Creating the talent formula

We entered 2023 with talk of green shoots, but a lot of apprehension. We gallop towards the end of 2023 - despite some bumps - with CDMOs displaying renewed optimism for the year ahead.

We’ve seen more activity in Q4 than we saw in Q2 and Q3 combined. Businesses in pharma services are making moves to ensure they have the talent jigsaw pieces in place to thrive in 2024.

In this blog, I offer 5 priorities that I think HR leaders in Pharma and Biopharma CDMOs should focus on to attract and hire the talent ingredients they need to create the winning team formula.

1. Purpose-Driven Work - “Join our team and you’ll help get therapies to patients” or words to that effect. If I’ve seen that once, I’ve seen it a thousand times. I’m sorry but that’s a goal, not a purpose. It’s also what everyone else in your industry is saying and does not help you stand out for the crowd.The purpose needs to be overarching, brought to life by the culture, vision, and values of your company. Top talent is drawn to organisations with a clear and meaningful purpose, something they can align to their own values and purpose. So if you don’t know what the purpose is, invest the time to define it and bring it to life for all to see.
2. Career development and growth – - People choose and leave employers based on their future career growth and development. In fact, in 2022, McKinsey’s research quoted it as the number 1 reason why people quit their jobs.If you want top talent to join your journey, you need to have a publicised, robust training and development offering, with a succession plan to go with it.Smaller businesses may say “I simply don’t have the promotion opportunities because my organisation is so small”. However, career development doesn’t have to mean promotion. I think the perceived problem is the solution. Design your career development and growth programs to support the entrepreneurial nature of your environment.Offer opportunities to develop alternative skills, that broaden ability and benefit the business by training someone to wear multiple hats – which we all have to do in that small business phase.
3. Employer brand and EVP – Top talent want to know what it’s really like to work for you. Not just words on a wall, motivational statements in the corridor and picnic benches in the office. Be authentic, be honest and tell them how it is. Then live by that. Paying lip service to who you are, or just simply painting a false picture, might get talent through the door, but it won’t stay and that is far more damaging for you in the long run.

1. “Better to have a hole, than an &$$hole” – Not my quote, but I love it! All too often, businesses in our sector hire purely on technical ability and don’t pay anywhere near enough attention on fit. This is the formula that has driven record attrition in the industry. Because talent has choice, and they vote with their feet.Invest at least the same time in your hiring process on fit as you do on technical assessment. There are simple, cost effective tools to support you with this, that are totally customisable to your needs.
2. Partnerships – The cynics amongst us will say of course I think this is a priority! But my point here is, CDMOs customers are very careful in selecting their partners.But when it comes to CDMOs selecting talent partners, I don’t see anywhere near the rigour. Whether it’s time, or market knowledge, or the comfort of just doing what they’ve always done.There are some brilliant institutions, academia, and businesses that can add incredible value to your talent strategies. From hiring, to development to outplacement.Trust me, you have choices. Get creative and don’t be afraid to make the change.

If HR leaders in Pharma and Biopharma CDMOs focus time on these priorities, they will have the foundation to attract, hire and retain top talent, which will put you in a great place going into 2024!