Running Head: RECRUITMENT PLAN 1

Recruitment Plan for GlaxoSmithKline (Team Project)

Submitted by:

Bhavik Pate l(1642361)

Deesha Majithia (1644276)

Rajbir Kaur Bhatti (1645597)

Rujuta Patel (1646206)

MADS 6602

Professor Dr. Sydney Scott

Fairleigh Dickinson University

Vancouver
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Introduction

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is a British multinational pharmaceutical company which

has its headquarters located in London. GSK deals with pharmaceutical products, vaccines

and consumer healthcare products. As per IMS MIDAS (September, 2012), GSK was ranked

at no. 7 amongst top 10 corporations based on sales at ex-manufacture levels. It was formed

in the year 2000 by the unification of Glaxo Wellcome plc and Smithkline Beecham plc. As

per our research, GSK has an operational network in more than 150 countries, 86

manufacturing units in 36 countries as well as large Research and Development centers in

countries like the UK, the USA, Spain, China and Belgium. They roughly have over 99,000

employees of which 12,500 alone work for the research and development department.

According to GSK (2014), mission and vision are:

Mission: “To help people do more, feel better and live longer”.

Vision: “We want to become the indisputable leader in our industry not simply in terms of

size, but in how we use that size to achieve our mission and improve the quality of human

life.”

Recruitment is a process of seeking and enrolling skilled and specially qualified

proficient individuals to meet the manpower demands of an organization. The recruiting of

new employees, transferring or promoting of existing employees, terminating and replacing

of inefficient and retiring employees respectively is handled by the human resource

department.
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Sources of Recruitment

Internal Sources External Sources

1. Transfers 1. Online recruitment

2. Promotions 2. Campus

3. Replacement of retiring employees 3. Referrals

4. Job fairs

Every organization has certain requirements to apply for job vacancies. Similarly

GSK also has some requirements to be eligible to apply. As per our research, the current

recruitment process of GSK offers employment opportunities in the following departments:

 Sales and Marketing

 Finance

 Purchasing

 Information Technology

 Engineering

 Science

 Statistics

 Manufacturing

 Regulatory Affairs

All individuals willing to take up a job with GSK should be either undergraduates (for

internships), or graduates or post graduates in the above mentioned specializations.

According to Robinson (2006), “The intern programs are the best way of recruitment to

identify the talent of the graduates at their colleges or universities. He said that the talented

employees are selected soon before any other company gets an opportunity to hire them”.
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Recruitment process of GSK

The recruitment process begins with the analysis and determination of positions

vacant and ends with hiring individuals with specialized skills required for the job. According

to company recruitment policies, all candidates willing to apply for a job must submit an

online application with detailed curriculum vitae along with a covering letter. After receiving

applications, the human resources manager will identify and choose the most appropriate

candidates for assessment and interviewing. The GSK assessment center practices the

following methods to evaluate the capabilities of a new recruit: Analytical reasoning aptitude

test, Role playing, Presentation, Group exercise and Personal interviewing. Besides these, for

technical placements, there is a technical interview rather than a competency based interview

which is followed by a technical presentation based on a solution to a problem.

Recruitment Strategies of GSK

“We are focused around 3 strategic priorities which aim to increase growth, decrease

risk and improve their long term financial performance. Operating responsibly and ensuring

our values are embedded in our culture and decision making, helps us better meet the

expectations of society” (GSK, 2014). Recruitment strategies of GSK are in accordance with

the personnel policies laid down by the company. Since it is a global company, it is bound to

follow all regional policies of the countries where the branches are located.

Once the suitable candidate is selected after the interview, a verbal offer is given to

him to join the company, which is followed by a written offer letter. If the candidate accepts

the job offered, he has to mandatorily undergo a pre-employment screening process and a

physical test to be eligible to join the company.

To attract and retain employees, GSK is developing people within the firm and

relocating them to a different place to build their experience base, so that in long term they

can be put into a managerial position.

Challenges faced in Recruitment

Any organization has to analyze the market situation, anticipate a change in

requirement of work force and take measures to balance the requirement and availability of

human resources. This is known as Gap analysis. “Recruiting is not just a game of human

numbers anymore. For the HR professionals, this means going a step further than developing

a recruitment plan. It means working closely with the management on shaping organizational

culture and looking closely at the job attribute preferences of its current and future

employees” (Rehman et al., 2010). There are several challenges a Human Resource manager

may face during analyzing, forecasting and hiring of new recruits. (Dessler and Cole, 2011

ppp.466, 467, 467)

1. Determining the right skills and qualifications for a job: The Human Resource

manager should be proficient in recognizing the required skills in a prospective

employee. Failure to do so may result in hiring an inefficient worker.

2. Finding right person at the right time: It is extremely important for the Human

Resource manager to be updated with their labor market so that he can recruit the

right person for the in-time vacancy.

3. Skill Shortage: Human Resource manager may find it difficult to search for and

employ suitably skilled professionals in situations of economic downsizing. In such

a scenario, the vacancy may remain unfilled. An alternative to hiring new employees

is to train the existing ones to acquire the desired skills. This may consume ample of

time and monetary resources.

4. Global Relocation of employees: Globalization of business has led the companies to

transfer the employees overseas. Relocation is not the only challenge but, the cost of

training of employees pertaining to the new countries’ upcoming trends and

technologies pose serious threats for human resource manager.

According to Hollmer (2012), “GSK has turned to selective insourcing to gain more

control over the whole development and manufacturing process, by using existing plants

more effectively and keep its supply chain working more efficiently”.

Issues during recruitment

The certain issues that the manager has to take into consideration while recruiting new

employees for the specify job vacancies are:

 The Human Resource manager may not be well versed with the required skills for a

specialized job opening and may lack the knowledge to correctly describe the job

requirements which may lead to irrelevant job applications.

 Improper communication between concerned manager and recruiting manager may

lead to selection of unsuitable candidate for the vacant position. So the job specifications of

vacant position must be clearly and elaborately mentioned to the recruiting head.

 Many times, the time taken by the manager for the recruitment results are prolonged

which tends to the loss of many good employees as they lose interest or find another job

elsewhere because of repetition of interviews. “Further, slow recruitment process drive away

talented and qualified applicants from the GSK jobs” (Yeshi, 2011, ¶ 8, pg. 133-140).

Recruitment Challenges faced by GSK

“The four areas of HR practice have been identified as: Insight, Community, Purpose

and Performance. How organizations come to terms with these HR challenges will determine
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their successful growth in the future”(CIPD, Oct 2011). GSK has been currently experiencing

the skill shortage and to overcome this, it has been boosting retention levels and amplifying

performance culture. GSK is going through rapid growth since the last few years and hence,

the greatest challenges which they face are training the new staff and retaining the old ones.

The current biggest challenge is the development of first-line managers. They have adopted a

standard program known as the ‘First-line manager’ program.

Recommendations

 The recruitment process of GSK involves multiple steps to evaluate candidate which

can be very time consuming and thus can exhaust a candidate before he is offered the job. We

recommend that these steps should be cut short.

 Increased employment opportunities with appropriate safety measures and degree of

flexibility should be provided for women and people with disabilities.

Conclusion

“Finding and hiring the best and most qualified candidates for available positions is

vital to any organization’s success” (Dwoskin, 2014, pg. 25). We came across an article

which said that GSK is a stand out organization as compared to others as it has taken into

consideration a need among new recruits for a deeper sense of societal purpose. Thus we

would like to summarize that GSK’s recruitment process is novel, compliant and significant

for the new employees and the organization to meet their prospective goals leading to a

brighter and successful future.

References

HR Strategies for Growth in Asia (2011) retrieved on 2/3/2014 from

http://www.cipd.co.uk/binaries/5670%20Next%20Gen%20Asia%20GSK%20

(PROOF2)%20FINAL.pdf

Dessler. G & Cole, N.D. (2011). Global Issues in Human Resources Management.

Human Resources Management in Canada. Pg 466, 467- 468. Toronto: Pearson,

Canada.

Dessler. G & Cole, N.D. (2011). Recruitment. Human Resources Management in

Canada. Pg 466, 467- 468. Toronto: Pearson, Canada.

Dwoskin, L; M. B. (2014). Skeletons in the closet? Legal Development in Screening

Applicants and Employees. Employee Relations Law Journal, 39(4), 24-48

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GlaxoSmithKline (2014) Vision and Mission retrieved from

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Hollmer, M. (2012) GSK- Bucking Industry Trends turns to Selective Insourcing

retrieved from

http://www.fiercecro.com/story/gsk-bucking-industry-trend-turns-selective-

insourcing/2012-02-09
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IMS Health (2012) The Changing Face of the Top 10 Pharmaceutical Companies-

The Beginning of the End for Innovative Dominance. IMS MIDAS .Pg-3

http://www.imshealth.com/deployedfiles/ims/Global/Asia%20Pacific/Content/

Insight/Top10%20Pharma%20Companies%20WP%20%Final_for%20Clients.pdf

Key Recruitment Issues. HR management guide. Retrieved from:

http://www.simplehrguide.com/key-recruitment-issues.html

Rehman, M. S. et al. (2010). Considering HR-Job Performance Linkages: Role of the

Recruitment Process. The Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences. (18.1).

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6810&v=2.1&u=fairdulib&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w

Robinson, J. (2006). Three Steps to Leveraging Your Workforce. Power Engineering.

(110.8), p80. Retrieved from:

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Yeshi, T (2011). Recruitment Challenges of a Government in Exile: A Case Study.

South Asian Journal of Management. ¶ 8, pg- 137. Retrieved from:

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