A blog by Peter Smith, Partner & Founding Member
How does your experience as a HRBP in the pharmaceutical sector compare to your experiences in other industries?
In general, working in HR within the pharmaceutical industry offers a more strategic, long-term focus compared to other sectors. HRBPs in the Pharma sector often have greater autonomy to craft strategy at a country level, in contrast to the more centralized approaches seen in industries like Financial Services. This sector allows HR to balance the day-to-day business needs with future-oriented projects, some of which have lengthy timeframes. Even when business pressure may be lower due to Pharma’s relative financial stability, internal pressure to maintain high standards remains intense. The industry is often more left-brain dominant, requiring a logical, data-driven mindset. As a result, it can be difficult to encourage employees to think outside the box since the parameters of what can or cannot be done are typically well defined.
In Pharma, HR professionals also play a critical role in ensuring strict compliance with policies and regulations, far more so than in other industries. There’s significant involvement with legal and compliance teams, particularly around policy updates and ensuring consistency across various divisions. This could be one reason why pharmaceutical companies have historically tended to recruit HR professionals, particularly HRBPs, from within the same industry. However, we’re seeing more HR talent entering Pharma from a wider range of industries, reflecting an interest in gaining new perspectives on HR practices from other sectors.
What unique challenges did you face as a HRBP in the Pharma sector?
One major challenge is the complexity of working with highly specialized talent, such as MDs and scientists, whose career paths and aspirations differ significantly from those of other employees. Additionally, many of these specialized roles do not necessarily lead to leadership positions, presenting unique challenges in succession planning.
Another distinct challenge is the need for HR professionals to understand pharmaceutical products in-depth, which can make onboarding difficult for those transitioning from other industries. HR also deals with a workforce that is often diversified by mergers and acquisitions, requiring cultural integration efforts across populations with both local and international backgrounds. For example, if a company has grown through acquisitions of domestic Japanese pharmaceutical companies, the corporate culture will reflect that diversity in its workforce. Influencing conservative business leaders is also a key skill for senior HR professionals in this sector.
How do you think regulatory and compliance requirements in the Pharma industry impact HR practices and strategies?
Regulatory and compliance requirements heavily influence HR practices. In Pharma, strict regulations guide everything from drug approvals to ethical marketing practices, meaning HR must ensure that employees, particularly in R&D and sales, are trained and compliant with local regulatory authorities. The requirement for employees to communicate effectively in Japanese with the appropriate regulatory bodies also narrows the talent pool, which can make it more challenging to find individuals who aspire to build a global career outside of Japan. Regulations like the “Provision of Information Regarding Post-Marketing Safety” place pressure on companies to control the type of information medical representatives (MRs) can share, which affects their roles and has led to organizational changes like reducing MR staff while expanding more scientifically-grounded positions, such as Medical Science Liaisons (MSLs).
Moreover, HR must not only ensure compliance but also navigate situations where clear policies for decision-making don’t always exist. This demands strategic influence, with HR leveraging best practices and data to guide leadership decisions.
What differences have you noticed in talent acquisition and retention strategies between the Pharma sector and other industries?
Talent acquisition in the Pharma sector requires significant upfront investment in training and development, especially for roles like Medical Representatives (MRs) who provide critical information to doctors. Training MRs effectively takes around 3 to 6 months, resulting in higher training and development costs compared to other industries. However, due to the high ROI business model in Pharma, companies with strong products can afford to invest generously in their people. This commitment to training and development is a defining feature of the industry.
Unique challenges exist, requiring a deep understanding of both the candidate’s priorities and what the company can offer. For example, while many physicians seek to move into pharmaceutical companies for better work-life balance, it’s not always easy to match them with the appropriate therapeutic area. Once onboard, a robust onboarding process is required to help them adapt to a very different working environment and to retrain them for corporate roles.
Leading companies in the industry maintain high entry barriers and focus heavily on retaining and developing talent in-house, especially those they have invested time and resources in training. Nevertheless, the evolving role of MRs, whose relevance is being debated due to regulatory and market shifts, has led some companies to downsize their MR workforce, often offering severance packages as part of optimization efforts.
In contrast to some other sectors, the Pharma industry is close-knit, where employee referrals and internal networks play a significant role in talent acquisition. These must, of course, be integrated into formal hiring processes to ensure subjective information is balanced with objective skills/job fit evaluations. Companies often combine mass hiring for sales roles with more specialized recruitment for positions like MDs, Quality Assurance, or Medical professionals, tailoring their strategies to meet these diverse talent needs. Benefits like RSUs and flexible working arrangements have proven effective for attracting and retaining talent.
Can you describe the particular challenges you faced in attracting and retaining specialized talent, such as researchers and scientists?
Attracting and retaining specialized talent in Pharma is challenging due to the limited pool of qualified candidates and intense competition between companies. Researchers and scientists tend to maintain strong ties with academic institutions, so nurturing those relationships is crucial. Additionally, such specialists don’t always aspire to management roles, limiting internal career progression and making retention difficult.
Pharma also struggles to attract talent from emerging fields like data science and digital technology, as the sector is often perceived as less appealing compared to more tech-driven industries. Flexible working options and acceptance of side jobs are emerging as key retention strategies for these specialized roles.
Were there any specific DE&I challenges you faced in the pharmaceutical sector? Do you think DE&I initiatives in the Pharma sector differ from those in other sectors?
Gender diversity in sales remains a persistent challenge in Pharma. Despite efforts to recruit female graduates for MR roles, companies still struggle to promote women into managerial positions. Complex reasons contribute to this, including unconscious biases that affect stretch role assignments. For instance, male MRs are often given high-visibility tasks in large hospitals, while female MRs are more frequently assigned to clinics, which may limit their advancement opportunities. This, of course, varies from company to company, and efforts are ongoing to increase the number of women in sales and managerial roles overall.
LGBTQ+ awareness is improving, but it remains less prominent compared to other industries. Neurodiversity may have a higher profile in Pharma, particularly in companies that develop treatments for neurological conditions. Compared to sectors with shorter business cycles, Pharma appears to offer more opportunities to engage in DE&I initiatives actively. One reason for this is the sector’s relatively stable financial base, which allows companies to allocate time and resources to such efforts.