Developments in German Pharmaceutical recruiting

When you’re working with executive talent in the Life Sciences, it’s always good to keep an eye on the numbers. That’s why we took particular interest in a report from Vacancysoft on the pharmaceutical recruitment in Germany. Looking at the numbers we dared to draw some conclusions about our particular field of interest. Industry developments and trends are usually most reliably interpretable when they translate into talent acquisition and management data. As soon as the companies start looking for the people, they are putting plans to action and shape the face of the industry. So what does the report suggest is going on?

Where the jobs are

The numbers make it pretty clear, where pharmaceutical talent is looked for within Germany, with a special focus on the change within May 2014 and April 2016 – the period the report is based on. Within this period the German federal states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg have particularly grown and somewhat outperformed the market, with a growth of over 35% every year. Followed by Nordrhein-Westfalen (especially between May 2015 and April 2016) as well as Hessen and Berlin (both losing a bit of ground in that period compared to the previous year). The vacancy market is largely dominated by these states with the cities Munich and Aachen almost doubling their vacancies in between May 2015 and April 2016 compared to the previous year. Of course it’s closely related to big pharmaceutical companies and their location. But it also has a significant meaning for where talent is required, where talent needs to go and where structures are expanding.

As the report states: “It is expected that there is a consistent steady rise in vacancies particularly when you consider one third of all Med Tech products in Germany are less than three years old.” (Vacancysoft/Clinical Professionals Pharmaceuticals Report, p.4)

What companies are looking for

Clearly R&D and specialized talent is the biggest demand in the pharmaceutical market. The report states no exception there. What it does show is that there is a particular growth in demand for Sales and Marketing/PR professionals. These areas prove to be (within their dimensions) the fastest growing, which surely is related to a general development in the Life Sciences that is moving medicine closer to the patient, or more general customer. This calls for a higher demand of translation of the products into brands and a more complex structure of sales and communication in general, since the industry is diversifying, confronted with a larger number of partnerships. This is also supported by the fact that mid-sized companies also showed the biggest percentage in recruitment growth in the report indicating that more players are looking for more people.

How the industry is changing

We have already seen how the regional development is highlighting certain areas and cities, how the innovation processes create disruptions and a more complex playing field with a bigger variety of partners and how that affects the search for talent. Another number the report highlights is the fact that CRO hiring has declined, indicating a visible change related to the overall global change in clinical trials and the shift towards other areas.

The change is here. Let’s get the talent to follow!

You can find the full report here.