The GIPE Challenge: Attracting and Retaining a Skilled Workforce

It is widely recognized that our longer-term success in the 21^st century is contingent on our ability to build, attract, and retain a skilled workforce.   Ironically, despite the relatively high rate of employment in the US over the past few years, the pharma industry is still dealing with skill shortages.

Is our public education system doing enough to align skills and prepare us for the new economy? The popular answer is a ‘no’.   The truth, however, maybe a little different.

Let’s take my home state as an example.   New Jersey, in some regards, is the pharma capital of the world.  It is home to the headquarters of more pharmaceutical companies than any other state in the country, and for that matter, any other country in the world.  Per the FDA, New Jersey-headquartered pharmaceutical companies have discovered and developed more than 1/3 of the new drugs it has approved.  The demographic is telling:  A third of the workforce is involved with basic research, clinical and quality systems.  More than 50% of the scientists have a doctorate or a master's degree (per the 2005 Census, only 6% of Americans have a master's degree).  Not surprisingly, most of the pharma manufacturing and R&D establishments are close to research institutes in our state.

Now, let’s take my country of birth, India, as another example.  India ranks 4^th in terms of volume in global pharma markets and has attracted a lot of attention from pharma majors like Pfizer, Novartis, Glaxo Smith Kline and more recently from the likes of Abbott.  The country is home to 20,000+ manufacturers and several other companies focused on active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) or formulations.  Ease of recruiting patients for clinical trials, presence of qualified investigators, lower cost of living, permissible concurrency of Phase II and Phase III trials, etc.  have made India an attractive investment opportunity for US pharma majors.  This in turn has fueled the supply of skilled professionals.

When it comes to retention, I believe happy workers stay longer.  Some of the best places to work for in the US offer epic perks – onsite childcare and health clubs, free meals, free laundry and yes, climbing walls.  The list is sizeable and when it comes to perks – size matters.   Each time we tighten the belt, it takes some air out of the perks our corporations can offer.   And all of this will has an impact on our ability to attract the best and brightest.  So though we may continue to top the chart on innovation, research and development and productivity, we may not necessarily be doing enough to retain our talent.

The churn in our industry will continue to increase.  One obvious way to stem the loss is to continue to invest in the pipeline coming out of educational institutions.  

For now, I’ll continue to live in the great Garden State and continue my analysis on how workforce challenges will impact the globally integrated pharma enterprise (GIPE).