Talent Acquisition Leaders Reframe Recruiting, Focus On Inner Mobility

Pipeline shuffles and a necessity for enterprise agility have prompted restructurings and layoffs at many pharmas and biotechs. As a outcome, these corporations are confronted with a major problem: guaranteeing their workforce can obtain enterprise aims whereas additionally feeling supported. To that finish, expertise acquisition leaders are trying inside and reframing their method to recruitment, together with shifting collaboration and leveraging new applied sciences.

To meet these challenges, expertise acquisition leaders are trying inside and reframing their method to recruitment, together with shifting collaboration and leveraging new applied sciences.

The driver for this transformation is supporting the expansion and growth of colleagues, stated Rowena Vinci, world expertise acquisition chief at Pfizer.

“Before, recruitment was just focused on external hiring, external sourcing, and then we wait for internal supply,” she told BioSpace. “But now, we have shifted to being more proactive partners—to, say, the HR business partners in the talent management space. We want to be able to retain the talent instead of heavy external hiring.”

It’s a more integrated and proactive approach to retain talent than just having the employee search and apply for internal positions, Vinci noted. Partnering closely with HR and hiring managers is a key part of making it work.

Katie Gentry, talent acquisition leader for pharma and enabling functions at Bayer, has been part of a similar transformation of the pharma’s recruiting team. Bayer has implemented a new operating model, described as dynamic shared ownership (DSO).

“It’s a model focused on collaboration and the prioritization of resources towards the highest value work; the employees closest to the work have the decision-making power,” Gentry explained. “So, it really allows our employees to make the decisions that they see that are going to help the patients the best, and our teams are really nimble and come together around different projects.”

Upskilling and Reskilling

Upskilling, or augmenting existing capabilities, is one way Pfizer supports talent transitioning to new roles within the organization. Another is reskilling or providing new sets of capabilities for employees to execute on. Both are professional development strategies to retain rather than replace talent. The benefit to employers? By not laying off staff or hiring new talent, companies not only reduce costs but also make employees feel supported and improve workforce morale.

Leveraging Technology

The technology landscape continues to evolve, creating opportunities, efficiencies and challenges. Recruitment and talent management are not immune to the influence of technology, including AI and automation, on their function. Now, talent acquisition leaders are leveraging new tools to more creatively match employees within their existing workforce to jobs.

“Based on their experience, based on their profile, we match them to the open roles that we have,” Vinci explained. “If we have a restructuring, we’re doing some layoffs, those people being affected, we also do automatic job matching for them, so that we will be able to retain talent.”

Gentry also discussed the shift toward becoming a skills-based workplace, using skill mapping and a talent marketplace Bayer built internally.

“[It] is going to enable us to move talent across fields, maybe to areas where they have never worked before, but they have a skill set that would be applicable to the projects that are going on. So, that’s something that we’re really excited about,” Gentry said.

Knowledge Sharing

Both Vinci and Gentry will speak at the upcoming LEAP TA: Life Sciences convention in Boston on the finish of the month. It can be Gentry’s first time attending the occasion, the place she’ll current on Bayer’s new dynamic shared possession mannequin.

“I’m very interested to learn about the transformations happening at other organizations,” she stated. “Our industry and our peers are all experiencing business transformations, and I’d love to learn how other organizations have found ways to organize themselves to best fit our new environment.”

Vinci can also be trying ahead to attending. She’ll focus on rising tendencies and strategic priorities in expertise acquisition with friends from Revolution Medicines, Syndax Pharmaceuticals and GSK. Like Gentry, Vinci is anticipating the information sharing that occurs at LEAP occasions, reminiscent of studying about different corporations’ greatest practices so her staff can combine them into what they’re doing.

“Or similarly,” she added, “us sharing the best practices we’ve advanced; what we’ve started already or executed successfully.”

BioSpace is proud to be a media associate of LEAP TA: Life Sciences. The 2025 version of this occasion can be in Boston Sept. 29–Oct. 1. Register for the event. Use code BIOSPACE10 for a reduction.