As 2023 drew to a close, some bold statements of intent were made with regards to getting people back to the office on a more structured or regular basis. There are, of course, several good reasons suggested for this: people development, collaborative working and building corporate culture, to name a few. And of course, the corporates themselves needing to justify the bricks and mortar on their balance sheets. However, the genie is out of the bag and, try as hard as we might, it’s not going all the way back in. Hybrid may become more formulated in some organisations, but I feel if there is an attempt to take too much of the flexibility away, there may be negative consequences for organisations. The demand for talent may have dampened down in 2023, but there is still enough of a job market out there for people to respond with their feet and the best people are always in demand.

Just like the Millennials before them, we know Gen Zers have their own significant nuances when it comes to their approach to life and work. How we communicate with them, motivate them and respond to them needs to be carefully considered. They are our future and that future is happening now. Gen Zers will be taking more senior roles within our own organisations as well as within the medical profession. We are also seeing Gen Zers accessing healthcare more, in particular maternity services and child-related services. How do we need to adapt our communications to ensure we are most effective in communicating with these generational audiences?

Whether the economy improves quickly or slowly, the pressure on marketing and comms budgets will continue as the need to maintain profitability against rising costs increases. Communicators will therefore need to ensure that they are championing the importance and value of communications, with the need for effective measurement and evaluation of everything we do never being more important. Embedding this discipline from the start of every programme will be paramount for individual and sectoral long-term success.

Ensuring equity, diversity and inclusion in everything we do, from trials to communication strategies, will only grow in importance. We will talk more about it, we will hear more about it and greater action will be demanded from us. Sustainability will become even more ingrained within pharma and their suppliers will demand more clear evidence of this across the board. Along with profitability, being socially responsible will continue to be a driver of corporate strategy. In total, success as organisations (and that will be translated right down to individual project level) will be even more deeply connected with our ability to demonstrate and deliver our ESG commitments.

To be successful in addressing the many opportunities and challenges we will face in 2024, we will need to work more closely together, with a greater understanding of each other’s needs and positions, to ensure we deliver on our common goals. Whether this is, for example, industry, agency, procurement stakeholders (healthcare professionals, patients and industry) or collaboration across sectors with competitors to learn from each other or respond to our common challenges.

In 2024, the Healthcare Communications Association will be working with you to help our sector navigate these few predictions and many more that I haven’t mentioned. It is all about being together for better. Happy New Year and here’s to a successful 2024.

Mike Dixon is CEO of the Healthcare Communications Association (HCA) and a communications consultant