In this week’s episode of Change and Thrive, we will be focusing on women in leadership and how…

The pharmaceutical and life sciences industry requires highly skilled, knowledgeable employees who can keep pace with dynamic clinical, regulatory, and healthcare marketplace changes. We have worked extensively with organizations to create a culture where employees are valued and included through talent development and effective talent retention strategies.
Employees want more – more money, more opportunity, more flexibility, and more development. With talent in demand, the old practices for attracting, developing, and retaining talent requires rethinking and revising. Failing to do so leaves organizations in a cycle of lower employee engagement and high turnover which translates to competitive weakness.
As a senior leader, you plan and announce a major change initiative. You communicate your plans and hope your mid-level and front-line managers effectively execute the change. Unfortunately, your leaders are overwhelmed and do not have the necessary change execution and agility capabilities. The ability to seamlessly execute change results in change initiatives’ success, reduced resistance, and higher levels of commitment.
Increasing complexity in the pharmaceutical landscape requires a broad array of skill, sophistication, and specialization. These need to be reflected in the organization’s competency models, the backbone of progressive talent management practices. When competencies are not explicitly stated, this leads to role confusion and an inability for leaders to effectively coach team members to improved performance. If models are out-of-date or too generic, there are negative implications for performance management, learning design, leadership development strategy, and other HR practices.
Losing top talent is painful and expensive. The costs (financial and otherwise) of voluntary turnover are significant. The direct costs of recruitment, hiring, and training are more obvious. Indirect costs, such as reduced productivity, lost opportunity, lower morale, and time to proficiency are harder to quantify, but impactful nonetheless.
Talent retention costs for the life sciences industry are high due to the need for specialized skills, education, and training, particularly for customer-facing roles. And talent availability is tight as the “war for talent” re-emerges amidst the Great Resignation.
With many Boomers occupying key leadership positions, the management exodus promises to be significant. At the time of this writing, the economy has been on a strong upward trend, characterized by a surplus of job creation and employment opportunities.