How the Best Stay Tough During Trying Times: Sudair Pharmaceuticals Co’s COVID-19 Response

June 15, 2021

Kamilia Aokal

This past year has continued to bring forth hardships as organizations across all industries struggled to stay afloat, whether this was due to a lack of demand for a particular product/service or whether there has been too much of a demand for it. Organizations in the region, however, were not willing to give up on their businesses and with backup plans up and running, they got creative in the ways they dealt with the ongoing pandemic. It is important to note that business success was not their only goal as organizations found ways to invest in their employees and build upon a solid foundation of trust in their workplace culture, which in turn was found to have a profound impact on overall organizational performance. One company that stood out during the pandemic was Sudair Pharmaceuticals Co (SPC).

Keeping Mission-Focused Amid Uncertainty

SPC is a pharmaceutical company that specializes in the manufacturing and development of drugs for the treatment of cancers as well as chronic and other life-threatening diseases. With a commitment to provide for customers, SPC in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia made it a priority to continue to manufacture high-quality cancer medications throughout the pandemic.

The pharmaceutical company was presented with its fair share of challenges during this difficult time as SPC (along with government entities) was faced with the complications of importing and distributing one of the most effective COVID treatments, in a period where flights were canceled, and the needed finances were hard to secure. To help overcome these obstacles, the HR business continuity plan was designed to manage critical actions and a dedicated team was formed to handle all traveling and moving permits to ensure business continuity.

Although this put a lot of pressure on our frontline workers to make sure there was no shortage of all essential medications, employees stepped up to the challenge with utmost dedication. The actions of which have been taken with the highest possible precautions and with an emergency line of contact put in place to ensure the employees are in safe conditions during the 24/7 lockdown.

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Maintaining Continuous Internal Communication

SPC made sure to implement strong communication policies put in place prior to the start of the pandemic where a dedicated e-mail was used to receive new ideas/suggestions from employees and this year was no exception. Employees this year were encouraged to take part and were even rewarded for their efforts. While work was shifted towards a digital platform for most office workers, proper communication was maintained and sought out. In fact, communication between teams was made stress-free with the help of multiple channels that have been provided for the employees.

Ensuring a swift technical transfer, all employees were granted the equipment needed to work from home and the technical team at the manufacturing facility worked on completing the process with the highest efficiency. This enabled senior management to carry out their usual monthly meetings and assure their people that the situation is under control.

To further enrich communication efforts, social media platforms were updated with exciting activities scheduled for staff to enjoy with their families as multiple activities and training programs were delivered. These included: best home workstation challenges, book clubs, and security training, along with other remote training courses.

Sustaining a Community-First Mindset Amid Challenges

While the organization was faced with multiple challenges, employees were continuously recognized, and their successes celebrated. Additionally, employee salaries were not affected nor were they deducted from all the while the annual incentive program was carried out as normal and a large selection of employees received their annual bonuses.

Keeping the community close to heart, SPC partnered up with many private charities to fund cancer patients through financial support or by providing them with free medications as part of SPC’s social responsibility. SPC also partnered up with student clubs at health colleges to create awareness campaigns for the public. During the most demanding part of the pandemic, they made sure to contribute to the health sector by providing them with masks with the required specifications in a time the community lacked an adequate supply of masks.

Under the current circumstances, SPC has succeeded in maintaining an initiative to implement standard work policies and attempted to alleviate environmental triggers on the employees with an effort to keep the pandemic situation on a tight rein, all the while upholding their commitment to their customers. An effort that no doubt ended in success during a difficult time indeed.