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Why employee engagement still matters
Decreased Employee Engagement & Increased Resignations? Ask These 5 Questions
By
Ann Melinger
Employee engagement is a critical concern for life sciences leaders. With specialized roles in high demand and fierce competition, organizations are grappling with how to keep their best people.
Every department and team counts, from research scientists and clinical teams to sales professionals, manufacturing specialists and corporate functions.
If your employee engagement seems to be taking a dip, you’re not alone. But before launching your next engagement campaign, consider whether your organization has addressed these three foundational questions that directly impact retention and performance.
Why employee engagement still matters
(and what it actually means)
Employee engagement is a measurable driver of business performance.
When done right, it creates the conditions for breakthrough innovation and sustained growth. Consider companies like e.l.f. Beauty, which maintained 90% employee engagement while growing 10X over five years. Their success wasn’t built on perks or ping-pong tables, but on giving employees real ownership, authentic voice in decisions and genuine opportunities to impact the business.
In life sciences, where the work directly impacts patient outcomes, engagement takes on even greater significance. Engaged employees stay longer, innovate more, collaborate better and maintain the focus needed for complex regulatory environments and long development timelines.
However, engagement programs often fail because they address symptoms rather than root causes. Surface-level initiatives might boost short-term morale, but sustainable engagement requires addressing fundamental workplace needs and cultural alignment.
1. Is your culture designed to help you meet your mission?
Before examining individual engagement factors, step back and assess whether your organizational culture actively supports your mission.
In life sciences, this connection is particularly crucial. Employees are often drawn to the industry because they want to improve patient lives, but daily work can feel disconnected from that purpose.
Your culture should create clear pathways between individual contributions and patient impact. This means helping your regulatory affairs team understand how their compliance work accelerates drug approvals. It means showing manufacturing teams how quality standards directly protect patient safety. It means connecting sales professionals to the patient stories behind the therapies they promote.
2. Are compensation and benefit packages fair and competitive?
Purpose-driven work matters deeply in life sciences.
However, your sales teams, manufacturing staff, clinical researchers, and corporate professionals all need to feel their contributions are valued through fair compensation. Before investing in engagement tactics, ensure your pay scales align with industry standards and reflect the specialized skills your employees bring.
Industry-specific compensation benchmarking resources can help you establish baselines. Many life sciences organizations also conduct regular market analyses to stay competitive, particularly for hard-to-fill roles in regulatory affairs, clinical operations and specialized manufacturing positions.
3. Do people have clarity in their role?
Role clarity extends far beyond job descriptions.
Employees across all functions need to understand how their work connects to broader organizational goals and patient impact. But don’t stop there. Ask employees what they expect from leaders and managers.
Prioritize conversations around ways of working, communication expectations and preferred methods of feedback. Don’t leave your people wondering what they’re supposed to do and how they’re supposed to act to ace their upcoming performance review.
Regular conversations around expectations and communication preferences can help eliminate uncertainty. Employees need to understand what they need to do, how success is measured and how their role contributes to the company’s mission and vision.
4. Do you provide opportunities for growth and learning?
The life sciences industry evolves rapidly, driven by scientific breakthroughs, regulatory changes and technological advances.
Employees across all functions — from lab researchers to commercial teams — need ongoing development opportunities to stay current and advance their careers.
Remember: Growth doesn’t look the same for everyone. Some clinical professionals may seek leadership roles, while others prefer deepening their technical expertise. Sales team members might want to expand into new therapeutic areas, while manufacturing specialists may pursue quality or regulatory certifications.
Regular development conversations help employees envision their future with your organization. You’ll retain employees who feel like they’re growing and developing.
5. Are your employees able to find purpose and community within your organization?
Beyond individual role clarity and growth opportunities, employees need to feel connected to something larger than their daily tasks.
In life sciences, this often starts with mission alignment, but extends to the relationships and community they build within your organization.
Purpose is about understanding how work impacts patients. It’s also about employees feeling their unique skills and perspectives are valued.
Community develops when employees can collaborate across functions and learn from colleagues as they contribute to shared goals. This is particularly important in life sciences, where cross-functional collaboration often determines success. When your regulatory, clinical and commercial teams work in silos, you miss opportunities for innovation and employees miss opportunities for meaningful connection.
Create opportunities for employees to share knowledge. Ensure there are opportunities to solve problems together and celebrate shared achievements. Over time, you’ll build the kind of community that makes people want to stay and contribute their best work.
Many life sciences leaders believe they’re addressing these fundamentals effectively. But employee perceptions often differ from leadership assumptions, especially during periods of rapid growth, organizational change or market pressure.
Understanding your employee experience
Before implementing new engagement initiatives, consider gathering insights directly from your employees.
Anonymous surveys, focus groups and structured interviews can reveal disconnects between leadership assumptions and employee realities.
Understanding how different employee groups — from clinical research associates to field sales representatives to manufacturing technicians — experience your culture provides the foundation for meaningful engagement strategies.
When you address fundamental needs first, your engagement strategy goes beyond tactics. That strategy becomes part of a comprehensive approach to building a culture where employees feel valued, connected and motivated to contribute to your mission of improving patient lives.
Culture change takes intentional focus and effort. When managed thoughtfully, it becomes the foundation that enables growth, innovation and long-term success in the competitive life sciences landscape.
Employee engagement levels affect your bottomline. Let’s boost yours.
