Enhancing Pharma Talent Strategy: A Case Study on Elevating Subject Matter Experts with ONA

This post is an adaptation of an original article from CTS ONA Insights, the ONA newsletter by Cognitive Talent Solutions

In today’s fast-paced business landscape, effectively identifying and leveraging internal expertise is crucial for maintaining a competitive edge. Many organizations struggle to recognize informal leaders and experts who, while not holding formal titles, are key to their daily operations. This was the case for a leading pharmaceutical distribution company with 2,700 employees. To address this, the company leveraged Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to identify informal leaders with technical expertise in strategic areas and elevate them to formal Subject Matter Expert (SME) roles.

The Challenge:

With a large, geographically distributed workforce, the company found traditional methods for identifying internal expertise insufficient. Manager recommendations, self-assessments, and performance reviews often overlooked informal leaders—employees who, while not formally recognized, played pivotal roles in knowledge-sharing, technical support, and problem-solving. This lack of visibility led to untapped potential and slower decision-making.

Why Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) and AI?

ONA offers a data-driven approach to understanding informal networks within an organization. It provides insights into who employees turn to for advice, support, and expertise, painting a clearer picture of influence and technical leadership. However, with vast amounts of data collected, the company needed a scalable, efficient way to analyze and generate actionable insights from the ONA results.

By incorporating AI, the company could not only uncover hidden patterns within these informal networks but also generate executive summaries at scale, offering leadership clear and actionable insights into how to optimize the organization’s internal expertise.

The Solution:

The company implemented an online survey to map informal interactions such as sharing information, providing technical support, offering personal encouragement, and inspiring colleagues. Using ONA combined with AI, the company was able to:

• Identify Informal Leaders: The ONA mapped out employees who played key roles in informal networks. These individuals were often sought out for their technical expertise and advice, though they were not formally recognized as SMEs.
• Generate Actionable Insights: The company leveraged AI to process the vast ONA data and extract actionable insights. The AI was able to highlight key individuals, departments, and areas where informal leadership and expertise were concentrated. This helped the company identify where to deploy these informal leaders for maximum impact.
• Produce Scalable Executive Summaries: AI-enabled automation allowed the company to generate executive summaries of ONA results at scale. These summaries provided leadership with digestible insights, showing where expertise was located and offering strategic recommendations on how to formalize these roles.

Once identified, these informal leaders were positioned as formal Subject Matter Experts, enabling them to contribute more visibly and effectively to the organization’s strategic objectives.

Implementation:

1. Data Collection through Online Surveys: The company conducted an online survey, asking employees to identify who they turned to for technical advice, personal support, and inspiration. This data mapped out the informal networks within the organization.
2. AI-Powered ONA Analysis: By using AI to analyze the ONA data, the company could process complex interactions at scale. AI provided actionable insights into the central players in these informal networks, helping the company quickly identify key individuals with technical expertise in strategic areas.
3. Automated Executive Summaries: AI generated executive-level summaries of the ONA findings, offering leadership clear, concise overviews of the company’s informal network structures. This automation allowed leadership to make quick, informed decisions about how to best leverage internal talent.
4. Strategic Deployment of SMEs: Once informal leaders were identified through ONA and AI analysis, they were repositioned as formal Subject Matter Experts. This allowed them to play more visible roles in the organization, leading technical training sessions, mentoring teams, and contributing to strategic initiatives.

Results:

• Increased Recognition of SMEs: By using ONA and AI, the company identified a significant number of informal leaders with technical expertise who had previously been overlooked. These individuals were officially recognized as Subject Matter Experts, enhancing their visibility and impact.
• Scalable Insight Generation: AI allowed the company to generate actionable insights from the ONA data at scale, enabling leadership to make informed, data-driven decisions about talent deployment across the organization.
• Improved Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration: Formalizing the role of informal leaders as SMEs fostered more efficient knowledge sharing. Teams had quicker access to expertise, improving cross-departmental collaboration and decision-making speed.
• Enhanced Operational Efficiency: Leveraging internal expertise more strategically led to faster project execution, better problem-solving, and improved operational efficiency across the company.

Key Takeaways:

Combining Organizational Network Analysis with AI provided the company with a powerful tool to identify informal leaders and Subject Matter Experts. The online survey helped map informal interactions, while AI-powered analysis allowed for the generation of actionable insights and executive summaries at scale. This not only enhanced the company’s ability to recognize internal talent but also improved overall organizational efficiency.

Conclusion:

This case demonstrates how ONA, enhanced with AI, can transform how companies identify and leverage internal talent. By uncovering informal leaders through online surveys, and using AI to generate scalable insights and executive summaries, the company was able to formally recognize and position key individuals as Subject Matter Experts. The result was improved collaboration, faster decision-making, and a more agile organization.

As AI and ONA technologies continue to evolve, they will become essential tools for organizations looking to unlock the full potential of their workforce.