Ranbaxy's Interview Process

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Process At Ranbaxy R. P. Report Compiled By: Aditi Apoorva Nayan Swati Shivani Under the Guidance of Prof. N. N. Akhouri Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited: Ranbaxy is one of India’s largest pharmaceutical companies. Incorporated in 1961, Ranbaxy exports its products to 125 countries with ground operations in 46 and manufacturing facilities in seven countries. The company went public in 1973, and Japanese company Daiichi Sankyo gained majority control in 2008.

Milestones in Ranbaxy’s Path:

The year 1994 marked three distinct changes including the withdrawal of contract with Eli Lily, establishing of separate head quarters in the United Kingdom and USA and the beginning of functioning at the Gurgaon plant. By now the company had established itself in Africa, India, China, US, and UK. In 2000, the company entered, the German markets by acquiring Bayer’s generic business. In 2003,Ranbaxy received the prestigious The Economic Times Award for Corporate Excellence for ‘The Company of the Year, 2002-2003’.

Ranbaxy acquires Be Tabs pharmaceuticals, Terapia and acquires unbranded generic business of GSK in Spain and Italy.

In June 2008, Ranbaxy entered into an alliance with one of the largest Japanese innovator companies, Daiichi Sankyo Company Ltd. , first by purchasing 34. 8% of the total stakes followed by 64. 2% in November 2008, to create an innovator and generic pharmaceutical powerhouse. The combined entity now ranks among the top 20 pharmaceutical companies, globally. The transformational deal will place Ranbaxy in a higher growth trajectory and it will emerge stronger in terms of its global reach and in its capabilities in drug development and manufacturing.

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An interesting point to note is that throughout history, Ranbaxy has grown through Mergers and Acquisitions. This can be attributed to the increasing levels of inward FDI, the growth in the Indian economy, and relaxation of the constraints on Indian companies, which wanted to expand overseas. Ranbaxy Today: Today Ranbaxy is one of India’s largest pharmaceutical company, and is an integrated, research based, international pharmaceutical company, producing a wide range of quality, affordable generic medicines, trusted by healthcare professionals and patients across geographies.

Ranbaxy has a presence in 23 of the top 25 pharmaceutical markets of the world. The Company has a global footprint in 46 countries, world-class manufacturing facilities in 7 countries and serves customers in over 125 countries. The Company’s business philosophy based on delivering value to its stakeholders constantly inspires its people to innovate, achieve excellence and set new global benchmarks. Driven by the passion of it’s around 14,000 strong multicultural workforce comprising of over 50 nationalities, Ranbaxy continues to aggressively pursue its mission ‘To become a Research-based International Pharmaceutical Company’.

Company Vision: Achieve significant business in proprietary prescription products by 2012 with a strong presence in developed markets. Company Mission: “To become a Research-based International Pharmaceutical Company” The vision and the mission statements of Ranbaxy make it clear that, it is working on a strategy that strikes out a balance between an innovation based differentiation strategy and a cost leadership strategy. It therefore works on a Hybrid model, a unique and pro-active model that has potential to provide an excellent mix of innovative and affordable quality medicine to people around the world.

The model represents a great opportunity for synergy benefits to both Ranbaxy and Daiichi Sankyo. The strategy for optimum utilization of the Ranbaxy NDDR (discover R and D) resource has also been agreed on. Financials of Ranbaxy: Ranbaxy is an Rs. 4000crore company with a profit of Rs. 571. 98crore in 2010. This was after a loss of Rs. 1044. 88crore last year. According to the financial report, the company is growing at a healthy 13% as compared to last year. Ranbaxy was incorporated in 1961 and went public in 1973. For the year 2009, the Company recorded Global Sales of US $ 1519 Mn.

The Company has a balanced mix of revenues from emerging and developed markets that contribute 54% and 39% respectively. In 2009, North America, the Company’s largest market contributed sales of US $ 397 Mn, followed by Europe garnering US $ 269 Mn and Asia clocking sales of around US $ 441 Mn. Recruitment: It is the practice or activity carried on by the organization with the primary purpose of identifying and attracting potential employees. RECRUITMENT CHALLENGES: Some of the Challenges that Ranbaxy encounters while recruiting potential employees: * GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Ltd. , East India Pharmaceutical Works Ltd. , Dr.

Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. , Cipla Ltd. , Concept Pharmaceuticals Ltd. and Khandelwal Laboratories Ltd. are most of the competitors of Ranbaxy. So, Ranbaxy has to make sure that its image in the market remains competitive to others in order to attract potential employees. * Ranbaxy is already maintaining its brand in the market and it does not go for mass recruiting hence it is able to attract potential employees through its recruitment. * Ranbaxy Laboratories being hit by charges of sub-standard drugs, is going to increase its sales staff by a third and launch scores of new drugs that would further propel its growth in the next 25 years.

It has already hired 1,500 sales executives which was the biggest recruitment drive in 14 years. “This strategy will be the foundation for Indian market for the next 25 years,” said Mr. Sobti. “We are layering new resource for the first time,” he said. By the end of 2012, Ranbaxy plans to increase its market share to at least 6% from 4. 9%. Market leader Cipla has 5. 6% of the estimated Rs 40,000-crore retail drug market. “With lesser manpower, products and coverage, the company is number two and additional resources will take it to the next big leap,” said Mr.

Sobti who in the past helped Hero Honda Motors become the top selling motorbike company in the nation and hence we can expect Ranbaxy to reach the number one position soon. * In this business, the sales staff becomes vital for a company’s growth as they can directly influence doctors to prescribe a particular company’s drugs over similar drugs from rivals, other things remaining the same. Ranbaxy has 4,300 sales staff, compared with more than 5,000 for rivals, such as Cipla and Piramal Healthcare. SOURCES OF RECRUITMENT:

All pre-recruitment objectives and conditions are taken into consideration by Ranbaxy before embarking on a recruitment campaign. Proactive and Reactive Recruitment: The company adopts proactive recruitment approach for freshers i. e. entry level where its focus is to create a bench strength for the company. So, before recruiting it takes into consideration the forecast for next year and feedback from functional heads to come to a target number for hiring. It zeros in on the institute primarily based on the rankings and other factors such as feedback from the management, past experience, specialization suited to the job position.

For example, it would go to MICA campus it wants to hire someone from communication field. It visits the campuses during their campus recruitment season. Ranbaxy adopts a reactive recruitment approach for laterals. The company does a budgeting exercise and it puts proposal in front of the executive committee, based on the requirement of manpower in the near future. The various sources of recruitment include: * Campus Recruitment * Referrals * Direct Applicants * Consultants * Job Portals * Headhunters * Database of Previous applicants INTERVIEWS:

Once Ranbaxy gets enough applicants to choose from through its recruitment processes, it shortlists candidates and starts the selection process. Interview is one of the selection stages and is very important. It gives the company time to interact with the candidate face to face and assess him/her to find whether he is right fit for the organization or not. Ranbaxy does a thorough job analysis which includes a review of the position’s responsibilities, requirements, reporting relationships, environment factors, benefits and growth opportunities before starting the interview process.

For freshers, the short-listing of resume may be done on the basis of CGPA i. e. a minimum cutoff is used to screen the applicants. This cutoff varies from institute to institute, also depends on the market conditions Once short-listing is done then the stage is set to the start the interview process. The interviewers are well trained on the interview process. Types of Employment interviews at Ranbaxy: * Human Resources (HR) Interview: The Company conducts HR interview and technical interview for freshers. Interviews conducted by HR specialists are both broad-based and job specific.

The HR interviewer covers a great deal of general area of the candidate that is his interests, goals and educational experiences that can be related to the job position available. * Departmental Interview: The technical interview focuses on job specifics i. e. the required skills and abilities possessed by the candidate to perform the job efficiently. This is conducted by the functional head. * Panel Interviews: A panel is where there are two or more interviewers who sit side by side and take the interview of the candidate simultaneously.

Ranbaxy also employs panel interviews where the panel consists of two people; one from the HR and one from the concerned department or vertical. Panel interviews help in saving time and comparing impressions of applicants as they answer questions. This helps in reducing biases and ensures a fair selection process. Ranbaxy’s reference check is done after the interview process and it is done in a couple of days to make sure not much time is wasted. PRE- INTERVIEW PROCESS: Q. What are the pre-interview processes for the lateral hiring in your company? Ans: At the beginning of the year, we have a budgeting exercise.

In line with the plans for next year, every department has a separate plan. For Example,HR plans to do the following activities this year: Training calendar, Engagement survey ,Communication training . Now all this needs manpower. So, depending on the requirements and having a look at the headcount we have, we find out how many more people are required for the year. This manpower requirement then has to be presented to the executive committee. The costs in the plan include that of the headcount. Once it gets approved,based on the plan and based on the headcount, we go ahead for the recruitment process.

Then we check with the different options we have to recruit people. The options include: * Employee referrals * Direct applicants * Job portals * Consultants * Head hunting(throught LinkedIn) Department-wise Budgeting exercise For senior level recruits, we go for consultants for headhunting, but for the junior level recruits headhunting is done by the HR team of the company. Present to the executive committee Go ahead with the recruitment process Approval Consultants Head hunting Job portals Employee referrals Direct applicants Q. What is the pre-interview process for fresh recruits?

Ans: After deciding the headcount requirements for the year with the help of line managers in the same way as above, we decide on the colleges we want to visit, whether it should be a tier 1 or a tier 2 institute. Then the resume shorlisting is done on the basis of fixed criteria, be it CGPA, or in some cases, graduation and 10th,12th percentage. This is done in a very objective manner, and extra curricular aren’t given any weightage. This is a proactive hiring process. The recruitment for MTs and GETs goes in synchronization with the campus recruitment process.

The pre- interview process also included making a competency mapping sheet where we can keep in mind the basic skill set required for the job. The candidates are assessed for those skill sets while the interview process. Entry-Level Recruitment: This process is basically carried out while recruiting Graduate Engineer Trainees(G. E. T. ) and Management Trainees(M. T. ). These trainees are hired to enrich the talent pool of the organisation. After the short listing of resumes based on the criteria decided in conjunction with the function heads, an Aptitude Test is conducted by Ranbaxy.

This aptitude test functions as a filter or a gate, here the candidates who exhibit a certain degree of aptitude for the position in question are selected for the next step of the recruitment process. After the aptitude test, comes the Group Discussion, this is conducted as a elimination process, where as aptitude test was conducted as a selection process. A G. D. is important because the person who finally gets the job will have to interact with others in the organisation effectively, work in teams, and a G. D. will allow the candidate to exhibit those qualities. Candidates who are left after the G. D. are then called in for interviews.

Q. What is the interview process for fresh recruits? Ans: There are basically two panel interviews. Each panel consists of two assessors. One interview is obviously a technical interview, here the technical skills of the candidate are assessed. The questions pertain to subject matter and the interview is pretty much a structured one. The other interview is a behaviour interview popularly known as the H. R. interview on the campuses. Q. Could you please describe the behavior interview? Ans: In the behaviour interview we basically ask competency based questions, so our interviewers are trained in competency based interviewing.

Q. Could you give us some sample questions that you personally like to ask? Ans: One of the questions I like to ask is “What is your biggest achievement? ” and “ Why do think that it is your biggest achievement? ” this gives me an idea of what is the candidates self assessment and expectations of self. Also I ask the candidate to give me specific instances of where he/she displayed their strengths and sometimes I ask leading questions so as to scratch beneath the surface to make sure the candidate knows what he’s talking about. Q. Candidates are normally on the edge before interviews, how do you deal with that?

Ans: I don’t go out of my way to make the candidate comfortable and neither do I advice doing that because it can also be a criteria for assessment as to how confident a person is when they face the interview panel. But at the same time I never begin a interview with threatening questions, I never ask questions to which a candidate may not know the answer. Always begin with conversational questions like “Tell me something about yourself” or “your family” to get the candidate in the flow then I move onto competency questions. Q. What is the mix of the assessors on the interview panel?

Ans: Across the two panels there is a healthy mix of H. R. and functional leads, this is to assess the candidate completely on two different fronts and make the best possible decision for the company. Q. Do you use a grade sheet during interviews? Ans: Yes, we use grade sheets in entry level interviews to better differentiate among candidates because we want to have a complete picture of the candidates skills when the panel sits down to make a final decision LATERAL RECRUITMENT: Another type of recruitment done in the company is Lateral Recruitment.

The candidate being recruited at this level has almost same kind of roles and responsibilities as the firm offers him without any additional or only notional increase in the salary. At the lateral level, project execution, people management, and client leadership skills become very important parameters of evaluation. Besides project and client-related responsibilities, the firm expects its senior team members to take up firm-building initiatives. 1. When asked from GM-HR Ms. Ruchira Gupta about the lateral recruitments at Ranbaxy, she provided us with the following information: 2.

Lateral Recruitments at Ranbaxy continues throughout the year as and when the requirement arises. 3. The first and foremost step to carry is Budgeting Exercise done by professionals at Ranbaxy. This exercise includes the plans for next year followed by the needs and requirements of various job profiles. Forecasting of manpower is then presented to higher executive committees in the company. Then next step is to get the plan approved by the committee. 4. To carry forward the process, various sources are used to assist in the process of recruitment i. e. attracting the right fit candidate. a. Referrals . Direct Contact c. Consultants d. Portals e. Headhunting 5. Initial short listing is done using benchmark criteria such as the previous employers, the previous job role and responsibilities. 6. Next the process continues with an online aptitude test for next level of short listing and the selected candidates are called up for GD and Interview process. This process remains similar as in case of Proactive recruitment. 7. During these rounds, the company also responds to queries and the role that the candidate is being evaluated for. The intent, again, is to help the candidate make an informed decision. . The major challenge for the company is to attract best talent from the market majorly from its competitors and to retain with Ranbaxy further. For this purpose the candidate is made aware of all the best practices followed, the clarity of job role, compensations packages, rules and policies. Further they are provided with the information of culture and environment within the organization. Post Interview Process: After the interview process is over candidates are judged on the predefined criteria. The performance and the skills of the interviewee are matched against the organization requirements.

Then the best fit is selected and then the whole process for reference check is started. On completion of reference check the candidate is informed whether he is selected or not, including informing about the compensation and benefits as well as when the candidate is expected to join the organization along with it some information about the work culture at the organization also those who are not selected were informed that they were not fit for particular job opening but in future if any opening would be there then they would be considered.

Q: How much time do you normally need for reference checks? Ans: Our organization does not believe in keeping a task pending so we try to complete the reference check as early as possible and mostly complete the reference check is within two days. Q: Who are the people involved in reference check? Ans: If the candidate is through employee referral then that employee is best person for reference check. Otherwise we use the reference provided by he candidate, but we keep in mind the sensitivity of the process because the candidate’s reputation maybe on line. Q: How do you inform the candidates regarding the interview selection process? Ans: Mostly the candidate is informed through email and telephone that he is selected and for those who are not selected, it is through email with a thank-you note for their participation in the whole process. Q: How much time you required for to complete process?

Ans: The candidate selection generally takes around a week after interview is over. Q: What about the candidates those who are not selected is their previous interview used or do they go through the whole rigmarole again for new openings? Ans: For every new job opening, we start afresh; it is a completely new process just the interviewee application is considered for that position because the candidates resume is in our database. Inferences and Conclusions:

For this project we as a group decided to focus on Ranbaxy’s interview process while recruiting. We broke the entire process into three distinct equally important components namely: 1. Pre-Interview 2. Interview 3. Post-Interview Some of our deductions based on our interactions with Ms. Ruchira Gupta GM-HR Ranbaxy are as follows: •The company first relies on its database of past applicants for any new job vacancy that arises. After that it also takes into account the employee referrals.

This saves a lot of cost in recruitment for the company. •Also, since the headhunting process is taken up by the HR department of the company itself, it shows that the team keeps a constant eye on the social networking sites and the job portals. •Fresher’s recruitment is a proactive process which always helps the company meet its requirements. •The recruitment requirements are taken from all the departments, who best know what would be their requirements for the next year according to their expansion plans for the year. This elps the company perfectly map its requirements in terms of people requirement with particular skill set. •The company already uses e-recruitment through job portals but it doesn’t have an option in their website to seek applications. This should be focused upon as many companies today have applications on their websites for job openings. •The company should start investing in innovative sources of recruitment which will help it in beating its competitors and hire the best. •The company does not disclose the salary package to the candidates before interview.

This may create skepticism amongst the candidates and hence it is better to at least mention salary if not the entire benefits. •The whole process of short-listing campuses and then candidates is a little ambiguous, could be made more structured.