BioSpace announced on Mar. 26 that biopharma professionals are more likely to leave their employers due to dissatisfaction with company leadership rather than management, according to findings from the company's 2026 U.S. Life Sciences Employment Outlook report.
The results suggest that issues with leadership may have a broader impact on employee retention in the life sciences sector. The data comes from a career planning survey conducted late last year, which asked respondents about their motivations for seeking new jobs.
According to the survey, 15% of participants said they were unhappy with company leadership as a reason for looking elsewhere, compared to 9.1% who cited unhappiness with their manager. Lucy Georgiades, CEO and co-founder of Elevate Leadership, commented by email that this was somewhat surprising: "Your manager impacts whether you love or hate your job, whether you go home in the evening feeling energised or discouraged," she said. However, Georgiades added that leaders shape company culture and when employees are not aligned with leadership "it feels more hopeless and less likely to change, so leaving your job because of that feels like a likely outcome." Survey comments reflected similar concerns about trust and agility among senior leaders.
Despite these findings, over 80% of respondents reported respecting both their CEO and manager. Support for chief executives remained steady year over year at just above 80%, while respect for managers increased slightly from 82.5% in one year to 84.6% the next. The gap between respect for managers versus CEOs has widened over three years; last year it stood at 4.2%. Georgiades said this is not unexpected: "People form a closer relationship to their managers because they interact with them more day to day...there are more opportunities for deeper conversations."
A separate Gallup report found differences in how leaders and managers view core leadership skills such as critical thinking and accountability; leaders rated themselves higher than did managers across most areas.
Georgiades recommended several steps for biopharma leaders seeking improved relationships with employees: connect achievements clearly to mission goals, regularly seek feedback, communicate thoughtfully across teams, and explain decision-making processes transparently. "People often don’t notice the things that are communicated well but they most certainly notice when it’s not done well and it erodes trust incredibly fast," she said.
