Erin Lanciani, Chief People & Experience Officer, Sage Therapeutics.
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Navigating growth and establishing a skilled field force that lives and breathes your culture are important aspects of a growing company. There are three critical areas of focus for Human Resources: people, systems and culture. They go hand in hand with each other and are equally important to get right if you're trying to scale for commercial.
Bucket No. 1: People
Planning Prevents Poor Performance
Planning for a national hiring drive can be unique and time-consuming. Consider using talent acquisition specialists who have done this before. That level of experience is incredibly helpful as they know what you might run into and can advise on the best partners to use.
Partner with your commercial leadership to create a “T-minus” hiring plan that tells when you need the resources in place. The hiring plan should include commercial and G&A functions, which need to be in place to support the wider business. Both a thoughtful approach and advanced planning will ensure you hit your hiring plan and fill your roles with exceptional people.
Put People First
Go all-in with your core values to drive the process and hire against these values and a strong set of sales competencies. This is the one area of your business where you are able to build from the top-down, with each different role helping to hire the next team members. Hire a diverse group of strong leaders who will raise the bar.
Ensure you have the right partners in place. These might include an outside recruiting firm, that helped you with hiring, or an outside logistics team to run hiring events all over the country, for instance. Partnerships are vital because they show that you prioritize putting people first. It gives the sense that everything you do is purposeful.
Consider a welcome room for each hiring event, swag for each candidate and a reel running made up of social media posts and videos from existing team members. Greeters can be valuable to welcome candidates and help them relax. Create a seamless, immersive and personalized experience bursting with your culture. You can even create an app; every candidate can get a welcome video from the hiring managers, thanking them for their interest.
Also, make sure you set up your hiring panels so that you have rigor and discipline in your process that then drives robust discussions on candidate selection.
The Launch Experience
Your first product launch is not a commercial launch, but a company launch. It's what you have been working toward. Make it a company celebration that brings the whole organization into the experience. Take a holistic approach — discuss your supply chain, how your product was developed, the customer experience, etc.
You can use an ongoing stream of communications up to, during and following the launch, making sure you pull the whole company through the experience in multifaceted ways. Emails, videos, texts, desk drops, signage, outings, artwork — it's all about bringing the purposeful work to life, helping everybody feel they still have ownership of it through their own significant contribution.
This also brings your culture to your field force and allows you to bring the field force, and a glimpse into life on the road, to the people inside. After all, it is everyone’s launch.
Bucket No. 2: Systems
It Always Takes Longer Than You Think
To figure out what systems you need, look to the future. Ask every function to envision what they’d look like in five years’ time and what systems they would need to carry out this vision. When looking at your systems, it’s helpful to see what works for each function, but it’s also important to look at how these systems can integrate with one another.
I recommend starting your HRIS systems implementation earlier than you think you need to. Ideally, you want your system up and running in time to hire your field force. System implementations always take longer than you think they will — so allow extra time.
Bucket 3: Culture
Caring Through Language
Maintaining your authentic culture should be high on your agenda. Think of the communications you use within the company and identify if there is anything new you can add. Continue to talk about all aspects of your business, such as:
• Pipeline (advancing the research engine)
• Development (moving your portfolio forward)
• Commercial (your business and commercial side)
• People (your culture and organization)
Allocating time for proper communication is vital for growth so that everyone is on the same page. Make a conscious effort to talk about all critical aspects of the business and not just the “shiny” new development.
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
Keep a close eye on the pulse of the organization by listening to employees, and look at how you can better communicate, both thoughtfully and often. In my experience, you always need to communicate more than you think you do. A couple of tips and ideas for communications:
• Have a plan for communicating to your field force. Home office emails can get overwhelming if not organized.
• Set up a resource row at your launch meeting so your field force can meet their operational support (e.g., finance, HR, IT, etc.) and ask the questions they need to.
• Swag giveaways, welcome receptions, dine-arounds, social get-togethers — everything should be aimed at bringing people together and sharing your culture.
• Creative onboarding is also important. For instance, you can highlight a core value each day of the onboarding and have the field force go through the company orientation for context. Involve people from across the company in the onboarding process. Senior leaders could do sessions on culture and values.
Constantly monitor the pulse of your organization. You can use surveys, both quarterly and annual, Q&A sessions, Town Halls and so on. Take every opportunity to listen to what people are saying. Admit if you get something wrong, and adjust as needed.
Bottom Line
Aiming for commercial growth can seem overwhelming. But with the proper attention to people, systems and culture, HR leaders can help the business scale while remaining true to its culture.
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