Setting up and Managing a Statistical Programming team in China for a US based global CRO Company

1. Setting up and Managing a Statistical Programming team in China for a US based global CRO Company PharmaSUG China 1st Conference, 2012 Shilin Wang, PharmaNet/i3, San Diego, USA

2. ABSTRACT With recent years of CRO industry outsourcing booming, China has become one of the hottest destinations in the world. Setting up the first office as well as the Statistical Programming team from scratch is a big task, managing it to make it work effectively with multiple offices across different geographical locations and time zones becomes even more challenging. The author shares her experiences and discusses the topics on how to achieve these goals. PharmaSUG China 1st Conference, 2012

3. Introduction Our company is a US based CRO company with over 30 offices across the globe and more than 6000 employees (Our parent company inVentive Health has over 13,000 employees in 40 countries). With several acquisitions recently, it becomes one of the major players in the industry. As the business started shifting towards Asia Pacific, our strategic goal is to make our footprint in the Asia Pacific region, in which China is becoming one of the most important markets. With over 12 years working experience in the industry and deep understanding of the Chinese culture, I was sent from the headquarters as an expatriate to establish the China office, which our first choice was in Shanghai. The initial goal is to set up the office, recruit the team, and manage the team to work remotely with other teams located across multiple regions on multiple projects. The projects are from both local and global. PharmaSUG China 1st Conference, 2012

4. recruiting and hiring • Requisition: requests for hiring multiple Statistical Programmer positions at different levels are submitted, it requires the approval from the upper management • Standard: as a global CRO, we employee the same recruiting standard for the same position across the globe. Technical skills and English skills are the two most important aspects we are evaluating on because successful completion of high quality works is built upon solid technical skills and good communications among all the team members PharmaSUG China 1st Conference, 2012

5. recruiting and hiring • Screening process and skill sets tested: we follow the standard recruiting procedure, which is resume selection phone screening  on site interview Technical skills including SAS programming, CDISC standards, experiences on CRO/pharmaceutical/biotech industries, industry standards, medical terminologies, clinical trial methodologies; English skills including listening, speaking, reading and writing; Soft skills including team work, project management, leading a team, quality awareness, problem solving, decision making, time stress management, customer service awareness and so on. We do have minimum requirements for degree qualification which is B.S degree, but M.S degree is preferred. PharmaSUG China 1st Conference, 2012

6. recruiting and hiring • Offer: once the qualified candidates have been identified, offer letters that contain job title, salary and benefit information will be sent out. Upon discussion and acceptance of the offers, official hiring dates will be determined and hiring packages will be sent to the candidates PharmaSUG China 1st Conference, 2012

7. on boarding and training • On-boarding: we have a very detailed checklist for managers and new employees to follow on on-boarding and training, the list covers a wide range of topics including orientation, IT, HR, Principles, Ethics and Integrity, Departments, CDISC, project/programming/technical, SOPs, etc., most of the training materials are available from the internal resources. Each item on the checklist has a due day which usually within the first month of on-boarding. • Start working: on the completion of the first months training, new hires started working on projects while they continue to receive trainings. They usually start working with programmers who are already familiar with our standards, as they progress and gain more experiences with our standards, they become independent and may take a lead role PharmaSUG China 1st Conference, 2012

8. managing and retaining • MANAGING • Local culture awareness: culture awareness is playing an import role in forming and strengthening team spirit, and demonstrating respect. It needs to be paid attention to daily communications and ways of managing the team. • Teamwork: we advocate teamwork throughout the project, each member brings out his or her talent to the group. As a manager, identifying each member’s strength and weakness is a constant task, prioritizing projects and optimizing resource allocation is a key to good jobs done. Teamwork is also a good practice to improve the entire group as a whole PharmaSUG China 1st Conference, 2012

9. managing and retaining • Communication: encourage all members to openly and honestly speak their thoughts, come up with recommendations and express their concerns. We have both regular group meetings and one-on-one meetings to exchange ideas on technical issues, career path planning, continuous training and any issues should they come up • Multiple time zone management: managers and lead programmers should take full control of the project in terms of meeting deadlines and internal milestones. Planning ahead of schedule to ensure situations like different holiday patterns won’t disrupt the progress of projects. Sometimes people are required to be flexible on working hours to meet some special or urgent requests. PharmaSUG China 1st Conference, 2012

10. managing and retaining • Continuous training: We provide group training as well as individual training upon their needs. We also provide opportunities for programmers to attend external trainings and conferences, industry activities and events whenever being budgeted. • 90 day performance review/interim review and annual performance review: 90 days after the employment, with the proper training and working on actual projects, new hires are expected to reach a certain level on overall skills. The review is conducted using a combination of self-evaluation, peer reviews and manager’s review. A one-on-one meeting will be scheduled with the new hire, and the expectations and goals will be adjusted accordingly based on the result of the review PharmaSUG China 1st Conference, 2012

11. managing and retaining 2. RETAINING • CRO industry in China is a relatively new but has been developing rapidly in recent years, so local qualified talents are the resource quite sought after. As a result, more frequent than average job-hopping makes it a big challenge to retain employees, especially good employees • Building up career path: from the employees’ perspective, what is more important than their salary is their career outlook, help them vision themselves in 5 years, 10 years and what they could achieve. Talk with them about the industry trend and how they can fit into it. Share with them the experiences on how to adjust to the ever increasingly changing environment PharmaSUG China 1st Conference, 2012

12. managing and retaining • Help them in planning how they would progress in the corporate ladder, building up not only technical skills, but also managerial skills and leadership • Setting up short term clear and achievable goals so they can feel strongly about their progress • Progressively delegate more important roles as they become more and more confident about their work, promotions will naturally follow when time is ready • Apart from good compensation packages, we have regular employee recognition and reward programs that demonstrating the great appreciation from the company PharmaSUG China 1st Conference, 2012

13. CONCLUSION Using established global standards with deep understanding of the local culture and market in recruiting, on-boarding, training, managing and retaining is a key to successfully set up a statistical programming team and a new office in China. PharmaSUG China 1st Conference, 2012

14. Contact Information Name: Shilin Wang Address: 4225 Executive Square Suite 800 City, State ZIP: La Jolla, CA 92037 Phone: (858)337-6227(USA), 13917479893(China) E-mail: ShiWang@pharmanet-i3.com PharmaSUG China 1st Conference, 2012

15. QUESTIONS? PharmaSUG China 1st Conference, 2012

16. Thank you PharmaSUG China 1st Conference, 2012