tackling the digital talent challenge in life sciences ......
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TACKLING THE DIGITAL TALENT CHALLENGE IN LIFE SCIENCES: HOW REAL ESTATE AND WORKPLACE STRATEGIES CAN HELP
Digital technologies have the potential to transform businesses across all industry sectors,
but most life sciences companies have not yet made the bolder moves other sectors have in
taking advantage of their capabilities.
This is now starting to change with
biopharma companies such as Novartis,
Pfizer, GSK and Merck & Co all hiring
high-profile Chief Digital Offers (CDOs)
from more digitally mature industries to
spearhead their digital ambitions. This
is encouraging given the multitude of
benefits digital technologies can bring
to this sector: faster drug discovery and
development, improved operational
efficiency and productivity, more
personalised patient experiences and
better engagement with key healthcare
stakeholders.
Real estate has a central, and often
overlooked, role to play in enabling
and sustaining these transformations.
Some of the real estate occupied by
life sciences companies isn’t obviously
conducive to attracting digital talent.
This means that portfolio and workplace
strategies need to actively drive cultural
change, with digital talent acquisition
and retention seen as an integral part of
portfolio and location decisions.
CBRE | Life Sciences
The Digital Talent Challenge
Digital transformations are not easy,
even for tech savvy companies.
According to McKinsey1, the
pharmaceutical industry success rateof
these programmes is only 4-11%, with
larger companies more likely to fail.
There are many different reasons for
this, but accessing the right digital skill
set and driving the cultural changes
required to transition to new ways
of working are two of the biggest
challenges.
The opportunity exists to leverage the
vast amounts of data available across
the healthcare spectrum to drive future
value for life sciences companies.
However, extracting value from these
data assets needs the right combination
of people, processes and technology,
all operating within an agile and
collaborative culture. Ultimately, it is
teams, not technology who drive digital
success.
Attracting and retaining the talent
mix required to make that shift is a
key concern for industry executives.
According to PwC’s CEO survey2,
60% of life sciences CEOs were very
concerned about a digital talent
shortage and 57% find it very hard
to attract the right calibre of people.
McKinsey have reported that demand
could be four times supply for agile
skills and 50-60% greater than
projected supply for big data. For those
fortunate enough to secure the top
hires, they can be rewarded with double
digit investment savings by accelerating
the digital transformation process by up
to 20-30%.3
Biopharma and life sciences companies
are not just searching the same talent
pool as other industry sectors for
general digital talent, but are now also
facing competition from technology
companies for specialist sector talent,
such as computational biologists and
bioinformaticians.
Genomics-based research has created
increased demand for these skill sets
across life sciences, but technology
companies such as Google (Verily life
sciences), IBM Watson, even Netflix
and Amazon are seeking them out
too. Figure 1 shows why - the core
skills of a computational biologist/
bioinformatician are actually very
similar to broader data scientists,
with programming languages at the
forefront, but their scientific knowledge
is also extremely desirable for the tech
companies focused on healthcare.
The career choices available to them
now therefore extend way beyond their
traditional life sciences paths.
1 McKinsey ‘Unlocking success in digital transformation’, Oct 20182 PwC 21st CEO Survey, Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Findings, 2018 3 McKinsey and Co ‘The new talent you need to succeed in digital’, Sep 2016
Figure 1: Computational Biologists - most frequently cited skills
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“60% of life sciences CEOs were very concerned about a digital talent shortage”
CBRE | Life Sciences
Source: 40 computational biologist skills profiles
Acquiring and retaining digital talent – the importance of location and workplace experience
The question, therefore, is how can
life sciences companies use their real
estate as a strategic tool to help them
succeed in securing digital talent in an
increasingly competitive environment?
Many established biopharma
companies start disadvantaged because
they are still largely situated in out
of town campuses, while the highest
concentrations of digital talent is
generally found in cities.4
Millennials make up the majority of the
available digital talent pool and around
50% of the global workforce.
Although pay is still a major incentive to
attract them, 79% consider workplace
quality as a key consideration in
selecting a new employer and 69% say
they’d trade other benefits for the right
workplace experience.5
It’s therefore no surprise that life
sciences companies are now starting
to approach programmes designed to
create a ‘workplace of the future’ that
provides a consistent brand experience
across their organisations, regardless of
employee function or location.
But is this happening quickly enough?
PwC’s study suggests biopharma and
life sciences executives are actually
doing less than the global average to
address the digital talent challenge.
From a real estate perspective, less than
half reported that they are modernising
their workplace environment (39%) and
only 6% are relocating their operations
to be closer to available talent pools.
Innovation clusters providing access
to the right technology platforms,
collaboration zones and amenities are
likely to appeal to the digital natives,
but the concept of acquiring permanent
fixed physical locations in key cities as
a means of accessing them may not
necessarily be the whole answer.
CBRE’s Portfolio 2040 report predicted
a future digitised workforce that will
comprise of 50% contingent workers,
so both virtual and physical spaces will
need to be leveraged to respond to
these changing dynamics.
Figure 2: Data Scientist - most frequently cited skillsPy
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4 CBRE ‘Opportunities in European Tech Clusters’ ,20185 CBRE Live, Work, Play study
“79% consider workplace quality as a key consideration in selecting a new employer”
CBRE | Life Sciences
Source: 40 data scientists skills profiles
1 McKinsey ‘Unlocking success in digital transformation’, Oct 20182 PwC 21st CEO Survey, Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Findings, 2018 3 McKinsey and Co ‘The new talent you need to succeed in digital’, Sep 2016
What real estate and workplace strategies can be adopted to attract and retain digital talent?
Some life sciences companies,
particularly large biopharma, are now
starting to deploy strategies to address
the challenge. Multiple initiatives
together are likely to be most fruitful
given the importance of deploying
digital business models for future growth
and the scale of the talent shortage:
1. Understand your emerging and future talent requirements and where these skills are located
Developing capabilities for leaders
and existing employees is essential
for the longer-term success of digital
transformation. For instance, Novartis
in their ambition to become a medical
and data science company have already
started investing to ensure leaders
and employees are ‘curious’ and
‘comfortable with digital and data’. This
includes digital immersion programmes
to embed the new ways of working at
the most senior level.6
However, new digital practitioners will
also be required as efforts ramp up, so
understanding the profiles that bridge
the gap between existing capabilities
and a future operating model is key.
Some will be sector and geography
specific, some more generalist. When
that is clear, utilising labour and
location analytics to identify the talent
hot spots will give an evidence base
to inform recruitment strategy and
location-based decision making. HR
and Real Estate teams will need to
work closely to build their digital talent
strategy into broader future plans.
However, identifying the talent only
informs you of where they are -
attracting and retaining them is far
more challenging. As a result, an
increasing number of organisations
are weaving workplace quality and the
opportunity for flexible working into their
employee value propositions. According
to LinkedIn7, there has been a 78%
increase in the number of job adverts
providing flexible working options since
2016. The healthcare sector is at the
bottom of the pile with only 43% of
professionals in healthcare companies
reporting that they allow workers
to work remotely versus 72% in the
software and technology sector.
There is a balance to be struck here.
Research by Gartner8 indicates there
is a negative impact on employee
engagement for those employees who
work from home regularly for more
than two days a week and an equally
negative impact for those employees
who have no opportunity to work from
home. Providing choice to employees
on working preferences therefore is
key and with the breadth of options
available around flex offices and
co-working expanding, it is possible to
try different approaches.
Back in the office, it is generally
acknowledged that our workplace
can have a meaningful influence on
our performance at work. However,
measuring this and convincing senior
stakeholders has been based more
on faith than science and investments
in workplace transformation are still
more often weighted more towards
real estate reduction than workplace
quality. This is starting to change. Life
sciences companies, among others,
are becoming increasingly conscious of
employee health (physical and mental)
and with advancements in technology,
more research is emerging (CBRE
2016 ‘Healthy Office’ and CBRE 2018
‘CBRE Lab’) that seeks to prove the link
between the quality of work and that of
the working environment.
6 PharmaExec ‘Future Pharma: Data Science as a Strategic Partner’, Jan 20197 LinkedIn ‘Global Talent Trends’ ,20198 Garner ‘Measuring employee engagement: past, present, future’ ,2017
CBRE | Life Sciences
2. Create a workplace that aligns with an agile culture
Digital transformations will struggle
to reach their full potential without an
agile culture being adopted across
the organisation. This is forcing
organisations to think differently,
building agile into the way they work
to emulate the speed and dynamism of
smaller, more nimble players.
Roche is reportedly pursuing an agile
transformation, starting with leaders and
encouraging them to ‘confront patterns
of thought that while successful in the
past, may now limit their effectiveness’
and introducing them to the practices of
agile organizations and how to engage
others in the journey, forming cross
functional teams to redesign structures,
process and business models.8
Agility can also be hindered by
departmental silos, PA’s Agile
Organisation report outlines the
emergence of new organisational
structures with supporting environments.
Forward thinking organisations are
designing more fluid workplaces,
balancing space for open collaboration
and private focus, allowing people to
personalise their workday. Inclusion of
project space makes it easier to connect
multi-disciplinary teams quickly and
efficiently for a short, intensive meeting
or for the duration of a sprint.
The provision of new services and tools
also helps to remove the roadblocks
to connection and help to make work
easier for everyone.9
The challenge for established
organisations is overturning years of
ingrained traditional working patterns.
Losing offices, long held as the pinnacle
of corporate achievement, and working
in open spaces is only part of the
problem. The real challenge lies in
incentivising people to change how they
work and how they engage broadly
across their organisation.
3. Acquire capabilities and talent through M&A and partnerships
The pharma industry has form in
acquiring small innovative biotech
companies. However, digital M&A
activity has been slower than anticipated
to take off, with the industry mostly
favouring partnerships and JVs over
equity investments.
GSK however made a bold move
through their $300m equity investment
in genomics company 23andMe in
2018. The partnership is at the heart of
GSK’s future ‘driven by genetics’ R&D
strategy, combining the genetics and
data science expertise of 23andMe with
the scientific and commercialisation
capabilities of GSK.
Pfizer, Novartis, Otsuka and Sanofi have
all formed strategic alliances with Verily
life sciences (Google’s healthcare spin
off) to transform and accelerate the
outdated and inefficient clinical trials
process. Verily have a breadth and
depth of digital talent who have focused
on building their data technology
platform, tools and advanced analytics.
Google and Sanofi have also just
announced their ‘Virtual Innovation
Lab’ collaboration which is designed
to combine their respective strengths to
accelerate the healthcare innovation
cycle.
Perhaps it is no surprise that these
partnerships are favoured over M&A,
accessing the data, tools and talent
to support digital ambitions without
the challenges of integrating culturally
different companies. There are more
examples of culture clashes between
larger, more established organisations
and smaller, more nimble companies
than successful integration stories, often
resulting in the loss of the innovation
and talent that the acquisitions were
intended to capture.
8 McKinsey ‘How a healthcare company is pursuing agile transformation’, Jan 20199 PA consulting “Creating the agile organisation”, 2018
CBRE | Life Sciences
4. Create your own digital innovation hubs
Some pharma companies are directly
addressing the deterrent role that some
of their real estate plays in attracting
talent. This is being done by selectively
introducing new property formats
designed to nurture start-ups and
fast-growing innovators. For instance
J&J (JLabs), Novartis (Biomes) and Leo
Pharma Innovation Labs among others
have created separate incubator/
start-ups to drive scientific and digital
innovation. These environments are
designed to feel more agile and
entrepreneurial and are purposely
situated in geographical locations with
rich pipelines of both scientific and
digital talent.
5. Collaborate with broader groups and raise brand presence in emerging innovation clusters/knowledge districts
Partnerships with non-traditional
players can fill out a company’s skill
set – academia and tech start-ups and
clusters are emerging that span both
science and technology and reflect the
increasing convergence of life sciences,
healthcare and technology. Having
some form of presence in desired
geographical hubs with a start-up
feel can drive new collaborations and
positive brand associations, providing
access to new talent pools either directly
or indirectly.
Conclusion – The Way ForwardThere is no universal solution
to address the digital talent
shortage and it will continue
to be a challenge across all
industry sectors. Life sciences
companies can be particularly
challenged because of their
legacy core locations that often
misalign with the urban living
and working style favoured by
millennials and Generation X as
well as perceptions that the highly
regulated nature of the industry
restricts the speed of digital
innovation.
Therefore, business leadership,
HR and real estate teams need
to work together, activating
external partnerships and
adopting an agile approach to
develop integrated solutions.
Understanding the needs,
workstyles and preferred
environments of digital talent is
only the start – but it’s absolutely
central to getting this right.
cbre.co.uk
Joanne HendersonExecutive DirectorHead of Life Sciences, EMEA t: +44 (0)7557 426 960e: [email protected]
Richard HolbertonSenior DirectorEMEA Research t: +44 (0)20 7182 3348 e: [email protected]
Lewis Beck Head of Workplace EMEA A&T Workplace Strategies t: +44 (0)7966 563 174 e: [email protected]
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