Patients first approach, not high pay pays off for Otsuka

Otsuka, a Japanese pharmaceuticals company with revenue of £10bn annually and 42,150 employees around the world, admits it doesn’t offer the magnitude of pay and benefits as others in its field.
Thu, 6 Mar 2014 | By DeeDee Doke 
Otsuka, a Japanese pharmaceuticals company with revenue of £10bn annually and 42,150 employees around the world, admits it doesn’t offer the magnitude of pay and benefits as others in its field.

But in offering employees the opportunity “to put patients first and follow the untravelled path”, the company has created a well-respected employer brand in Japan and has no difficulty recruiting there.

Now Otsuka aims to raise greater awareness of its employer brand in the UK and Europe, Otsuka’s HR director EMEA Tracey Upton told a London audience this morning.

The pharma company “won’t have huge recruitment programmes” but among other talent-sourcing measures will be scouring UK universities for talent that shares the Otsuka ethos. “It won’t matter what university you went to, it’s about the right fit, and have they bought into” the values, Upton said.

The ethos comes from the top, from the founding Otsuka family.

“We are there to make medicines for people,” she said. “It’s not about profit.”

“The view is you are judged by your legacy in 10, 20, 30 years,” Upton went on to say. “It leads to some very different behaviours.”

Upton was speaking at Measuring Success, a breakfast seminar hosted by Hays Talent Solutions in conjunction with Penna.

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