HR Roundtable: The People Challenges Shaping Pharma and Life Sciences Right Now
Charlotte Whitehouse
In our latest HR roundtable, we brought together senior HR leaders from across the pharma and life sciences sector to have an honest conversation about the people challenges defining the industry right now.
No slides, no scripts, just an open discussion about what’s happening on the ground.
What came through clearly is that the pressures aren’t new, but they’re intensifying. Here are the themes that defined the conversation.
1. The Talent Shortage Is Still Acute, But the Thinking Around It Is Shifting
The first topic that surfaced was predictable, but the nuance was worth noting.
It’s not just about shortage in general. It’s the specific challenge of finding people who combine deep technical credibility with leadership capability, commercial awareness, and the adaptability that fast-moving life sciences businesses genuinely need.
That combination remains incredibly hard to find. As one participant put it:
“If they’re a huge technical expert, they’re probably not good at managing people. And I gave up trying to recruit that externally.”
The shift in thinking? Organisations are becoming more pragmatic. Hire for the core technical strength and leadership potential you truly need, then build the rest internally.
2. Retention Is About More Than Salary
Pay matters and nobody in the room was pretending otherwise. But the consensus was clear: salary alone doesn’t create genuine engagement, loyalty, or a sense of belonging.
The discussion around sign-on bonuses was sharp, described as “Golden handcuffs” or the “Boston Effect.” Large financial incentives can create short-term retention but breed entitlement and mistrust over time.
What actually keeps people? Meaningful work, visible development opportunities, strong management, and recognition that feels genuine. As one attendee put it:
“You have to reward people, you absolutely have to reward human beings. They have these really interesting reward centres in their brain. And sometimes it isn’t the monetary thing. It’s that recognition, almost, without sounding too patronising, the pat on the head from the CEO that they really, really value.”
3. Career Paths Need to Be Visible and They Don’t Have to Be Linear
Businesses need to make the career path visible much earlier. People need to see what their next steps could be, what capabilities they need to develop, and how they can grow without being locked into a rigid ladder.
There was real enthusiasm for “squiggly careers”, broader, more flexible routes that reflect how people actually develop. In life sciences especially, where many employees arrive with a deep academic mindset, the challenge is helping them build commercial judgement, collaboration skills, and the confidence to make pragmatic calls when projects change direction.
Investing in talent development specialists early was strongly endorsed. Without that support, line managers are left having career conversations they’re simply not equipped for.
4. Manager Quality Is the Real Unlock
Most retention problems, engagement issues, and employee relations challenges trace back to managers who were never properly equipped to do the job.
As one participant observed:
“It’s kind of the engagement versus expectations. And you’re just feeling like you’re forever trying to keep everybody happy and spin all the plates.”
Another made the point even more directly:
“Nobody woke up one day and said, when I grow up, I want to be a manager. Like, if you did, then I think you’re a psychopath.”
The recommendation from the group was to go back to basics and do them well. Train managers properly, build confidence in feedback and accountability, make performance conversations regular, and support leaders before problems escalate.
5. Don’t Wait to Bring HR In
Startups and scale-ups almost always introduce senior HR support too late. By the time HR is brought in, the founder is carrying the people agenda reactively, firefighting rather than shaping culture or making good structural decisions early.
The cost of waiting is real. As one participant put it:
“They’re better off spending a few grand doing that than going and finding an all-singing, all-dancing, whatever it is they think they need six months down the line.”
The good news: it doesn’t have to mean a full-time hire. Fractional or interim HR support (even a few hours a week) gives founders access to the right expertise at the right time.
6. The Best Talent Acquisition Model Is a Blend
No single approach works on its own. In-house capability brings cultural understanding. RPO works well for scale and speed. Specialist agencies remain essential for niche and senior roles and multiple specialists consistently outperform one generalist.
The underlying principle was about relationship quality. The most effective external partners feel like an extension of the business, they understand the context, the challenges and crucially, what kind of person will succeed there.
7. AI Should Create Space for the Human Work
AI is an extremely hot topic right now and the view from the roundtable group was measured. Technology shouldn’t replace human judgement, it should remove repetitive admin and create space for more valuable work: manager development, culture, organisational design, and the strategic people decisions that actually move the needle.
Used well, it’s an enabler, but used badly, it’s just more noise!
A huge thank you to everyone who joined and spoke so openly. The quality of this conversation is what makes these roundtables worth running!
We’ll be hosting more over the coming months. If any of these themes resonate with what you’re seeing in your organisation, we’d love to hear your perspective.
Want to know more about our roundtable discussions or looking to be part of the next one? Get in touch below.
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