Pharmaceutical Market Europe • March 2023 • 14
MIKE DIXON
MIKE DIXON
MAKING THE MOST OF
OUR VALUED TALENT POOL
Encouraging people who are returning to work after a career break to see it as a positive experience
The PM Society and Healthcare Communications Association have just announced a collaboration to help spread the word about the exciting career opportunities in the pharma sector, and I talked about our ever-increasing need to attract more new talent from diverse backgrounds in this column last November (Europe’s Got Talent). But alongside these endeavours to reach outside our existing talent base, we must not lose sight of the opportunity for ensuring we bring back those individuals who have already worked in our sector but have taken a career break. The sector certainly needs people who can competently fill or refill middle and senior level roles, and those coming back from career breaks could be ideal.
Maternity/paternity leave is very common, but other reasons for a career break could be to care for a family member, to travel or for a health and well-being break. To encourage those on maternity/paternity leave to return, and to maximise the opportunities to bring back those who have taken other types of career breaks, it’s important to understand and remove any potential barriers that exist in areas such as working practices or in the processes of reintegration, to make the return a positive experience for all involved.
Flexible working practices
The post-COVID-19 shift to more hybrid working and working from home has most certainly provided a much better opportunity to encourage people to return, as these options often provide greater, and more appealing, flexibility. They may also remove the reasons, such as long commutes, people stepped away in the first place. However, that only works if the flexibility on offer truly meets the needs of the individual. If the hybrid option is just based on where the individual is working from, but is still rigid in terms of hours and out-of-hours commitment, then it may still not be flexible enough for an individual’s needs. Most parents, for example, will tell you that, during the working week, it’s the 4-7pm time frame that are the challenging work/life balance hours. With far more global working, is it unreasonable to formally have a work break during that time and then come back for calls with colleagues in the US later?
Future working practices may also be changing, as discussion about the four-day working week moves to the fore – the UK has just completed what is thought to be the world’s biggest pilot scheme, Belgium has already legislated for it and various other countries are now trying it. Despite this being increasingly considered for the office setting, the concept is not new. Healthcare professions have employed similar practices for years. Could this go further with shift work considered in offices and would this appeal to some individuals? There could be commercial benefits, for example, agencies having a writing or creative team working overnight, which could allow work to progress more quickly.
Apprehension
Individuals who have taken a longer career break may feel they have less opportunity to return as they are not current enough, especially in a rapidly changing, more digital world. As a sector, we therefore need to be proactive in encouraging and supporting these individuals to return. Do we therefore need to provide tailored training to help get potential returners back up to speed and help rebuild their confidence in their own ability to continue to add value? Even for those who have been on shorter maternity/paternity leave, it is important not to assume that the day they start back is just the same for everybody as the day they left. We are a very dynamic sector, so people change, clients change, thinking changes. This means that a re-induction process for those who return to work is as important as it is for new starters. Getting back up to speed by osmosis is almost certainly not the best option.
Mental well-being
Whatever the reason for a career pause, the return to work becomes a significant change. That clearly has the potential for stress and anxiety, even for those who might not normally exhibit that in their working life. Ensuring additional dialogue and support in the early days is therefore critical, and the assumption that it will be immediately back to how it was before should not be made by the individual, colleagues or organisations. To achieve that will take some time and effort from all stakeholders.
Let’s better consider the return to work
Probably one of the best way to identify potential returners is through the organisations or colleagues they historically worked with. The HCA is bringing together a working group to brainstorm ideas and welcomes any input or support, so please get in touch. We want to ensure that we are doing everything we can to help our talent feel supported and able to return to the sector after a career break, to continue to provide the invaluable skills and experience they have to our important work.
Mike Dixon is CEO of the Healthcare Communications Association (HCA) and a communications consultant