Healthcare is one of China's key areas for future development. According to the 14th Five-Year Plan and 2035 Vision Outline announced at the end of 2020, China will implement an important plan to "comprehensively promote the construction of a healthy China". In addition, representatives and members of the National People's Congress and the National People's Congress this year have been actively contributing to the healthcare sector, with topics ranging from the transformation of "Internet + healthcare" to the development of biomedical industrialization and other key directions.
Under the guidance of the national strategic plan, the government has taken active measures to support the development of the industry. According to the 2021 Hays Asia Salary Guide, China's life sciences industry in 2021 is expected to continue last year's surge in growth, with the healthcare-related sector experiencing a hiring boom, as the Chinese government supports innovation and R&D of new medicines by encouraging investment and authorizing business development grants.
From the capital level, in 2020, the healthcare field represented by pharmaceuticals, medical devices and healthcare services, as one of the hottest investment fields, has a total financing amount of more than RMB 150 billion, which exclusively occupies the top of the list of investment fields for the whole year, among which the venture capital investment in the fields of biopharmaceuticals, medical devices and diagnostics/tools has even reached a 100% increase compared to that of last year. Private equity and venture capital organizations continue to value the growth potential of the life sciences industry, and money will continue to pour into the sector in 2021, driving more related hiring opportunities, the Salary Guide said.
China's local healthcare companies have a chance to grow rapidly, driven by government incentives and investment organizations*** together.
"China's economy has taken the lead in recovering from the epidemic, and the domestic market has provided a vast space for the healthcare industry to grow, with a growing proportion of local companies in the sector offering increasingly diverse and rich employment opportunities." Lan Ximeng, Executive Director of Hays Greater China, said.
Meanwhile, driven by both domestic policies and market trends, local and foreign healthcare companies in China are competing fiercely in talent recruitment and facing a transformation in their talent strategies. Hays believes that local healthcare companies will deploy talent programs according to their own development needs, while foreign healthcare companies, represented by pharmaceutical companies, will seek new business development models in the face of changes in the domestic industry environment, and thus adjust the focus of their recruitment missions.
With the further development and segmentation of the healthcare industry, composite and specialized talents will be more favored by enterprises.
Local firms continue to make great strides, and segmented talent is in high demand
The rapid growth of local healthcare firms has led to a surge in demand for experienced and specialized talent. In addition to marketing specialists, these include researchers and developers in areas such as innovative drugs and those with digital skills. In addition, candidates with experience in foreign companies are more likely to be sought after by local firms.
In addition, local innovative drug companies are placing more emphasis on business development (BD) as one of their most important core competencies, with BD's main functions including licensing, which helps companies introduce new patents to save R&D time on the one hand, and sell their own pipelines to generate revenue on the other.
Hays says that BD roles are multi-skilled, and good candidates need to have both pharmacy knowledge and commercial awareness. That's why PhDs in pharmacy-related disciplines with commercial work experience are often preferred.
With the boom of local healthcare companies, established large pharmaceutical and medical device companies as well as financing-backed innovators are showing strong hiring momentum and recruiting talented people with favorable packages and broad development space.
"For Hays, the local market is a growing part of our overall business, particularly for clients in the healthcare sector. We believe that the growth of local companies means more opportunities for talent, and a healthy flow of talent is continuing to stimulate the innovation potential of Chinese companies." Lan Ximeng said.
Hays said some local companies are able to offer attractive remuneration and even equity incentives to talent, and if they are able to take on a management role, they can also have a greater say in the development of the company.
However, the desire to join a local company varies across career stages. According to Hays, foreign executives are often more likely to join a local company to "expand their territory" for reasons of remuneration and management authority, while mid-level candidates favor the more mature training systems of foreign companies.
According to Hays, 80% of respondents in the healthcare sector said they would consider opportunities in local companies, but would prioritize multinationals for positions at the same level. Typically, local companies are better able to attract talent from foreign backgrounds by offering an average salary increase of 20-30%. In addition, local companies are more attractive in terms of stock/equity incentives for middle and senior management, and even in some cases, full stock ownership.
Changes in the policy environment have transformed the recruitment strategies of foreign companies
With the implementation of China's drug collection and procurement policy, the industry ecosystem of foreign-funded pharmaceutical companies is facing restructuring. Due to the high cost of their product development and production, the price aspect of their advantage in the competition with local enterprises has weakened, so the sales of some products in the Chinese market are also on a downward trend.
Due to this impact, foreign companies have launched countermeasures to actively adjust their business strategies, and the focus of their talent recruitment tasks has also changed.
Lan Ximeng believes that because multinationals usually deploy their early R&D departments overseas, their teams in the domestic market are mainly responsible for mid- and late-stage R&D, production and sales tasks. The current drug collection policy will push foreign companies to recruit more diversified personnel.
On the one hand, foreign-funded pharmaceutical companies are actively seeking to cooperate with local companies*** to participate in R&D and production in order to seek more room for price reductions, and the demand for related positions has also increased. At the same time, foreign-funded companies are also actively seeking experienced health insurance negotiators to better meet their domestic development needs.
On the other hand, foreign-funded pharmaceutical companies are exploring new business development models under the development of the integrated diagnosis and treatment model, such as Internet hospitals. Under this model, companies are investing a lot of resources in building their digital marketing platforms to establish a link between hospitals, patients and products. Therefore, talents who master digital technology will be increasingly noticed and valued by foreign companies.
Research and development personnel are in short supply, and cross-border talents are sought after
With the state encouraging the localization of medical devices and other segments, local enterprises have thus ushered in huge room for development, and the demand for jobs related to the research and development, purchasing, production, sales, and operation of medical devices and equipment has been growing along with it. The Salary Guide indicated that industries related to medical devices and pharmaceutical machinery will be hiring a large number of R&D personnel, especially technicians, in 2021.
Hays believes that there is currently a gap in the number of people working in research in China, and that the Chinese government and academics are placing increasing emphasis on training people in basic research and introducing policies to address this. For companies in the healthcare sector, there is a particular shortage of R&D talent, and many are recruiting across sectors. In the case of medical device companies, for example, talents from automotive, materials engineering and other fields will also be in the spotlight due to the shortage of their counterparts.
"The development of the recruitment market in the medical and healthcare field needs to be supported by a more adequate pool of professionals, and for the domestic market, this especially requires a tripartite effort between industry, academia and research to develop the talents needed by the industry." Lan Ximeng said.
Improving workplace quality to cope with market changes
Hays said local firms tend to offer more attraction in terms of salary and functional authority, but foreign firms have an advantage in terms of in-house training, overseas rotations and systematic processes.
With the competition between local and foreign healthcare companies in recruiting talents, candidates should make judgment and choices based on their own situation.
In addition, local companies are looking for candidates who can think strategically and act pragmatically, as opposed to foreign companies that emphasize process-driven and executive-level capabilities. Therefore, candidates who are willing to make the switch need to be prepared.
The Salary Guide advises that in a volatile and fluctuating market, employees must keep up with all industry trends, so it's vital that they continue to upgrade their skills, especially their digital capabilities. Both job seekers and corporate employees must be up-to-date with the latest skill sets in order to remain competitive in the workplace and be better prepared for possible changes and growth opportunities in the marketplace in the future.