Biotech and Biopharma, Like Other Industries, Are Sharing in the Emergence of Hybrid Work
Bio firms find opportunity in hybrid work
Biotech and Biopharma, like other industries, are sharing in the emergence of hybrid work and it is bringing some beneficial aspects to the companies embracing the workplace changes.
Whether it’s called the Post-COVID arrival of the blended workplace, the emergence of the remote workplace distant from the office, or the maturing of the means to decentralize talent, there’s a dramatic import for both the workers and the places they work.
Unlike the pandemic-required remote work for some industries, it was essential for some positions in the life science industry to continue to be in-person or to move into a hybrid work style. Workers either remotely work or come into the office for portions of each week. This has continued post-pandemic. Some are more comfortable working from home, avoiding the commute, and enjoying the flexibility of balancing personal and professional tasks.
Others find importance and long-lasting value in face-to-face time and hallway conversations, the separation between work and personal life, and really, the soft skills that you gain from being in an office. Most Zoomers started their careers remotely and really can’t appreciate the personal and career development that happens when they are present in person. While there are obvious benefits for individuals working from home, there are certainly missed opportunities not being there in person at least for part of the time.
Some companies are requiring workers to return to the office full-time. For example, in February, Amazon announced it is ordering all employees back in May for at least three days per week. For the Biotech industry, there is a need to be in person. In fact, a good number of scientists, physicians, and clinical operations teams have continued to work in person, fully or partially, throughout the pandemic.
The task for life science leaders is to leverage the best of both worlds. Give people the flexibility to work from home, but have some incentive to bring people into the office to cultivate a strong culture and collaborative teams.
Organizations that build a hybrid and flexible workplace can attract a more diverse workforce; young parents who appreciate that added freedom to manage their time during the day. You can hire the right talent that may be geographically located in a different area, save on overhead costs and repurpose those costs toward intentional cultural, team, and organization-building activities.
“The quality of a company’s employee makeup was once limited by who lived in, or would move to, hubs like the Bay Area, SoCal, Minneapolis, or Boston.”
Flexible companies are hiring top talent from direct competitors who are viewed as less flexible. Recruiting businesses are emerging, specifically focused on reaching out to talent dissatisfied with their company’s rigid attitudes and traditional in-person requirements. Companies are even coming to set formal HR policies about which employee groups (like marketing, strategy, and analytics roles), can be permanently remote, which indicates this is a permanent, rather than somehow temporary, workplace shift.