Career development key to employee engagement in life sciences, notes survey

According to a survey conducted by ProClinical, a life science staffing agency, career development is critical to maintain employee engagement.

Employees from the pharmaceutical, medical device, biotechnology and clinical research organisations participated in the survey, which found that engagement was at its highest when employees were new (71% in the first six months of work). After three to five years of working, however, this level of engagement was found to fall to 59%.

It is this period of time at a company — three to five years — when employees are more likely to leave. Additionally, within this group of respondents, only 39% specified they can see themselves working at the company in 12 months’ time, the proportion for which was found to be 65% for new employees.

Interestingly, the survey revealed that there was an increase in the number of employees who could see themselves still at the company in 12 months’ time once they had been employed for longer than five years.

When questioned about what influenced their level of engagement with their work, 18% stated that career support and development opportunities offered by the employer was the major influence, with recognition at 13%, fair pay at 8% and relationship with line management at 8%. Despite career development being highlighted as a top priority for employees, only 39% of survey respondents said they were satisfied with development opportunities available to them within their current company.

“One of the challenges that our clients often face is the loss of productivity and mounting costs when having to replace key personnel. The most successful companies that we work with take a proactive approach to development, focussing on succession planning and utilising personal development plans and secondments to give employees opportunities to develop,” said Richard Thomas, client services director at ProClinical. “Those employers are the ones who not only retain employees for longer but set themselves apart when it comes to attracting the best talent too.”