GlaxoSmithKline R & D Reviews

Pros

Large company, with good employee working conditions, respect for employees and opportunities to grow. Managers typically find healthy balance between work and life for their teams.

Cons

Its size can sometimes mean it moves very slowly. Over the long term job progression comes for those who put in the effort and get results, but the onus is mostly on the employee to drive their own careers. Moving around the business can be difficult, but is possible for the persistent. Long term employees means there can be a mix of abilities.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus as much as possible on getting out into the work place and leading and inspiring people and understanding what is going on in the business.

Pros

Open culture, people are friendly and nice staff.

Cons

Very boring. Work is very repetitive.

Pros

Pay and benefits were very good
Work life balance issues taken seriously
Flexible work options were encouraged
Educational and training opportunities provided on site are very good
Efforts are being made to communicate business issues more openly

Cons

Reorganization of your department about every 18 months or so. Give the long-term impression that management doesn't know what it's doing.
Frequent time wasted having to adapt to the "new" organizational structure every year and a half.
Stealth cuts occurring in departments for several years. People just sudden;y disappear; hurts morale.
Company insistence on forcing employees into "open space plan." Turns them into itinerant workers on site and damages morale.

Advice to Senior Management

The employees know that the pharma business is a challenging one. Stop using that as an excuse to keep switching business models ad nauseum. No one is really being fooled. Longer-term employees start to see that older models are being recycled.

Pros

Management cares about employees' work/life balance
Opportunities to advance
Excellent Benefits - pension, 401k, shutdown, paid time off, vacation, etc.

Cons

Company does not embrace employees working remotely - hence I had to leave after 5 years.

Advice to Senior Management

Please allow employees to work remotely if acceptable for position.

Pros

1. Good environment and work culture
2. Great place for starters
3. Work-life balance is better
4. Excellent training opportunities

Cons

1. Poor salary structure
2. Lack of fairness and transparency
3. Dearth or employee benefits
4. Bureaucracy in decision making
5. Inefficient local leadership

Advice to Senior Management

Trust and confidence in top leadership is the single most reliable predictor of employee satisfaction in an organization. The current leaders have to learn that.

Pros

GSK allows conduct of research that can prove extremely beneficial to patients all over the work. Although there are many unnecessary tasks assigned it is still a great company to work for.

Cons

There are a great deal of unnecessary tasks assigned by the Senior Executive Team, which they feel will improved efficiency of the organization.

Pros

Solid company, and good products

Cons

They damaged their reputation and credibility.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't follow other large pharma, cut your own path.

Pros

It's possible to commute from North London to most GSK R&D sites, so you don't have to live somewhere miserable, like in other big pharma R&D departments.
Some members of staff are keen to encourage cross-departmental knowledge sharing and collaboration, and there is an internal network to facilitate this. Also lab books were kept electronically, online, and were visible to others.
During my internship I was given the freedom to create my own project. I also worked in a group that maintained good links with academia. Some fellow interns even published their projects.
Apparently lots of scope to go part time later.

Cons

Regular reorganization leaves some departments feeling empty.
The pay doesn't compare to other big pharma R&D departments, and it's expensive to live in north London.
There's no atmosphere outside of regular working hours as no one seems to feel the need to work overtime.

Advice to Senior Management

Employ more cheap online tools to encourage internal collaboration

Pros

Nice people to work with.
Lots of info available to employees on website.
Laid-back atmosphere. Not high pressure.
Company has a good name.

Cons

Salaries are not great but not bad.
Hard to move around within company.
Rarely got a response to applying directly to positions on website even as a contractor.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay your workers better. Offer ways to move around within the company. Offer training programs to move around within the company.

Pros

Provides good exposure to:
-how the Pharmaceutical industry works.
-how the Pharmaceutial industry is very business orientated.
-new cutting edge technologies.

Cons

Provides insight on:
-how not to run a Pharmaceutical company.
-how out of touch the management are with reality.
-their very short term goals and interests.

Advice to Senior Management

-be more engaged with wider scientific community.
-promote appropriate staff.
-present their work to the external community in a more ethical manner.