Paul Watson
 

Paul Watson is the communications manager at the Biotechnology Human Resource Council, 401-116 Lisgar Street, Ottawa, ON K2P 0C2, Canada (e-mail: paul@bhrc.ca).

Biotech jobs are on the rise, thanks to a strong science base and the maturation of the industry.

A bioinformatics class given by the Canadian Genetics Diseases Network in partnership with the Biotechnology Human Resource Council. BHRC

The University of Saskatchewan College of Agriculture building, officially opened in 1991, which added a sixth floor in 2000. Univ. Saskatchewan

One of the key factors in the growth of the Canadian biotech sector is the continued availability of human resources. Although there is a net flow of biotech talent toward the United States, Canada's liberal immigration policy allows for a net influx of skilled workers². However, limited resources in key areas such as executive management, regulatory affairs, and leading-edge scientific disciplines such as bioinformatics may pose a growing challenge if adequate steps are not taken to build further capacity to meet industry needs.

The loss of existing and potential skilled Canadian workers to the United States has also contributed to upward salary pressures, particularly for more senior positions and in areas of leading-edge science. "With more money available, companies are building the human resources infrastructure needed to take them through the next stages of growth," says René Douville, vice president at Royal Bank Ventures. "We could soon experience a sharper human resources crunch for people with experience in clinical trials, regulatory affairs, marketing, and distribution."

The average size of Canadian biotech companies remains small, with well over half of companies comprising fewer than 50 employees. The relatively small size of firms affords employees the opportunity to exercise creativity and engage in a variety of activities, developing a range of experience that becomes more difficult as companies grow and tasks become more highly segmented and differentiated. The flip side of this coin is that smaller companies often have fewer financial resources at their disposal, which means that they must remain focused on a narrower range of activities in order to manage growth responsibly and minimize the time required to bring their products to market.

A growing sector
Canada's industry remains largely focused on R&D, with approximately 35% of its workforce currently employed in this area. Given that the United States pioneered the modern biotechnology industry, there continues to exist a lag between the two countries in the average maturity level of biotech companies. As the Canadian biotech industry matures, however, its pool of skilled talent may be taxed beyond its limits. This underscores the need for forward-thinking human resource initiatives to help build the skilled labor force necessary for the continued success of Canada's biotech sector. To this effect, the Biotechnology Human Resource Council and other institutions have formed partnerships in order to offer specialized training in areas that are critical to industry growth. This can range from executive management training for chief executive officers to programs in technical areas such as good laboratory practices (GLP) or bioinformatics. Other initiatives to build the biotech sector's talent pool focus on recruitment and retention drivers and strategic human resource management. Canadian universities and colleges are also involved in ongoing dialog with industry in order to tailor curriculum requirements to meet the needs of both companies and research institutions.

As the industry matures and discoveries move from laboratory to marketplace, companies are experiencing a shift from a narrow scientific focus toward rapid growth areas such as scale-up, manufacturing, and commercialization. Demand for people with a blend of skills—such as science/finance or genomics/information technology (IT)—is growing considerably. This reflects the increasingly blurred lines between scientific disciplines, the evolution of biotech companies toward product launch, and biotech's increasingly important role in the marketplace. We are also seeing a growing number of positions in which science is not the primary focus, in areas such as finance, business development, marketing, communications, and sales.

Biotech companies north of the border have the advantage of being able to draw lessons from the US experience, and can also look to Canada's more mature knowledge sectors, such as IT and telecommunications, for insights in areas such as financing, management, and human resources. For example, employee stock option plans continue to be a major component of compensation for all levels of industry, which may be a reflection of the relatively small size of the majority of companies. Despite media focus on the IT sector's use of stock option plans, the Canadian biotechnology industry actually includes such plans as part of compensation packages more than any industry sector in Canada. Nearly 60% of biotech companies offer such plans, compared with only 40% of high-tech companies.

Data drawn from a recent survey show an average 20% increase in compensation levels for executive management positions in Canada. This may be attributed to the increasing tendency of Canadian companies to look south of the border for experienced senior management personnel. Given the later state of maturity of the US biotech industry, there exists a pool of US managers and executives who have gained considerable experience in bringing products to market. Some predict that a further freeing up of experienced executive talent may arise from increased merger activity in the pharmaceutical sector globally as well as among US biotech companies. Meanwhile, salary levels in research-oriented positions have remained relatively flat in the past two years, with the exception of very senior or executive levels. This would seem to indicate that, at least for the present, there is a sufficient supply of research skills in Canada and the industry sees no need to change its current compensation levels in this area.

The Canadian attraction
A growing number of US high-tech firms located in saturated job markets are expanding their R&D function into Canada, attracted by its pool of highly skilled and affordable workers. "The current shortage of skilled workers, combined with the limited availability of affordable real estate, make for prohibitively high expansion costs. The natural response to this would be for companies to look toward expanding their R&D operations into another US city. Given that the situation is much the same in other US high-tech clusters, however, Canada suddenly becomes a more attractive choice," says Leonard Gold, a US lawyer who provides cross-border assistance to US companies interested in doing business in Canada.

Recent federal budget surpluses in Canada spell good news for R&D in Canada, as the federal government has expressed a commitment to knowledge-based industries, which are expected to fuel economic growth in the new economy. R&D tax incentives and direct investment in research activities will likely continue to be the main instruments at the government's disposal. Money invested in Genome Canada, for example, is paying dividends in spinoff economic activity, in much the same way as US collaborations associated with the Human Genome Project. A Canadian government study³ of human resources in the biotechnology sector predicts that the rapid evolution of the biotech sector will continue to fuel job growth. Statistics gathered through the Canadian Biotech Job Bank show a marked increase of Internet job postings throughout the past year, with 66% of jobs falling in the category of research and development. Of these R&D jobs, 42% were for staff-level research scientists and 18% were for senior scientists, group leaders, and managers. The most common scientific disciplines being sought were in the field of biology (including general biology, microbiology, molecular biology, and other specific biological fields) followed closely by chemistry (general, analytical, organic, and other specializations).

Demographic trends are affecting Canada's labor landscape in much the same way as the United States, with members of Generation X entering the workforce in increasing numbers and baby boomers populating the majority of senior positions. A paradigm shift is taking place in the workplace, particularly where top performers are concerned. "These people generally want to work in an environment where they feel they are being recognized and rewarded for their efforts," says Susan Layman, vice president of human resources for Hoffmann–La Roche. "They want to have an impact. They want to be involved in decision making. CEOs need to recognize and understand the range of motivation factors that drive top performers. Then they must turn their attention to nurturing a performance management culture that fosters continual dialog and creates the right environment for business and personal success factors to coincide."

Interestingly, many human resources experts concur that money does not figure among the top job motivators for scientific staff. The chance to do cutting-edge science alongside talented like-minded individuals is more important than salary considerations once remuneration needs are being reasonably met. Feedback from scientists commonly underscores the need for a stimulating work environment that has enough built-in flexibility to allow room for creativity and innovation. "The biggest draw is the love of science," says Mary Yaroshevsky, director of human resources for Vancouver-based Inflazyme Pharmaceuticals. "If a company is working on an exciting leading-edge technology, job satisfaction is usually very high. People are motivated by the possibility of discovering a new technology that will help alleviate human suffering."

Conclusions
The future of Canada's biotechnology sector continues to look bright, particularly in the areas of health and agriculture. This is due in large part to a strong and highly reputable science base. The United Nations rates the University of Saskatchewan as one of the world's top agricultural centers. Toronto has 13 major teaching hospitals, including the world-renowned Hospital for Sick Children where researchers are working on gene therapy for a variety of diseases⁴. Each of Canada's biotech clusters has developed particular strengths—from the east coast's aquaculture meccas to Montreal's big pharma powerhouses. These clusters are expected to continue to flourish as they gain critical mass, which is good news for Canada's biotech workers.