Less than 5% of employees of the Farmak pharmaceutical company, who left Ukraine after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, remained abroad, HR Director Viktoria Kondrashykhina has said.

"Less than 5% of our employees left and stayed abroad. The last wave of migration was observed in November 2022, when blackouts began. Under such conditions, we allowed office workers to work remotely, which is not possible for production specialists who must stay at the plant. There are cases when people quit their jobs in the autumn, and now they are returning to Ukraine and want to work at Farmak again," she told Interfax-Ukraine.

At the same time, according to Kondrashykhina, the company has established scientific partnerships with more than 50 companies and research institutions around the world, so "it is not difficult for our employees to get a job abroad, but they have decent working conditions at home."

"There was no significant outflow of personnel because of the war," she said.

The top manager said that despite the fact that Farmak exports products to more than 50 countries, the main group of managers who are involved in the development of international business work in Kyiv, and in most of the six international representative offices and companies of Farmak most of them are local experts who "have a good understanding of the market, language, mentality and needs of a particular country or region."

At the same time, the expert believes that the full-scale war affected the overall picture of Ukraine's personnel potential, in particular, she expressed fears that the young people who emigrated might not return to Ukraine.

"It has never been easy for knowledge-intensive industries to find employees. Therefore, Farmak has been educating its future staff from the university for many years," she said.

Kondrashykhina recalled that Farmak is implementing many programs aimed at training qualified personnel.

In particular, the company signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, which students will have the opportunity to practice at the production site and in the laboratories of Farmak. In addition, the company will take part in the creation of the BioMed-Science Hub educational and scientific center, which is being designed on the basis of the university.

In total, according to Kondrashykhina, more than 70 employees of the company are currently serving in the military. At the same time, Farmak continues to pay them wages and saves jobs, provides its employees at the frontline with accoutrements, drones, bulletproof vests, long-range vision devices, household items and, in some cases, cars.

Commenting on the existing employee booking system, the HR director said that the new system, adopted since the end of January, has become more regulated, but at the same time "does not solve the main issues that the business had before." In particular, it was established that the number of reserved employees cannot exceed 50% of the total number of those liable for military service in the enterprise. At the same time, the norm, which makes it impossible to book employees with scarce military specialties, remained.

"For example, Farmak has highly qualified personnel who ensure the uninterrupted operation of pharmaceutical production and have unique skills and experience. But we cannot reserve them. As well as replace them, there are only a few such specialists on the market. The possible consequences of calling on such experts are clear," she said.

She also said that in the updated booking procedure there are no clear deadlines for the consideration of documents and decisions by authorized government bodies, which creates a situation of uncertainty in which it is difficult to plan activities.

Kondrashykhina said that Farmak did not stop material payments to personnel during the war, despite the fact that the company suffered significant losses due to the destruction of the main warehouse of the enterprise with finished products and primary packaging by the aggressor.

"When Farmak restored the assortment, and the situation in Kyiv relatively stabilized, we raised the salaries of all employees. Also, Farmak continues paying bonuses, providing a social package, organizing corporate deliveries to and from the plant, and training employees," she said.