The Talent Gap Challenge in Life Sciences: 5 Strategies to Attract and Retain Top Talent with Neil Kelly, Vector Partners

“One of the challenges we face is trying to recruit talent in a market that is short on the skills we require.  There’s a major shortage of talent,"

Neil Kelly, founder of Vector Partners, has two decades experience in talent acquisition within life sciences, including high-growth period at Thermo Fisher and Patheon.

In the latest episode of the PharmaSource podcast Neil explains some key strategies to help bridge the talent gap in life sciences.

1. Reassess on-site vs remote talent

The great lesson from the pandemic was been the successful continuation of business through remote working.

“The supply chain is becoming more and more global - the ability to source product from anywhere in the world is just a reality now. As you think around talent and your workforce globally, then you then start realising that  it's not so much about where the product is that’s important but it's where you can source that talent, because the certain talent around the world that is really short."

However, this has presented a real challenge for HR functions and talent functions to understand which roles can go remote versus those that simply can't - such as  manufacturing or supply chain roles that physically handle products.

“Don't think about physical distance as a limitation to trade or to doing business together." says Neill.

"Start to look at your landscape globally for where do you source talent, versus where do you need to produce the product.”

2. Go deeper into a candidates' strengths and weaknesses

If it's challenging to find someone who is an exact fit, go look deeper into candidate's strengths, says Neil.

“There are very few dedicated Academic courses for sourcing, procurement and supply chain, and those that are are very dated in terms of the content that's delivered to students.  So, we have to look elsewhere."

“If particular talent doesn't exist in the market we have bypass what the label of the degree says on their resume and really start to look at who they are as an individual and their behaviours.”

3. Invest in skills development

“Skills development will continue to be paramount for organisations moving forward, certainly for the next two to three years minimum. It's not only a great retention tool, but the second is that it also allows you to create more skills within your existing resources. “

"If you take an average procurement function or supply chain function, very often, they will have a defined set of skills and a defined boundaries in terms of where they operate. 

Training can help you to get "more all-rounders in your business", says Neil, which will increase your productivity. Training "is a good thing for the employee, and a good thing for the business. "

4. Recruit from outside of the industry

"You can't train the science" says Neil, but enabling functions such as Procurement and Supply Chain - like HR and Finance - have transferable skills which you can look for outside of the pharma industry. 

"In supply chain, we look for agility, we look for speed, we look for sharpness around commerciality that generally has not come from within the pharma industry. “

"We source that talent from those industries that are really lean - telecoms, third-party logistics.These are industries that really sharpen their pencil around some of these skills. We go into these industries and pluck out the very best."

5. Use compensation to your advantage

Take the opportunity to use pay and benefits as way to attract talent from other industries.

"Compensation is generally lower within these industries (such as telecoms and third-party logistics) so you're able to attract the talent, so you've got a commercial or a compensation advantage of attracting someone.”

Listen to the full podcast for the full interview.