Bridging the Gap: Connecting with Life Sciences Employees in a COVID-19 World

This blog was authored by Mieke Whaley, Director, EMEA People and Business Partners at Medidata.

If there’s one thing that two years of lockdowns, restrictions, and hybrid working have taught us, it’s that people need human connection. We need to feel connected to our colleagues, our employers, and our workplaces.

In the early stages of the pandemic, the focus was simply on getting by and remaining productive as we navigated the shift to remote working. Processes, systems, and organizational behaviors were put under duress. But the life sciences and healthcare industry responded with ingenuity and resilience to allow work to continue. After two years of remote and hybrid working, it’s clear that employees are more than capable of delivering from home. As concerns about productivity diminish, attention is turning to employee satisfaction and engagement. 

Building a Connected Life Sciences Team

The biggest loss of remote working is team culture and the feeling of being connected to our colleagues. Video catch-ups and online socials have helped, but the lack of in-person collaboration and socializing will have a lasting impact. Bonding with colleagues is an essential part of work satisfaction, and team leaders can reconnect the dots by putting aside time for both online and in-person events and conversations.

This is particularly important for those who have moved companies during the pandemic. Most teams have had one or several new hires during the pandemic, and remote onboarding has its own unique challenges. It’s difficult for new employees to get a feel for how a team melds together. While virtual, one-on-one conversations help, this dynamic often results in relationships that feel more fragmented. Team culture is a big differentiator for those looking to change jobs. Existing team members who are proactive in developing and maintaining a positive culture will reap the rewards.

In-person events are essential to rebuild team cohesion and give people a much-needed chance to socialize with colleagues again. However, it’s equally important to be mindful of those for whom returning to the office poses difficulties. Whether it’s health reasons, family commitments, or caring responsibilities, these people need to be included in the conversation. Flexible working and remote team collaboration are here to stay; as life sciences companies develop their long-term policies, they need to be cognizant of and sensitive to those for whom re-engaging with the office in-person may be difficult. This is one example of a broader trend—a shift in the relationship between employer and employee. 

Supporting Personalized Employment

There has been a fundamental shift in the power balance between employer and employee, with prospective candidates demanding working terms more tailored to suit their needs. The pandemic has highlighted the importance of balancing the demands of work with family, wellbeing, and health; one emerging trend is personalized employment—the recognition that, as individuals, employees have their own requirements based on personal circumstances. Employees are looking for more collaboration and more opportunities to give feedback. They want to shape the expectations of a role together with employers, rather than having them dictated. 

Management and HR teams must take the chance to transition to more equitable, collaborative, and purpose-driven modes of managing. The leadership style of the future is not autocratic or unidirectional, but rather collaborative, responsive, and empathetic. Leaders within business and HR need to demonstrate a willingness to learn from employees, to solicit and act upon honest feedback, and to show an understanding of employees’ needs both inside and outside of the workplace. 

Connecting with a Greater Purpose

The ‘Great Resignation’ we have seen in the later stages of the pandemic is an indication that employees expect more from their work than a paycheck. In particular, they are now more attuned to questions of purpose and meaning—looking for roles in which they can give back and contribute to something larger than themselves. The pandemic has crystalized people’s thinking around what is important to them, and what they want to spend their time achieving. By situating individual pieces of work in their context and framing the results and outcomes of projects in a clear and compelling way, employers help meet this need for purpose. 

The life sciences and healthcare industry has an advantage over several other industries in this area. In one way or another, the industry’s purpose is centered around improving people’s lives. This is a worthy goal and one which is relatively straightforward to unite people behind. Paying attention to employees’ need for purpose therefore becomes more of a question of communication and outreach and making sure that individuals at all stages of their careers are aware of and embedded into the broader purpose of their work.

This framework of connectedness—to colleagues, to employers, and to work itself—are the three key ingredients to job satisfaction. Employees do their best when they feel comfortable around the people they work with, when they feel there is a two-way communication process with their employers, and when they feel that their work is making a meaningful contribution to society. Going forward, these three pillars should serve as a framework for delivering excellence in HR as the world of work continues to evolve.