integrating insourced staff into the company's regular business meetings and required project training, and offering career development opportunities could create an employer–employee relationship with insourced staff, which can have legal ramifications, particularly in the EU and Australia, where employment legislation is tight.

Pharmaceutical companies often wish to integrate contract employees as much as possible into their operations, to ensure the staff are properly trained and have all the information they need to do their jobs effectively. Likewise, all staff want career development and it is natural for a manager to want to aid and develop the best and brightest. However, when these people are not your employees, providing too much integration or development assistance may mean that the "employer–employee" line will be deemed to have been crossed.

Therefore, the pharmaceutical company should evaluate carefully whether it is necessary and appropriate to include insourced employees in any meeting or event that is not project related. The pharmaceutical company's legal counsel may wish to weigh in on this.

These risks also can be mitigated by working with a supplier who fully employs, manages, trains, and supports the staff on contract to you. Insourced staff should have career development discussions with the supplier's industry-experienced line manager. Supervisors at the pharmaceutical company should provide input into performance appraisals and career development plans through the supplier manager of the insourced personnel, but not hold these meetings directly with the insourced personnel.

The assigned supplier manager not only has responsibility for the staff's career development, but also for ensuring that client needs and timelines are met. Therefore, you also should work closely with the assigned supplier manager to set meaningful project-related objectives that are timed to coincide with the insourced personnel's probationary periods.

If you work with a company that does not fully employ the contract staff but instead provides access to a freelance network, you should verify that these freelancers are set up as limited companies and not "sole-traders," to mitigate the risk of co-employment.