CEO talks #3 – Human Capital

To turn MADx's ambitious goals into reality, the company needs to grow. To achieve this, it not only needs more laboratory and office space, but of course also the right people from various disciplines who will work here in the future. Because it is not at all easy to find and retain good employees, we are talking about the so-called "human capital" today.

1.????How many employees did MADx have in the beginning, and how fast did the company grow?

CH: We started with one employee in 2016, at the end of 2016 there were three employees. At the end of 2023, we will surpass the 70-employee mark, if our recruiting plans are successful.

2.???At the beginning, was it easy or hard to find the right employees to build MADx?

CH: I think it's always difficult to find the right employees. You often don't know what a potential employee is like at the beginning: a job interview is a stressful situation in which a person can present themselves positively or negatively.

In addition, in a fast-growing, dynamic company, the demands on employees change. At the beginning of MADx, extreme multitasking was required: In the first one and a half to two years, six or seven employees covered the entire company area – production, research, logistics, management and so on.

I am an advocate of the guiding principle "First who, then what". This means that if a good candidate actively applies to us and we think that this person could be a good, hard-working, and competent employee, I take the position to hire this person immediately – even without a concrete job description. We will find the right job in the next step. I prefer that to looking for employees in a very specific and reactive way.

It would be desirable to always be slightly ahead of capacity and that employees can later develop into the appropriate positions where they feel most comfortable. This is not always possible, for example in finance, which requires a very specific skillset and where there is not much leeway. But in areas like HR, marketing, and product management, where different skills are required within the department anyway and a multidisciplinary team is needed, it works because employees often acquire new skills in the course of their employment.

3.???Is the employee turnover rate in life science companies low or high, and where does MADx stand?

International trends reflect what we are also experiencing at MADx: Demand for specialised professionals in the life sciences industry is very high, but companies must now work harder than ever to retain good employees. (Sources: 1, 2, 3)

CH: I don't think this issue is necessarily industry specific. Whether it's life science, hospitality, or any other field, the deeper the knowledge employees need to work in a particular field, and the more specialised and niche that field is, the higher the staff consistency.

I believe that on an industry average, we have relatively low turnover of staff. On average, 5-10% of staff leave, however, we backfill 30% – in my experience, that's fine. The most important factor, especially as the company gets bigger, is to strengthen the company culture so that employees feel comfortable and can thrive. That is more decisive than the industry itself.

4.???What can a company in our field do to keep employees motivated?

CH: It's a mix of classic hygiene factors: the working environment has to fit, the salary has to fit, the human quality has to fit. The company location is also very important: We lose or gain employees because they either live very far away or close to the location. This factor is also increasingly important in terms of work-life balance. Even though it used to be no problem for many people to commute for an hour and a half every day, it is extremely unpopular nowadays. For many, traveling longer than half an hour is unthinkable – especially if they can choose to do so.

Development opportunities are also important for those who want them. This is important to emphasize because not everyone wants to be a team leader and take on more responsibility. Some employees are happy to work undisturbed, while others want active management. It is important to respond to the personality of the employees and to consider how to strengthen individuals in their position.

Private factors should not be forgotten either. If everything runs smoothly at home, it's easier to be satisfied at work than if things go haywire in your private life. The issue of overwork is very important, you always have to make sure that there are enough resources. If necessary, an employee can perform at 120% for a while, but it's impossible in the long run. It is the responsibility of management and leaders to recognise when overload sets in. When things are going badly, even 80% is often too much for the person concerned.?

MADx is a very young company with partly very inexperienced employees who come directly from university or training. On the one hand, this has the advantage that such employees are shaped to the company, and they do not know how it is in other companies. However, such experience is also worth a lot, because otherwise you quickly get the feeling that it could be better somewhere else, you would earn more or work less, the tasks would be more interesting, and so on. Employees who don't have this wealth of experience will eventually seek it out. It's difficult to counteract this – because you can't give this experience to employees who don't have comparative values.

5.???Keyword work-life-balance: What steps can companies take in order to keep this balance and sustainably build a stable and content team?

CH: Everyone has to answer that for themselves. Some employees want to work part-time despite their young age and no family obligations because they are pursuing other goals on the side. There are also employees who want to work from home more because they live far away, or their family situation requires it. If it is possible to reconcile these requirements with the job, it is good for the company.

Issues like working from home naturally create certain inequalities. There are jobs that cannot be done in the home office – keyword lab work. When it comes to travel, some people want to travel a lot but their job doesn't require it, while others are constantly on the road even though they would rather be at home with their family.

There are often life circumstances in which the work-life balance is no longer compatible with a full-time job at a location with long commutes. I think we are very flexible here, especially when it comes to young mothers and flexible working time models. Of course, there are certain limits here as well, because, to put it bluntly, it doesn't make sense for an employee who occupies a key position in the company to only be available from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m.

As an employer, you also have to insist that employees take responsibility for themselves, so that they communicate in good time where their comfort zone begins and ends. From my point of view, this unfortunately often happens too late: Frustrations then accumulate, causing the employee to leave because they want to change something – without looking for change in the company first.