5 Workforce Trends Impacting the Life Sciences Industry

The life sciences industry is navigating a complex landscape shaped by the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, increased competition and global expansion. Since the pandemic, research and development for the life sciences industry has reduced dramatically and the stock index for biotech companies has dropped by 60%. This has increased the pressure on organizations to find cost-savings initiatives and stay ahead of trends that affect the market.

In this article I will outline five key workforce trends impacting the life sciences industry. As the global leader in workforce solutions, Allegis Global Solutions’ (AGS) market analytics team researches, analyzes and deploys actionable data that is tailored to help companies transform their workers into a competitive advantage, within their industries. In this article I focus specifically on the life science market and how we can empower workforce leaders to overcome the unique challenges that continue to plague the life sciences industry.

1. Post-Pandemic Workforce Challenges

The surge in investment during the COVID-19 pandemic left a lasting impact on the life sciences industry. Organizations are still struggling with the after-effects—over hiring, inflated salaries over the industry standard, additional competition for jobs and supply chain concerns. To put it into perspective, our labor market analytics partner, Lightcast, shows job postings stats in the bioscience space stood around 19,000 in February 2022 but plummeted to 10,000 in October 2023. The shifts have been swift and drastic for many businesses. These changes continue to create challenges for organizations to understand the makeup of their workforce, which is especially elevated when you consider the increase in engaging external workers.

To compensate for higher volumes and overpaid talent, companies laid off a large number of people in early 2023, but now hiring is rising in the US and Canada, even if it’s still down in the European market. Companies are trying to avoid layoffs out of fear of losing their knowledge base and not getting the funding to rehire. Managing the external market, rehiring efforts and cost-savings initiatives have inspired several companies to partner with workforce experts to create and deploy a plan to achieve short- and long-term goals.

2. Supply Chain Disruptions

Life sciences organizations are heavily influenced by their manufacturing and allied components’ supply chains. Shortages during the pandemic highlighted the importance of having a resilient supply chain. In order to navigate these shortfalls and still get work done, it has been crucial that companies identify which global regions contain the best talent through their supplier network. Also, it’s important to note here, that companies need to appreciate that having a large number of suppliers is often not as effective as finding the right suppliers.

Outsourcing and the contingent workforce model have become critical components of successful supply chain strategies. A managed services provider (MSP) can assist organizations in identifying the right mix of suppliers and understanding the composition of the workers tied to these suppliers. This ensures that organizations have access to quality talent and can address supply chain issues effectively.

3. Increased Competition for Talent

The life sciences industry is facing increased competition for talent, not only from within the industry itself, but also from other sectors that have branched out to reap the benefits of the revenue surge that resulted from the pandemic. For example, a global marketplace has opened a pharmaceutical arm, which is a sector that already has a high demand for workers and suppliers. Yet, different companies may come at the pharmaceutical space from a variety of sectors, such as:

• Drug research, development and manufacturing
• Diagnostics technology
• Clinical trials insights and analytics

With this in mind, companies are becoming skills-based hiring organizations so they can take advantage of finding workers with transferable skill sets that may be sitting in a different sector, but still have the skills to get the work done and achieve their goals.

In addition, it is critical for organizations to build a strong employer brand and create a positive candidate experience to attract and retain skilled talent.

4. Implementation of AI and Automation

AI and automation are becoming increasingly important in the life sciences industry. However, the implementation of AI has been slower than anticipated due to cost and regulatory concerns. There is also a certain amount of fear of the unknown that is influencing organizational decisions to slow down implementation.  

However, like many technological advances, businesses can apply AI in smaller doses to various parts of their business until they need more automation to keep up with competitors. Overall, organizations are going to have to decide where they want to fit in as early adopters, pioneers or late adopters—waiting for everybody else to go through the pain points.

When it comes to a contingent worker program, companies can utilize AI in managing their extended workforce and in developing SOWs. At AGS, we have a great partnership with Globality to leverage AI in the world of procurement, which offers a tremendous advantage to our clients, but with very defined rules of engagement of the tool and how AGS operates it to drive value. This includes providing data insights and analytics.

AI implementation is also an excellent companion to the Universal Workforce Model™ framework which offers a flexible and scalable approach to workforce management, enabling companies to respond quickly to changing business needs.

5. Focus on Diversity and Inclusion

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) are essential for driving innovation, widening talent pools and improving business outcomes in the life sciences industry. Organizations are increasingly focused on building a diverse and inclusive workforce, often depending on a blanket of suppliers to fill their needs. However, a strong DEI strategy that is tailored to the unique needs of the organization can provide greater results. Business leaders often approach an MSP partner saying, “help us build out the DEI strategy,” and the best starting point is to determine what diversity means to that company, because it looks different across companies, sectors and labor categories. Also, it is imperative that companies consider not just hiring diverse talent but developing the culture to retain those workers.  

AGS offers a range of solutions to help organizations create a culture of diversity and inclusion. Our consulting services provide strategies for inclusive hiring practices, while our direct sourcing and recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) services ensure access to a diverse pool of candidates.

The Future of Life Sciences Work

The life sciences industry is facing unique workforce challenges that require specialized solutions, specialist workers, optimized supplier plans and cost-savings initiatives to right-size after the bloated hiring and compensations required during the pandemic era.

To look towards the future and stay competitive in the space, businesses will need to address supply chain concerns, attract talent against an increasingly competitive industry, consider extended workforce and outsourcing options, embrace AI and automation and deploy both a skills-based hiring plan and a DEI workforce strategy.

By addressing these workforce trends, an MSP partner can enable organizations to stay ahead of the curve and drive innovation in the industry.