Site Staffing

As some research site employees look for growth, higher salaries, more work-life balance, work from home options or change industries altogether, it’s imperative that the industry quickly identifies solutions to address the issue of understaffing. There may not be an immediate fix, but there are several solutions in place working to increase the talent pool for everyone in research.

Many sites have already begun offering internships and training programs, working with universities, and looking beyond the industry to supplement staffing needs. However, higher budgets are needed to retain site staff, train new staff, subcontract, or partner with other sites to conduct trials. This means sponsors and CROs need to be more flexible with study budgets to account for these increased staffing needs, especially if new technology is involved in the study. More technologies are emerging in the industry and training is needed for each, which adds a considerable amount of time to workloads for already-busy site staff and increased personnel with special expertise that may better fit the changing landscape for sites.

Staff Poaching

Industry professionals switching organizations is unavoidable, especially with the limited pool of qualified staff. As many organizations search for candidates, they want to work with who they already know and have identified as highly qualified candidates. However, many sites in the SCRS Member Community have shared that sponsors and CROs soliciting site staff is creating an even greater strain on their operations.

It’s not the first time SCRS has heard about the issue. One SCRS community member commented, “It’s a disservice to our industry as it potentiates a site’s need to increase their budgets/overhead to start to offer even remotely competitive packages. In most cases, it’s a disruption to their own projects so reminding them about these implications are important.”

Ultimately, this tactic affects site operations significantly; medications may reach the market slower and patients will be impacted both in enrollment and continuity of care. There is also risk to ongoing projects quality when significant turnover is impacted at the site level.  Ensuring site sustainability is the mission of SCRS and we call on our partners to strongly reconsider this practice.

How can sites, sponsors and CROs address understaffing and poaching?

Sponsors & CROs:

• Non-solicitation clauses will become more common in site contract language and additional payouts may be due for site staff poaching. Payouts will go toward site staff recruitment, replacement and/or training.
• Some sites may escalate to sponsor or CRO if employee solicitation is occurring. Consider how this will affect your relationship with the site and sponsor.
• Be open to contract negotiations from sites regarding budgeting and staff needs which may include an increase in overhead.
• Avoid hiring practices/fairs in conferences such as SCRS Summits as this may impact sites sending their clinical research professionals. SCRS recommends not sending any HR personnel to industry events.
• Potentially work with sites in a more collaborative manner for growth development. Also, if there is a transition from site to sponsor or CRO, consider the time needed to transition. Practices of immediate departures should be discouraged. 

Sites:

• Implement a non-solicitation in contracts and ensure it covers a reasonable timeframe. Note that non-solicitation clauses may require reciprocation from the CRO or may be difficult to enforce. Include an additional payout due by the CRO that will help your site to recruit and train new staff and request if poaching has occurred.
• What is your organization’s culture and communication like? Prioritize open feedback and see if there are any areas for improvement.
• What other competitive benefits can you offer employees aside from higher salaries? Offering remote opportunities or shift flexibility can also be enticing for employees to stay.
• Open staff recruitment outreach to emerging and diverse personnel who have the right educational background, core competencies, and certifications but may not have clinical experience.  Create an entry-level position that allows for growth into more senior roles.
• Consider a simplified but robust onboarding program to manage transitions; it is important to proactively plan and to be prepared.  If capable, continue with general HR postings for key positions and have candidates pre-identified especially if you feel there may be flight risk.
• Are there any systems or personnel that would create efficiencies, reduce administration and/or technology burden in the long-term for your site operations?
• Speak up about your staffing and budgeting needs to sponsors and CROs. Share feedback about the amount of time it takes to implement new tech and costs associated with staff training, implementation, maintenance, IT infrastructure or storage requirements, etc.