operator

warehouse associate

quality assurance inspector

material handler

process operator

Hikma Pharmaceuticals

This company is in a constant state of improvement while giving very little back to the employees that "make it happen". Starting off as a Technician, expect to recieve nothing more than a meager $0.33 raise every year. It doesn't matter what work you put in, how often you find yourself volunteering to work overtime, how many extracirricular courses you take, or how many legitimate improvements you suggest, you'll see $0.33 a year and earn yourself the rating of "meets expectations". 

Not very enticing considering the little notice you'll often be given to work a Friday night. And when over time is planned, it's often structured in multiple month segments, so you can kiss those weekend plans goodbye. Not to mention, if you utilize PTO for any pay period including overtime, you will not receive overtime pay until your hours worked exceed the amount of PTO you used.

Every few years shift structures seem to shift from eight to twelve hours in varying departments based on business need. Often when on an eight hour shift you'll find yourself so understaffed you're subjected to numerous weekend shifts just to meet production quotas. 

As an employee of half a decade, I've seen many great workers come and go while those that remain either seem trapped by the amount of time they've invested in the company or simply have grown complacent. But across the board, you hear more complaints on a daily basis than praises for the way Hikma has chosen to operate, which makes it difficult to look forward to yet another week of work.

The lack of capability on management's part to implement immediate and definite disciplinary action creates a culture of lazy employment. You'll often find yourself being in a position to restock supplies you need or empty trash cans, gaylords, etc. because it's known no true repercussions come from simply pushing the work you don't wish to complete onto an incoming shift or another employee. I've seen many people retain a job here that literally do nothing and somehow still receive a paycheck. You will never receive so much as a "Thank You" for picking up the slack left by others.

There is very little effort put into passing on pertinent job information from shift to shift, meaning you may very well find yourself with a mess every time you report to work that you have no idea how to begin to fix which in turn negatively impacts the productivity of your shift. 

The approach to training here is laughable at best. You're expected to read and review procedures through an internal learning system, and yet you will hardly ever find the time to actually review these procedures within the allotted schedule you have (unless of course you're up for staying over thirty minutes at the end of your shift). But if you happen to miss any items that need completed, you'll most definitely hear about it. Not to mention many of these procedures are revised and reviewed by people that don't actually utilize them on a day to day basis or have a full understanding of how these processes are truly implemented. When it comes to learning the fundamentals of your core job, as I've said before, we're often so understaffed it's difficult and inconvenient to properly train a new employee from work station to work station. And even if you do manage to train an employee, it's often fruitless as within a few months to a year, they typically are already looking for another job, perhaps also attributed to the non-competitive starting wage of $15.00 an hour. It's hard to attract decent help being a step above entry level warehouse employment. 

I don't mean to paint this company in such a negative light, as I feel there are quite a number of employees, both on the production floor as well as management, that truly are great people and that do try and put a lot of effort forth, however there seems to be this culture of simply "sweeping truths under the rug" run amok in the face of what the company is actually capable of based on corporate financing. 

All the points I've listed above have been brought to the attention of management numerous times over by many different employees, and yet things remain "business as usual". It makes for a disappointing relationship, trying to commit to an employer that doesn't commit to you, and until this changes, Hikma Pharmaceuticals will only serve best as a stepping stone for your resume as opposed to an occupational home.

The good:
-Upper management will (generally) like you and leave you be if you carry your weight, and bring good ideas to the table.
-A very diverse group of individuals, with sizable groups from various cultures. You will hear stuff in Spanish, Arabic, Gujarati, and Filipino (Tagalog?) all the time, so if you speak any of those you got an advantage. Personally, I found this enjoyable.
-There are occasional events which can be very fun or interesting (innovation competition, etc.) though I cannot speak for how they measure to other companies.

Bit of Column A/Bit of Column B
-Upper management is pretty ambitious. They always want to try something else, but universally underestimate the time and effort for projects. They do however, follow through on their attempts, even if it takes years. There is a lot of capital investment going on.
-There's a lot of brand new equipment and a lot of very old equipment. It can be very interesting. It also can be very hard to work with effectively. 

The bad:
-Lowball salaries for the industry.
-Utterly paranoid security department who will look for opportunities to make your life difficult if they do not like you. If they do not like you, they will be extremely creative coming up with 'concerns' about you.
-The project prioritization/scheduling is so all over the place it will make your head spin. Basically, they want to push multiple 'big deal' projects with the same resources simultaneously, and are perpetually disappointed when it doesn't work out.
-Lots of drama, scapegoating, and backbiting when things go wrong. Either find a way to steer clear or have your reputation under siege repeatedly.
-Complaining to HR about anything is more likely to hurt you than help you. You are better off either 'swallowing it' or leaving the company. 
-Periodic and cyclical 'purges' of management-demotions, layoffs, etc., though this generally only affects higher ups and not the lower positions.
-Do not discuss personal financial information of any sort with anyone. Savings, vacation plans, investments, side hustles, etc. -they do not exist as far as your discussions with your colleagues are concerned.  Just don't do it. 

The conclusion:
Get your experience and get out. This is not a long term place to work. It's not bad if your fresh out of school, but other than that it's pretty questionable.

Imagine being told by the person that runs your department that if you meet the goal they have set, a record-breaking number, that you will get larger salary increases, and yearly bonuses. Then when the time comes you actually receive about half of what you had previously. Now imagine when your outraged by this they respond by saying "what do you want me to do about it?" Imagine in order to make those numbers you were forced to mandatory overtime for a good six months out of the year every weekend. Not because they wanted to get ahead but more so because the maintenance on the machines they have is so poor that they almost never run consistently (keep in mind this is a multi-billion-dollar company and still growing). Don't worry though they will have a " family day" and give you off a Friday for it but force you to work that Sunday to make up for it as well, because they really, really care about you and your family.  Everyone here is out for themselves at any costs. Take advantage of the semi decent pay for a few months and run. Super schedule friendly as well, they will tell you, you have mandatory overtime with less than 24 hours notice, they will make you switch from a day to night schedule multiple times a year, they will make you work Sundays occasionally with little to notice and if they need to shut the building down at all for anything you'd better expect to be in there an extra day that next week. No regard for winter weather, medical needs, mental needs, or just overall employee satisfaction. The people that work harder get used harder and the people that do nothing will not even be questioned. They value nothing and no one, and they make money hand over fist. They spend more money trying to convince you that they care than they do effort in actually caring. They have federal rules and regulations that they routinely break so long as no one notices, and you will be expected to do the same, but don't get caught because you will be thrown under the bus. No one will look out for you as anyone with any time or power there is holding on for dear life trying to make it to retirement. 
Sincerely and unapologetically, a current employee and if you work my shift you already know who i am. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
Job kept me busy usually which is how i liked it. PTO was given all at once at the beginning of the year and you get yearly a bonus. Great place to start if you don't have pharmaceutical manufacturing experience.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful part about working here was the fact that the upper management doesn't listen to the concerns brought up by the manufacturing department at all. They ask us for our input but never address any of our concerns so it makes you wonder why they even ask in the first place. Also people are not held accountable for their actions people simply refusing to do their jobs which falls on others and management does nothing. Their are people who are showing aggression or making uncomfortable comments towards their coworkers on a consistent basis and nothing is done when these issues are brought up. Everyone consantly feels like they are underpaid and very overworked when the issue of pay is brought up in our surveys the company completely ignores it. They want their workers to produce more and produce faster but the equipment isn't keeping up due to ongoing issues with it that they use band aide fixes on. Also they have the most egregious attendance policy I have ever experienced. Even if you clock in a single min late they take one of your emergency days away and an hour of PTO that is completely insane. Never experienced a policy that strict. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Work environment is ok nothing special nothing or notable about the curlture

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Working on the manufacturing line running multiple pieces of equipment at a time doing quality checks on the product moving skids of components and drug product. Taking apart the equipment and cleaning it before putting it back together

What is the best part of working at the company?
The employees I love to see everyone smile in the morning saying good morning and happy to see me and cooperate with me as a security officer. They know I have to check their badge and check their bag and they feel comfortable reporting to me any problems cause they know I hope as much.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Every day is not always gonna be a good day so I try my best to always be patient with everyone treat people how I wanna be treated. Some people have bad days and that’s sometimes can be stressful when you have noncompliant people.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
There’s all type of cultures race ethnicity what matters the most is that we all work for the same company we all get the job done complete the job and try our best to work together and communicate and look out for one another and understand each other the best we can to get the job done every day

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Walking into the company through those doors and saying good morning to everyone, putting my stuff on my security equipment logging in looking at the cameras and saying good morning to every single person that walks in the door and scanning their badge and getting used to the faces and building a bond and a connection so they feel safe and comfortable me joining their team as a security officer

•	Product sampling( Raw Materials, Premixes ,Blends, and Finish bulk product)
•	Assure product compliance with specification and proper documentation.
•	Responsible for monitoring and maintaining quality and compliance targets.
•	Assure product compliance with specifications and proper documentation.
•	Monitoring and auditing of products to ensure high standards of quality.
•	Ensuring that all QA Tests are carried out on time and in full. 
•	Provide weekly and monthly reports to senior managers on performance.
•	Identify training needs and recommendations to improve the quality unit.
•	Keeping quality documentation up to date. 
•	Making sure that all QA records, data & information are available to managers.
•	Assure employees’ commitment to cGMP’s and control personnel, materials, equipment and documents flows between plants to prevent contamination and mix-ups.
•	Arranging the repair of any QA / related equipment that is malfunctioning. 
•	Ensuring non-conforming products are identified and placed on hold. 
•	Coordinating the investigation of customer complaints. 
•	Preparing and analyzing information for the purpose of Management Review.
•	Giving specialist quality assurance advice to the company departments as required.
•	Control of weighing &issuing of raw material
•	Assist QC in-process testing of blend/premixes for moisture via Karl Fischer
•	Assist in training of new Quality Assurance employees.

Not a bad company to have on your resume but for long term don't stay. You will have promises of promotions to higher positions and or better pay but the amount of kissing up you have to do will leave very little personal time. They have a technician leveling program where they change requirements constantly so you never get to where you want or they move you to another line and make you start over. compared to other pharmaceutical company's you make about on average about 4 dollars less a hour. like i said its a good foot note on a resume if you are wanting to get into pharmaceuticals they will higher anyone... maids, security guards, doesnt matter as long as you have two hands, these will be the people that will make your medication.

Work-life balance
Work-life balance at Hikma Pharmaceuticals is decent. Management is flexible with taking time off especially during this Covid era.

Pay & benefits
The pay can be higher. Benefits are ok but it depends what kind of package you can afford based on your salary and personal needs.

Job security and advancement
You can be let go at any time. Avoiding making mistakes lessens that chance. Advancement depends on how close you are to other senior analysts and management because they decide who is part of the elite club and who does the grunt work. Good luck if you're not a chatty type.

Management
Recently management started taking more active role in having more  scheduled 1 on 1 meetings with employees, which is good. However they don't tell you all that you need to succeed, especially if it comes to your own development.

I worked at Hikma for 6 years, starting when they were Boehringer Ingelheim. The transition from a privately held company to a publicly held  company was extreme when Hikma purchased the site, but it moved the company from being poorly managed to a highly efficient environment. The company requires excellence in your performance so that can be stressful, but the benefits and pay are great. Worklife balance is encouraged and the staff is sharp overall. My management team was the best I've ever worked with, at least when I left. I moved out of state for family reasons, but otherwise would have been happy staying. Internal promotions are real opportunities, but the competition is high. Overall, I learned a ton working there and would definitely recommend it.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Higher than average market salary for Director and above 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Very poor upper management lacking respect for employees. They believe they are doing employees a favor employing them. 
Too many changes in company strategy. 
Clashes of different cultures based on sites location and centers of power in US, EU, and Middle East. Continuous clashes hindering the ability to focus on the. Business. Excessive politics. 
Very high employee turn over rates 


What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Family business mindset. Even though its a public company, family members gets into daily business decisions

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Fire fighting. Very operational lacking tactical and strategic thinking

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Operator 53 salaries reported	$22.19 per hour
Warehouse associate 1 salary reported	$20.00 per hour
Quality assurance inspector 20 salaries reported	$23.91 per hour
Material handler 18 salaries reported	$19.89 per hour
Process operator 18 salaries reported	$20.00 per hour

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