OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Choosing an Organization Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:

1. Identify an organization and situation you want to study over the remainder of the course.

2. Describe the organization and situation.

Complete the following making sure to support your ideas and cite from the textbook and other
course materials per APA guidelines. After the peer review, you have a chance to update this and
format for your Electronic Portfolio due in Module 6.

1) Describe your organization.

The organization I picked to focus on for this project is Pfizer, a pharmaceutical com-
pany. Pfizer was established in 1849 in New York. Pfizer’s mission statement is: “Break-
throughs that change patients’ lives” (History, P. 2023). Pfizer employs salary and hourly
employees as well as outsources contract workers. The hiring process at Pfizer can regu-
larly take 8-10 weeks from first interview all the way to getting an offer. The process in-
cludes a phone screening with the recruiter, a phone interview with the hiring manager,
an in person interview followed by an offer letter. Once accepting an offer letter, candi-
dates must submit a background check and pass a drug screening. After all the steps are
completed, the candidate and hiring manager agree on a starting date. Pfizer only on-
boards people twice a month. This has to do with the need to have onboarding dates line
up with the Monday of a new pay period. Pay periods run bi-weekly. These constraints
make the overall hiring process somewhat cumbersome and time consuming.

2) Describe how Describe your role in the organization (it can be internal or external).

I started working at Pfizer as a contractor in September of 2020. As a contractor I was a

technical writer responsible for the creation of operational excellence initiatives including
the holistic creation of standard operating procedures (SOP), as well as structured-on-the-
job-training documents (SOJT) to codify all the knowledge in my specific site. After
working there for some time, I decided to apply for an in-house position that would allow
me to enjoy Pfizer’s colleague benefits, like health insurance and tuition reimbursement. I
went through the hiring process which took longer than expected. December of 2021 I
was hired into the company as a Chemical Operator.

1
 3) Describe the situation. (see the Canvas instructions for details, especially about how
your situation will be analyzed from five different perspectives over the next five
modules)

I was a technical writer at Pfizer who had gotten my 3 month contract extended 2 times.
My role was to support the Production department with creating Training guides and any
other administrative help Mike, the production manager, needed. A Chemical Operator
position opened up in production March of 2021. Mike asked if I was interested in the
role. I was interested in the role and becoming a colleague so I could have benefits the
contracting company didn’t offer.

Mike sent me the link to apply. I did so, and waited a long time after the posting ended
without hearing anything. After asking Mike if we were going to move forward in the hir-
ing process, he told me that the Human Resource department had rolled out a new diver-
sity and inclusion initiative. This initiative required that 3 “diverse” candidates had to be
interviewed for any role before the position could be filled. The site does not have an in
house Human Resource department, meaning the HR department for the site is out-
sourced from another Pfizer site in a different state. I waited 5 months before securing an
interview. Finally a recruiter called me back and I went through the initial phone inter-
view. After the interview with the recruiter, Mike told me he was going to hire me but
one of the candidates didn’t show for the interview and he had to repost the position. I ap-
plied to the position again, and went through the phone interview and a short interview
with Mike. I waited another 3 months and finally in November, I received my offer letter.
I went through a background check and Drug screening. Pfizer only onboards new hires 2
Mondays out of the month. Because of this, the next date I could start would be Decem-
ber 6th, 2021. From start to finish, the process took me 9 months rather than the normal
8-10 weeks.

Reference or References

History, P. (2023). History. Pfizer. Retrieved January 15, 2023, from https://www.pfizer.com/
about/history