CPHI Mentorship Programme - building a stronger pharma community

CPHI has a reputation for bringing the pharma industry together, creating a space where partnerships can be formed and nurtured, and relationships can be developed and cultivated between all industry actors. These collaborations encourage growth in the industry, through the generation of new ideas and the enabling of expansion. 

This assembling of the industry has always mostly been centred around businesses as a whole, which supplier needs to work with which manufacturer and so on; however, now, CPHI are bringing this ethos to a more cellular level. The people working in the pharmaceutical industry.

Attracting talent to the industry has been a priority of the last few years, with fresh innovative thinkers necessary to push to boundaries in medicine, finding new, more efficient ways to make safer pharmaceuticals. This is also coupled with the aim of attracting diverse talent, as the industry continues to learn and understand the value of equitable opportunities and diverse thought. 

When speaking with some of our well known attendees over the last few years about what advice they would offer to those just starting out, a response that stood out was:

“Get a mentor, someone who can help you through the difficult conversations and help guide you in your career path”

However, no matter the good intentions of established pharmaceutical conglomerates, it can be difficult to establish a career in the field. This is where CPHI can create an opportunity to support people early in their career, and introduce them to people who have been on this journey themselves and are brimming with knowledge and advice. This is what the Mentorship Programme, launching at CPHI Milan in October 2024, can do. 

Mentorship can have a myriad of benefits, and not just for the mentee. These can span the mentee, mentor, the companies they work for, and ultimately benefit the industry as a whole. 

How can a mentorship programme benefit the pharma industry? 

1.    Personal development 

People with a mentor can have a more defined career path, with assistance in identifying and achieving goals, and with the strategies to do so. Mentorship is proven to accelerate learning and increase development of skills. For the younger workforce who enter the professional world with less experience, having a mentor can provide that knowledge, giving the opportunity for growth and expanded understanding of their industry. Retrospectively, 75% of executives have stated that their success is in part due to having had a mentor [1], and 87% of mentors  and mentees report feeling empowered and having increased confidence [2]. 

2.    Job satisfaction and employee retention 

Many companies are starting to offer mentoring programmes, something that we are hoping to see expand into the pharmaceutical industry. It can be something that employees look for in an employer and can reflect a culture of inclusion and growth, which aids in employee retention. Employees feel more valued and more secure in their roles, leading to greater job satisfaction, in one survey in the UK this applied to 82% of employees who had taken part in a mentoring scheme and felt stronger connections to others across the company [2]. In the same survey, 49% or respondents said they were less likely to leave after taking part in such a programme. 

3.    Diversity, Equity and Inclusion 

A mentoring scheme can help to encourage diversity, equity and inclusion in a workplace. Mentors can provide advice and open up opportunities for mentees, as well as acting as role models. Highlighting minorities at senior management level acts to increase opportunities and representation. Leaders from different backgrounds would be well equipped in how to navigate specific challenges and this fosters an environment that acknowledges and celebrates different cultural and racial backgrounds, and more [3]. 

At Pharmapack 2024 a Diversity track was included, which hosted a panel discussion on 'Enabling Diversity in the Workplace,' focused on gender equity in pharmaceutical packaging. 

Dora Carrasco Sabino, CEO & Co-founder at Blazar commented on the importance of diverse relationships in mentoring to build up people and make the industry stronger [4]. 

“I see with the new generations these ideas [of equality] are ingrained in them, men and women. So the question now is how can we include these generations that were raised professionally during a different time? They are as crucial in a team – older men, older women – this generational mix will give all companies a good result and success. Diverse means everything. It’s about gender balance and also a generational balance. We all need each other for mentoring, support, and retrospect.”

4.    Fostering growth and success

Mentorship is an invaluable tool to cultivate talent. Bringing out the best in a company’s employees and allowing them to realise their potential, which has a knock on effect of enabling people to hone their skills so effectively, reducing errors and increasing productivity, that this brings out the best in the business. This saves the company time and costs associated with error correction and production time. 

Increased employee retention due to greater job satisfaction, confidence in the workplace, and a sense of connectedness through mentorship programmes, also reduces overhead costs for a business related to recruitment and onboarding. 

By having a more diverse, supported, and connected workforce, the increase in diversity of thought, innovative ideas, and passion can give a company an edge in a rapidly evolving industry. CPHI is looking forward to facilitating this and seeing companies and people in the pharma industry grow and thrive long into the future. 

See more about the Mentorship Programme at CPHI Milan here. 

Sources

1. Harvard Business Review. A Better Approach to Mentorship. [Date accessed 15/08/2024] https://hbr.org/2023/06/a-better-approach-to-mentorship 

2. Moving Ahead. New UK research: Mentoring is improving gender balance in organisations. [Date accessed 15/08/2024] www.women-ahead.org/press/turning-the-dial 

3. Forbes. The Role Of Mentorship In Organizations' Diversity Initiatives. [Date accessed 15/08/2024] www.forbes.com/councils/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2023/12/27/the-role-of-mentorship-in-organizations-diversity-initiatives/

4. CPHI Online. Women in Pharma: Minding the Gap at Pharmapack 2024. [Date accessed 15/08/2024] www.cphi-online.com/women-in-pharma-minding-the-gap-at-pharmapack-2024-news123605.html