Breaking The Paradox: What's Keeping Canada's Biotechnology Companies From Meeting Their HR Needs?

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By Colette Rivet, executive director, BioTalent Canada

For companies in Canada's bio-economy, the relationship between capital and human resources is something of a Catch-22: attracting and retaining talent requires money, yet investment is drawn in large part by the talent on a company's team.

Recruiting skilled, experienced biotechnology professionals demands adequate financial resources. Investors, however, want to see there’s enough capital and sufficient talent in place for a firm to follow through on its plans before they commit their own funds and help close the gap.

The majority of Canadian biotechnology companies surveyed in BioTalent Canada’s 2008 labour market information study cited limited access to capital and limited assistance with commercialization as their greatest barriers to success. At the same time, more than 34% of Canada’s biotechnology firms are dealing with skills shortages among their existing personnel. Over 35% say they face recruitment and retention challenges, a similar percentage say they have vacant positions to fill, and more than 60% indicated having experienced turnover within the last year.

Clearly, something must be done to help companies in the bio-economy meet their HR needs and unlock the capital they require to innovate, commercialize and pursue success in the marketplace.

HR realities: The challenges today

Most biotechnology companies in Canada expect the shortage of skilled and experienced workers to be their most likely HR challenge over the next three to five years—compounded, again, by their limited access to financial capital and subsequent inability to recruit and retain effectively.

To satisfy their requirements, roughly half of Canada’s biotechnology companies outsource skills and tasks—in some cases to maintain flexibility, in others because they cannot find the talent they need in Canada. Whatever the case, the consequence is that firms are not establishing a skills base of their own, ultimately perpetuating the skills challenge.

Taking action for the future

Responding to the HR needs of companies in the bio-economy requires a concerted effort. Governments must be prepared to support companies through the later stages of product and service development—to help them reach the market with their innovations. Educational institutions and training bodies must listen to what industry is saying about the lack of skilled professionals and work to define curricula that will produce a ready, well-founded biotechnology workforce.

But perhaps most critically, companies must be given the tools to recruit, retain and manage skilled workforces—to acquire the talent they need for pursuing their own innovation objectives and satisfying the expectations of potential investors. These tools take many forms: accurate, up-to-date information; mechanisms for connecting employers and job seekers; efforts to better define and understand the sector’s skill needs.

BioTalent Canada is actively engaged in tool creation and skills development, including:
•     The launch of a free HR Toolkit for bio-economy entrepreneurs, providing a single-source reference on HR best practices.
•     Administration of the Career Focus Program, a wage subsidy initiative that enables recent graduates to gain work experience. One hundred percent of participants were employed upon completion.
•     Development of Bridging BioTalent, an initiative aimed at increasing the supply of job-ready graduates by providing students with valuable project-based work experience during their post-secondary studies.
•     Ongoing operation of the PetriDish job bank, which connects job seekers to the employers who need them.
•     Development of a BioSkills Recognition Program—designed to efficiently assess internationally educated professionals’ competences—and a subsequent BioSkills Match that will allow employers to search out ‘BioReady’ candidates.

A collective effort

Canada’s biotechnology sector is brimming with economic promise. Its activities extend across a vast range of industries and disciplines. To capitalize on that potential, we must break through the chicken-and-egg paradox that requires firms to have talent before they can attract capital, and to have capital before they acquire talent.

Success will depend on collaboration from all stakeholders in the Canadian bio-economy.