Is Your Life Sciences Talent A Flight Risk?
Dec 02, 2021

Is Your Life Sciences Talent A Flight Risk?


The pandemic changed how we live, how we work, how we connect with others. But perhaps most fundamentally, it changed us. It made many of us reassess our values and what’s important in our lives. Often this has led to some pretty big moments of career clarity. Perhaps someone doesn’t want to live at the office and has decided to look for a role with better work-life balance. Or maybe Covid-19 helped them to realise that life is short and nudged them to pursue their passion or side hustle. Whatever the reason, more and more people have been inspired to make a change. Research from Prudential found that 26% of workers plan to look for a job with a different employer once the threat of the pandemic has decreased. While 1 in 5 had already made a complete career switch.


These statistics have left many life sciences organisations worried. And the fast-growing (and fast-innovating) pharma and biotech industries are already facing talent shortages and skills gaps. The truth is that some of your best people probably are a flight risk, but there are changes you can make to ensure that your organization is somewhere great talent wants to be.


In this blog, I look at the factors driving this talent tsunami and the ways life sciences organisations can address them.

Tackle Burn Out


The pandemic has been incredibly stressful. Not only has the mental impact of living through a global health crisis been enormous, but some workers have also had to take on additional caring duties, with many (especially women) juggling home working with homeschooling. Research carried out by Eagle Hill found that burnout levels rose from 45 to 58% during the pandemic with most employees citing workload as the key cause. In life sciences, many workers have also faced increasing pressure as organisations have stepped up to develop vaccines, produce vital medical equipment or devices, or divert production to focus on Covid-19 driven priorities. Organisations have to show their appreciation for workers who gave their all during the pandemic and provide proper support and care to ensure they continue to feel valued. Employers who want to avoid losing workers to burnout need to embrace benefits, resources, and flexibility – providing employees with the support they need. Those who want to turn back the clock and reinstate pre-pandemic policies are likely to lose more talent.

Support Employee Growth


More time at home over the last 18 months has given people more time to reflect on areas where they would like to improve and grow. Prudential found that 46% of workers reevaluated their skill sets during the pandemic. But if people feel there are no opportunities to upskill in the workplace, they are likely to look elsewhere for advancement. Upskilling is not only a vital part of employee engagement, it’s crucial for life sciences companies that need to keep up with fast-moving technological and scientific innovation. Organisations should ensure that skills training and development are central to their employee offering. This can feel overwhelming when many businesses are navigating uncertain times, but it’s vital to keeping workers engaged and organisations well skilled.

Rethink Benefits


What do your workers really want? It’s a big question and one that you probably don’t have the whole answer to. Some post-pandemic offerings, like the ability to work flexibly and remotely, may be no-brainers but others such as strong mental health support and training on new digital and virtual tools may be less obvious. To shine a light on these issues, it’s important to talk (and listen) to workers – employee surveys and meaningful exit interviews can help you to identify areas where you can improve.

Embrace Purpose


McKinsey research found that nearly 2/3 of employees had taken time to reflect on their purpose in life following Covid-19, while 70% said that their sense of purpose is defined by their work. Purpose has never been more important to employees around the world and being able to connect what you do and why you do it to the people inside your business is vital in making workers feel like they are part of something bigger. Many pharma and biotech organisations are doing truly life-changing work and every worker at every level is a part of that story. Infuse your worker engagement strategy with purpose to retain great people for longer.

 

Many life sciences businesses will lose talent over the next months and years, and attrition rates are likely to be higher than they were in the past. But this is an opportunity to reset and reevaluate, to ensure your employee offering is competitive, and to focus on what your people really want. The world has changed and the way you engage and support workers has to change right along with it. What are you doing to stem the tide of the great talent tsunami?

14 Aug, 2023
Rephrasing the famous song, “Love is in the air”, let’s talk about change is in the air – and everywhere. We grow. We change. Look at your childhood photos. Watch your kid, your nephew, your niece. The change is there, and it’s incredible. Nature is constantly changing. We wait for summer as the time to enjoy outdoor activities and gardening, for a quick visit to the beach, or simply take time to relax and spend time with family, friends and loved ones. We wait for winter (even if we never see snow falling) to decorate the house for the holidays, pack presents for the people we love and unpack our own. The colour of the leaves changes, the weather shifts, and flowers blossom in their time – the landscape is constantly transforming. The world around us is changing. We travel to other countries and learn new things, cultures and languages. We take on new hobbies. We get new skills. After a couple of minor kitchen accidents (sometimes), we can cook delicious dishes and get compliments from family and friends. We transform our bodies at the gym or simply by creating the habit of walking every day. We meet new people, we sometimes fall in love, we build families, we have kids. And if you step back for a second, you realise you might have met your other half by pure accident. But you took a leap of faith into the unknown. We embrace many types of unknown change, except for the one that can change how we live five days a week – to change jobs. “I am too old/too young to change”, “I’m used to this environment; It’s my comfort zone”, “Well, I don’t get any promotion, and what I do doesn’t change the world, but it’s stable”, “I am afraid to ask for more interesting projects. What if my manager fires me?”. We often don’t want to change because that step requires a vision, courage, external support, and a leap of faith into the unknown. Scary? Yes. But also promising. A step into the unknown? Yes. But it can open a new door. Do your inner values marry what you do? Yes, it is essential. There is nothing terrible about staying in your comfort zone. At some stage of your career, staying put can be an excellent decision. But if you feel that you need a change – talk to Kelly. We don’t mind going the extra mile and support your wish to embrace the change. The one which will give meaning to what you do, feel proud, motivated and fulfilled. Ready for changing? We’ll make sure your talent can truly shine.
10 Aug, 2023
You’ve seen these guys before when a circus came to your city or maybe on TV. They walk on a wire at an impressive height, sometimes without insurance, sometimes with a long stick that probes the void right and left. They walk slowly, trying the wire with their toes first, making small steps, their eyes fixed on the small platform where they plan to land soon. They never watch down. They don’t listen to an audience that applauses or gasps in awe. They are concentrated on keeping their balance. To keep balance. Let’s come down from the wire above the arena or stage. Let’s look closer at balance, where it has its roots and the secrets of keeping it. Is it an art? Or is it a skill? Can you learn to keep balance? Or is it an innate skill that only gymnasts, figure skaters, circus artists and ballet dancers are born with? Want to know the secrets of a ballerina that must perform 32 fouettes, a complex ballet movement that requires turning 360 degrees at a high-speed standing on the point of a ballet shoe? First, keeping balance is a skill people must learn for years. In ballet, sport, circus, real life, and… work life. A ballerina is taught to pick one point and to fix her eyes on it when she makes her 32 fouettes, a complex ballet movement that requires turning 360 degrees at high-speed standing on the point of a ballet shoe. She focuses on one thing that keeps her upright. She doesn’t look anywhere else. Gymnasts in some disciplines are constantly trained to feel the bar under their feet. They are prepared to land precisely on the bar after they jump, and the incredible contortions we admire in competitions. But let’s come back to the circus artists we have begun with. Often, they have a long stick in their hands to keep their balance. Is their secret hidden in the stick? And what is the secret? You don’t need to be a ballet dancer, a gymnast, or a circus artist to get the idea of balance. Here are your first two steps in your balance training: 1. Keep your main priorities in mind. And have a clear idea about what is very important for you and where you are ready to compromise. But don’t listen to external opinions that don’t align with your ideals. Forget about the audience’s applause – focus on you. 2. Use some help to stay upright and get to your goals. Imagine your life split on two ends of the helping stick, your job is on one end, and your private life is on another. How comfortable do you feel at your height now with the load on both ends? You need support. We at Kelly pay a lot of attention to balance. The balance between people’s private lives and their jobs. The balance between feeling appreciated and professional goals or between achieving extraordinary results and being inspired. Talk to Kelly today. We are not ballet coaches or sports trainers, but we know much about how important work/life balance is in our lives.
03 Aug, 2023
We often associate certain qualities with individuals who seem to possess a natural talent for creativity. We convince ourselves that painting, singing, or dancing are pursuits reserved for these "real" artists while we remain mere spectators. Creativity? Inspiration? No, it's not about me.
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