Workforce Training in Pharmaceutical Companies: Gaining Insight
Pharmaceuticals is one of the fastest-ever growing sectors. The industry constantly endeavors to develop and market new products on a global scale, and is undergoing rapid changes during the last few years, so it’s important to accommodate the needs of multiple customers. Using the latest products and delivering optimal e-learning solutions through Learning Management Systems (LMSs) is the need of the hour.
The companies in this domain spend a significant amount of their budgets toward employee development and workplace efficiencies. Creating courses based on the basics act as a refresher for the newly hired before they participate in training sessions. These courses help enhance skills and build a strong competency matrix, leading to organizational development. Designing the right courses aid sales employees in meeting their targets and achieving specific skills.
Training Challenges and Solutions for Pharma Industry
The rapid launch of new drugs and evolving market conditions demand constant learning and knowledge-sharing with employees and customers. Short and crisp modules with engaging content are delivered through robust LMSs to meet diverse business needs. To address modern learners’ needs, it is crucial to ensure the workforce is adequately trained. Most of the times, sales personnel undergo 1-3 months training based on their needs. It has been quite useful but becomes a challenge when there is a need to conduct new product training.
Let us discuss some of the challenges that are faced by pharma companies today:
- Advent of new drugs
The industry is continuously striving to launch new products and deliver changing policy materials in an efficient way. For this, a flexible and cost-effective learning platform is used to access engaging e-courses.
- Shortage of skilled trainers
It is crucial to hire trained professionals familiar with the domain and have knowledge of the latest products and marketing strategies. With e-learning, the challenge is one-time, because once the courses are created, training can be instantly assigned accordingly.
- Changing compliance
It takes immense effort to manufacture a drug that gets approval from regulatory agencies and meets desired expectations. For example, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) checks for drug quality by ensuring that pharma companies adhere to CGMP (Current Good Manufacturing Practice) regulations. Online learning helps pharma companies train their workforce on these compliances in an engaging manner. As compliance training requires regular reinforcements, micro content is delivered in the form of infographics, videos and games to enhance learning.
Online is perfect medium to impart workplace training in an efficient manner. Today, pharma companies ensure the delivery of highly interactive online courses through efficient LMSs.
Some of the advantages of e-learning for pharmaceutical industry include:
- Online courses that are quick and easy to update
The fixed expiry time of patents in pharma domain enables companies to release new drugs at regular intervals. Therefore, it is important for companies to impart training to the workforce, including sales personnel, about the features of new products. With the advent of authoring tools, e-courses can be updated quickly, thereby reducing the time between the launch of drugs and training.
- Online training effective for diverse workforce
Online courses are created in different languages for employees spread across diverse locations. Self-paced learning programs are organized to deliver courses based on clinical practices. In today’s digital scenario, it has become possible to create virtual labs to facilitate the actual medical procedures.
- Automated learning process
E-learning helps employees take multiple courses and even go back in the midway. The courses and certification programs can be automated using LMSs, thereby boosting overall workplace productivity. Learners have no need to write assessments, as the LMS will automate the process, saving time and effort. Algorithms are designed to analyze what skills are required by the learners. Based on skills assessment outcomes, custom learning plans are made. With time, the learning platform will also update automatically in response to the evolving business objectives.
The pharma industry is tapping into e-learning and development to impart training on medical processes and compliance aids. The biggest advantage of e-learning is its ability to meet the learning needs of diverse audiences. A well-designed online course caters to different learning styles, something that traditional classrooms often fail to provide. Self-paced instruction allows learners to access the same content multiple times, as needed. Pharma companies make the best use of efficient enterprise LMSs to gain the competitive edge, enabling the workforce to take on the training challenges without any hassle.
Author: Anubha Goel, G-Cube Anubha Goel is a content writer at G-Cube. She loves to write about new technologies in eLearning industry and exploring novice ideas for the new-age learners.
Suggested Further Reading: https://www.jyoungpharm.org/sites/default/files/10.4103_0975-1483.55740.pdf
