Cause & Effect – Is Medical Device Struggling to Attract Younger Generations?

​Last week I had the honor of moderating a speaking engagement put on by Device Alliance in Irvine, CA.  If you aren’t familiar with Device Alliance (DA) it’s a Medical Device industry association whose primary focus is providing a supportive platform for the continued knowledge development and relationship building within the medical device industry in SoCal.

The purpose of the event on July 20th was simple – to have an informative discussion on ‘Changing Workforce Dynamics’ surrounding these three topics:

1. Generational Differences
2. Employee Engagement (and motivation)
3. Our Changing Workplace

I’ll admit, I may have burned out my DVR from watching CNN’s broadcast of the political debates over and over again hoping to pull some nuggets of knowledge from how the moderators handled themselves in preparation for the DA event.  Thankfully we were also joined by a top notch panel who brought a wide spectrum of experiences and insights to the discussion: Mark Murphy (former device CEO and CEO Advisor and Chair of Vistage), Jan Slater (founder of Career Connection.Me) and Pete Nalbach (Director of Engineering with Sea Spine).

As we got into the meat of the content for the evening I started to pick up on a topic that seemed like it was trending in a fair amount of our conversation. 

Is the Medical Device industry attracting younger generations at the rate it should?
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There seemed to be a fair amount of dialogue and a bit of concern from some people present at the event addressing a discrepancy within the industry as it seemed that new grads weren’t flocking to medical devices like they once had.  I can’t substantiate this claim to say ‘yes’ it’s happening, or ‘no’ it isn’t, however it’s a powerful topic to discuss because it’s a potential challenge we face in the near term if in fact it is true.

So let’s hypothesize for a moment:  If new talent, in particular younger generations, are not entering the medical device industry like they used too, what are the potential cause and effects we’re faced with?

CAUSES:

1. Cause: Boomers aren’t retiring on time (Boomers reach the age of retirement at 10,000 a day and it’s a fact that they are waiting longer to retire which has a domino effect on jobs; perhaps this is the reason there isn’t a lot of new opportunities in the industry because those who would normally be retiring aren’t and they’re keeping jobs that otherwise would have been transitioned to provide new opportunities)
2. Cause: The Device industry tends to be fairly incestuous.  What I mean by that is it can be very hard to get into the business if you don’t already have experience.  I talk with people all the time in other industries (Aerospace, Industrial Manufacturing, Contract OEM) who say it’s “mission impossible getting into the Device industry because when companies are hiring they are always looking for prior experience with medical devices”. 
3. Cause: Are younger generations are attracted to high tech businesses rather than manufacturing?  Technology is ever changing and drives much of how our workforce operates.  New grads are often lured towards industries that are cutting edge offering cool, hip, flexible work environments that mirror the Silicon Valley feel.  While I fully believe medical device offers that (cutting edge tech, great places to work, feel good about what you’re contributing to mankind, etc.) perhaps we aren’t doing a great job articulating that to new grads therefore they’re chasing other opportunities.  Again, unsubstantiated at this point.
4. Cause: Is the Device industry growing in comparison to other tech industries which may be drawing young talent away?  Medical Device is slated to grow 6.1% through 2017.

EFFECT:

1. Effect: if Boomers aren’t retiring and taking the place for others we may experience a sizable talent gap in a couple years.  If Boomers were to actually flip the switch and exit out of their careers in large numbers the Device industry could experience a real bottleneck as a result of a flood of employees retiring.
2. Effect: what do we do about legacy information/ tribal knowledge?  Let’s face it, those who have been around for a while know how to get things done.  It isn’t realistic to think that every little nuance of how to develop a product or manufacture it is documented to such a degree that a new person can come in and pick up where the work was left off without some sort of knowledge transfer hand off.  If I was the owner of a medical device company I would be highly concerned about what data is collected and how it is stored to ensure all that legacy information doesn’t walk out the door as my Boomers retire.
3. Effect: One of the biggest barriers to entry in the device business is having prior device experience.  Companies are going to have to wise up, and do so quickly, if they want to bring in the best talent.  Just because someone comes from another industry doesn’t mean they don’t have the chops to make it work in Device.  I happen to be of the notion that a team with varying backgrounds and experiences is the best as it fosters creative ideas and perspectives.  If companies continue to make hiring decisions largely based off prior device experience they risk losing traction in the industry against competitors who have decided they want the best of the best, first and foremost, they’ll train competency after the fact.
4. Effect: The growth of the medical device industry at a proposed 6.1% seems good in comparison to our GDP which is 1.1%, point in time.  When comparing to other industries (such as 3-D printing, drones, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, food e-commerce, wind energy and green building; to name a few) our beloved device industry takes a back seat by a fair margin.  As a result when device isn’t one of the front leading growth industries is reduces the amount of growth potential companies experience which further lessens the amount of jobs available.

Is the Medical Device industry attracting younger generations?  What are you thoughts? Agree or disagree?