Happy Med Comms Day 2023!
Our team has been lucky enough to work with an amazing variety of healthcare communications talent and clients across the sector. Since 2006, we've had a front row seat to witness the evolution of a sector that encourages innovation and challenges the "norm" for work/life culture and balance.
A Sign of the Times
It's no secret that technology and digital innovation has become increasingly present in the day-to-day lives of working professionals across UK industries. Whether it's the introduction of Chat GPT or an increased presence of omnichannel marketing strategies, it's apparent that technological advancement has fast become the key stone for companies looking to maintain their status as key competitors in their respective markets.
The very nature of medical communications has always catered to innovation, as it's services continuously seek to reinvent new methods of communication to greater serve the people and patients impacted by their creative campaigns, patient materials and publications. We've seen agencies form dedicated strategic teams to ensure they keep pace with the latest developments and continue to attract new business, as well as investing into digital and creative accounts that provide alternative avenues to a career in healthcare comms, outside of the traditional scientific routes.
As a result, not only do these developments further emphasise the maliability of the sector, but they also illustrate the range of opportunities that are continuously emerging. As Progression Partners, we are often privy to the naturally evolving needs of growing teams who are consistently looking to re-invest in top talent that will help their agency to grow and innovate.
Built Around Care
One of the best "sells" of roles in the healthcare comms sector has always been the amazing benefits packages. The expected standard for benefits of agencies vastly exceeds the expectations of many other sectors- and it's easy to see why. Ultimately a career in healthcare comms is ultimately about improving the lives of patients and people across the globe, and it's easy to argue that top talent who invest their time and skills into this effort should be awarded the same level of care and dedication.
Whilst the Covid19 pandemic saw companies become forced to adopt remote working, the majority of the healthcare comms sector already offered remote and hybrid work as normal practice. As some industries struggled to adapt to a workforce who (post-pandemic) had become used to working from home, the healthcare comms sector had the pre-existing infrastructure to support remote and hybrid work. This could suggest that the sector has always had an inherent value for the work-life balance offered to their employees, and has perhaps been "ahead of the game" when it came to doing away with archaic, fully in-office roles.
From a candidate perspective, we know that the attraction of an industry that rewards talent across all levels with fantastic benefits packages, regardless of experience level, can never be downplayed. Private healthcare, discretionary bonuses, and extended annual leave are features available for staff across all levels. With agencies consistently benchmarking salaries against one another, and talent sourcing professionals like ourselves conducting yearly salary surveys, it's possible to level your talent against existing roles and salaries to ensure that you're receiving a fair wage for someone at your level. As such, this sense of value for the niche skill sets cultivated by healthcare comms professionals makes a career within the sector attractive to talent considering a new role.
Representing the Best
As executive search consultants, we have no problems illustrating the merits of the agencies we are lucky enough to have as clients. Whilst recruitment services will often "sell" a role to a candidate, we never feel the need to revert to disingenuous sales tactics- partly due to the fact that we are so selective of the agencies we choose to work with. We ensure that a) the candidate is a right fit for the client and b) the client is the right fit for the candidate, and as a result we focus on matching the merits of an organisation with the attributes our candidates see the most value in.
It helps, of course, that a career in healthcare communications is so rewarding; with fantastic benefits packages and an overall sense of "giving back", there really is no need to utilise a pushy sales pitch, as more often than not the clients and roles speak for themselves.
