biotech bill: 4 insights for life sciences companies.

With unprecedented levels of investment about to flood the life sciences space, companies would be wise to start proactively conducting comprehensive skills assessments. It’s the only way to understand where your strengths and weaknesses are today — and how prepared you are to pivot to achieve your business goals tomorrow.

Which competencies or areas of expertise do you have in spades, and which are you lacking in? Where should HR teams start pipelining talent? Answering questions like these is a must for companies in the life sciences space right now.

Talent shortages continue to be a check on growth for companies in the life sciences space. In fact, roughly one in three C-suite and human capital leaders describe it as a “major” pain point. Not incidentally, that’s also why nearly two out of three think reskilling and upskilling their current workforce is their best bet for remaining competitive — and it’s something Sanofi, Pfizer and other leading companies in the field are already doing successfully, too.

However, organizations interested in taking a more proactive approach to upskilling, reskilling and plugging skills gaps should know that they don’t have to go it alone. This is an area where strategic partnerships add a lot of value. They’re a proven workaround, and an approach that comes with fewer risks, not to mention proven frameworks that can significantly impact your bottom line.

In light of the likely uptick in production demands for life sciences employers across the board, many organizations will look to expand the geography of their existing recruiting footprints in order to secure mission-critical talent. For example, in trying to land, say, hard-to-find drug safety professionals, who aren’t required to be U.S. board certified, you might be tempted to look overseas and source foreign MDs.

But over the long run, that’s not only anathema to the spirit of the National Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Initiative — it also simply isn’t going to cut it. The better approach for talent-scarce life sciences organizations will be to lean on partners with domain expertise, track records of success, flexible delivery models and existing networks of talent. It’s going to be the most reliable way to scale up and make the most of this unprecedented public investment in the field of biotech.

To see the full picture of what the initiative means for your company, including timelines for execution and a department-by-department breakdown of investment, download our in-depth white paper today.