Forum: Housing costs limit out-of-state hiring for growing Central Mass. life sciences industry
PHOTO | Isabel Tehan
Panelists at the WBJ Life Sciences Forum
Hiring remains a challenge at companies still focused on growth and recruitment, in part due to the high cost of living in Massachusetts.
The workforce issues were one of the key focal points during a wide-ranging discussion during the Life Sciences Forum hosted by Worcester Business Journal at the DCU Center in Worcester on Tuesday. The broader conversation, from the keynote speaker to the two panels, considered the many positives and challenges faced by Central Massachusetts as the life sciences industry expands eastward from Greater Boston into the region, even as changing economic conditions may lead to a slowdown in that growth.
“We are desperately eager to hire,” Patrick Lucy, president and CEO of Hopkinton-based Lykan Bioscience said during the forum. Lykan is in a period of growth and continues to look to add qualified staff, Lucy said. The company is poised to grow its footprint and is shovel ready on another site in Hopkinton. Attracting new out-of-state candidates and retaining staff amid high housing costs is a limiting factor in its push, though.
“We have lost employees to the cost of living in the state,” said Lucy.
Kendalle Burlin O’Connell, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, echoed the concerns around the high cost of housing as having the potential to limit the growth of the industry in the state, she said in her keynote address at Tuesday’s forum. She cited transportation and child care as co-occurring concerns needing to be addressed.
Layoffs at other Massachusetts life science companies have meant an influx of qualified workers from within the state, Parth Chakrabarti, executive vice chancellor for innovation and business development at Worcester-based UMass Chan Medical School, said during a panel discussion at the forum.
“The layoffs open up the talent pool,” he said, describing it as part of a healthy cycle for companies to refresh talent.
But recruiting talent only from other Massachusetts companies is not what will grow the overall life sciences workforce in the state. “The approach isn't to try to take from Kendall Square,” in Cambridge, said Jon Weaver, president and CEO of Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives during the panel.
Weaver and fellow panelists asserted continued efforts to change perceptions about Worcester and Central Massachusetts among Cambridge and Boston-focused employees and investors.
“We have a totally different value proposition in Worcester now than 10 years ago,” said Weaver.
A priority to the panelists is tapping into junior talents and creating pipelines for early career workers and college students.
“Life sciences will always continue to grow,” said Katie O’Neill, vice president of human resources at Waters Corp. in Milford. Calling the early 2023 economic moment a hiccup for the industry, O’Neill said early workforce development as a priority for Waters, which has built out its internship program over the past several years.
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