Pharmaceutical NEWS - Spring 2009

Lancaster Labs’ Professional Scientific Staffing to the rescue

Lancaster Labs’ Professional Scientific Staffing (PSS) program offers a solution for clients who require additional support for their ongoing analytical needs. Developed from 49 years of laboratory management experience, the staffing program can relieve the pressures of clients faced with maintaining a trained, experienced workforce in the face of temporary staffing constraints and co-employment laws.

For PSS, a Lancaster Labs‘ laboratory manager will train PSS analysts on the client’s project protocols.

For those with a need for staff to perform analytical testing for a duration of at least three years, the PSS team will hire, train, manage, and compensate a workforce at the client’s facility. This provides clients with a staff that is technically, regulatory, and co-employment-compliant. PSS staff work on projects under the client’s roof using their methods, SOPs, and priorities, but under the supervision of an on-site Lancaster Labs’ manager.

The PSS program was initiated a few years ago, and it has grown steadily as clients discover its value. For example:

• PSS partners report that Lancaster Labs hires and trains staff more proficiently than they can.
• A Lancaster PSS Director at a partner’s site notes that the Lancaster staff exceeds the metrics established for staff at the site.

For one client, the PSS team hired and implemented a staff of 30 within a month.
Clients ask how the company can achieve these results, and the answer lies in Lancaster Labs’ management principles. The company has been recognized and awarded honors for being a Great Place to Work as well as for its analytical competence and ethical values. The chemistry begins with hiring excellent matches for the job, training for stellar regulatory compliance, and treating people well, which creates a highly motivated and proficient staff. These simple principles are applied to PSS, giving clients great people to surpass their project needs without the management or compensation responsibilities.

According to Beth DiPaolo, director of human resources and Professional Scientific Staffing, the program is growing by leaps and bounds. Current clients continually add new positions, enlarging the scope of services. “In fact,” says DiPaolo, “sometimes they are so pleased with Lancaster people that they hire our staff—great for the employees and a positive recommendation for us, but it does keep us busy recruiting and training new employees for the programs.”

PSS employees serve clients at many sites across the US in a range of scientific disciplines, including:

• Analytical support for manufacturing
• Full-service microbiology lab
• Cell-based assays
• Compendial testing
• Biochemistry
• Pyrolosis
• NMR

To learn more about the PSS program, contact Beth DiPaolo at 717-656-2300, ext. 1259 or download a brochure on the program at www.lancasterlabs.com.