Darnitsa Included in the Ranking of Wartime HR Initiatives

Darnitsa Pharmaceutical Company was included in the ranking of HR initiatives of Ukrainian companies in the time of war. The organizers of the ranking were the magazine “TOP-100. Ratings of the Largest”, “Ekonomika+” business media bureau and delo.ua business portal.

“The losses of human capital have been particularly felt by those companies that had made real investments in the development of their team. Now, hundreds of thousands of such qualified professionals are looking for and successfully finding jobs in their field outside of Ukraine. The shortage of professional personnel, the need to universalize the skills of those specialists who remained in Ukraine and the beginning of training of new personnel — all this will become a set of new challenges during and after our victory for the largest companies of the country,” authors of the ranking are positive of that.

The ranking of HR initiatives included the best cases of large Ukrainian companies of implementing the latest technologies for personnel management during martial law. Nominees were evaluated according to quantitative and qualitative criteria. The final list of the ranking was formed by an expert jury and the editorial board.

In response to the beginning of the large-scale invasion, Darnitsa took a number of prompt decisions aimed at ensuring stable work and maintaining the social standards of a responsible employer.

The anti-crisis plan, developed even before the start of the war, began to be implemented in the early hours of February 24. Its most important task was to ensure the safety of personnel.

For this, firstly, lists of employees who worked in dangerous regions were developed back in January. Systematic communication was carried out about the company’s preparation for the possible aggression of Russia and actions in this case.

Secondly, there were comprehensive measures aimed at preserving and supporting the team. Temporary accommodation was arranged for the offline team in a prepared shelter with sleeping places, WiFi, free food, medicines and medical assistance. For the online team, a transition to the remote work mode was ensured. A number of additional services were organized for employees to remove the most painful issues: an internal hotline for legal advice and a consultation center with regular online broadcasts on military mobilization, document preparation and reservation procedures.

Thirdly, there was the launch of the internal communication campaign “PharmDefense. Everyone in Their Place" about the importance of each employee’s contribution to the victory. This communication took place in the internal social network.

In addition, Darnitsa managed to maintain the pre-war level of wages and the system of material incentives, and not only to avoid dismissing employees, but also to open new jobs.

All this ensured the stability of the work of the team and the company in the wartime – Darnitsa not only returned to the pre-war level of production, but also launched new products, passed a GMP audit and gained leadership in the Ukrainian market in terms of the volume of pharmacy sales of medicinal products in monetary terms. 

“War is chaos, grief, exhaustion. Of course, we prepared, but we didn't want to believe in a full-scale invasion until the last moment. Unfortunately, it happened. In this situation, we did the most important thing, because there was neither time nor opportunity for anything else. We united to hold out, save the team and the business,”  Olena Sokolova, HR Management Director of Darnitsa Pharmaceutical Company.

Background information

Darnitsa Pharmaceutical Company PrJSC was founded in 1930. Since 1998 Darnitsa has been a leader in Ukraine in terms of production of medicines by volume. The strategic areas of the portfolio development include cardiology, neurology, pain management. During the war, 1.9 mln packs of medicines for the amount of UAH 171 mln have been given to the Ministry of Health, healthcare facilities and charitable organizations as charity.