Menarini, the largest pharmaceutical company in Italy with affiliates in 140 countries and over 17,000 employees – over 4,000 of which are based in the country – resulted at the top of the rankings drawn up by Universum as «Most attractive employers» in the field of health and medicine.

«This is a complex and diversified reality with Italian flag and heart, formed by 18 production plants and 10 R&D centers over the world, able to cover the entire supply chain, such as research, manufacturing, and marketing», states Massimo Galeazzi, HR Director Italy and Western Europe Coordinator of Menarini Group.

Almost a thousand of human resources are employed only in scientific research and development centers: five in Italy and the others abroad (Barcelona, Berlin, Singapore, New York and Philadelphia).

Beside the drug production, the company also supports the development of the active ingredients – this is a rare case in Italy – which is possible thanks to the specifically designed plants. In addition, also because the activities carried out to face the health emergency due to Covid-19, diagnostics represents for the company an area in strong growth. Not to mention the large number of medical representatives «with over 1,500 resources on the national territory, distributed among our five brands Menarini, Guidotti, Malesci, Luso Farmaco and Firma», says Galeazzi.
Menarini draws strength from its international context and today represents a reality that creates opportunities, enhances diversity and promotes an inclusive culture, creating the best working conditions through careful policies of corporate welfare and work life balance.

By taking care of and improving the quality of life of its employees, the Company offers the opportunity for compensation from various flexible benefits. Just think of the Menarini Baby, «a company day-nursery, for babies from 3 months to 3 years old of our employees, who can entrust their children to expert hands during the working day, and can take care of them during breaks, so managing with greater serenity the phases of breastfeeding and return to the post maternity office», explains Massimo Galeazzi. There are also technical and managerial training plans and specific projects on leadership and team working. Around 1,100,000 are the hours globally provided in 2020, «a huge part of them for the professional training of medical representatives, the category most at risk during the pandemic, that Menarini has managed to preserve by developing a digital platform to maintain contact with doctors and engage in training activities», states the HR Director. In times of pandemic, in fact, the company has made titanic efforts to protect and facilitate as much as possible its employees: concerning the head office, the conditions for remote working have been laid down; on the manufacturing front – where it is crucial to ensure the supply chain in presence – personal safety devices have been provided to the staff, split shifts were organised and new layouts in the work areas were created. «The new specially designed task force has allowed us to deal with the emergency effectively, without losing an hour of production and without resorting to the temporary lay-of», says Massimo Galeazzi.

Despite the health emergency, however, the headquarters in Florence has never stopped looking for new talents to be integrated into the different business areas. A choice of heart, which demonstrates love for the territory.

Different areas of activity imply the demand for the most varied professional profiles and, consequently, create more and new job opportunities. In such an articulated context, the recruitment policy is very important, and varies according to the type of research and/or needs of the company. «We have a very structured internal job posting system, to ensure that we value our people first. […] But preferably, we focus on high-potential profiles who just completed their academic path, with the possibility of being us to model their professionalism», explains Galeazzi. However, it is important to know how to attract “right” people, and this is the source of the company’s recent employer branding activities, carried out in collaboration with universities and external institutions. For a few years already, Menarini has been participating in the events dedicated to students and young professionals, to present Menarini Group and to illustrate all its business fields and professional opportunities. 

«Attracting and developing young talents is a priority for us. Not only because, as a company, we believe in the high value that young professionals can bring to the organization, but also because we would like to help support the best talents during the difficult transition from academic world to professional life», these are the words of Nikolay Dimitrov, Menarini Global Talent Acquisition Director, during the last Virtual Bocconi & Jobs held on 13th of April 2021.

On March 16th, however, during the Bio Pharma Day 2021 – where over 700 students, graduates and young professionals attended – the webinar of the company’s presentation, Massimo Galeazzi said: «Our international presence means job opportunities. […] Diversity, inclusion, ambition and sense of responsibility. This is all that we feel in Menarini and that guides us every day in our goal: taking care of people».

The attention to inclusiveness and innovation is a Menarini mantra, it is clear from the first step in the company. The new employees are provided with a digital tool that, also through the gamification, helps them to orient themselves in the complex organizational maze of the company. For some recent graduates in engineering and technical disciplines, Menarini has also launched a graduate program that includes a three-year job rotation plan in the different areas of manufacturing, in a highly dynamic and educational context, so as to identify the best path of individual development.

«If I think about my arrival in Menarini eight years ago», says HR Director Galeazzi, «I must say that the profiles we are looking for today, although they are similar, have now completely different characteristics. The focus remains on scientific paths, in chemistry and pharmaceutical technologies, biology, medicine, but also on more transversal skills, such as engineering, statistics, mathematics, or economic-legal. […] And I am taking for granted the knowledge of foreign languages». In the era of big data, digital skills – crossed with the more humanistic ones – become a guiding factor for selection: just think of the figure of the data scientist applied to research, marketing and sales, it is fundamental to cross-reference and interpret data.

In step with innovation and always attentive to the community needs, Menarini people live not only by hard skills, but also by attitudes. The determination and the desire to get involved in a dynamic context are fundamental, as well as the spirit of initiative and the ability to work in multidisciplinary teams. «This also means flexibility and adaptability», states Galeazzi. «Resumed in a word: willingness, the will to make a difference by giving one’s own contribution, without ever forgetting the centrality of the patient».