Top Priorities for Men When It Comes to Life Sciences Employers

When it comes to job satisfaction, men and women have different priorities according to BioSpace’s 2019 Ideal Employer report.

In November, BioSpace highlighted what women want from their life sciences employers, which included greater diversity in leadership roles and corporate social responsibility. The results were based on feedback from a survey of more than 2,700 life sciences professionals who provided their input on what employees value in the companies they work with. With the ladies having gone first, let’s take a look at what men want from their employers.

According to the 2019 Ideal Employer Report, men’s #1 priority is interesting and meaningful work. About 85% of men said they wanted a company that gave them a sense of purpose, but that sense of idealism is tempered by a 78% desire for competitive salary. Those two desires are followed closely by wanting opportunities for promotion and a company that supports and promotes innovation, both of which scored 77% on the survey. It’s interesting to note that 77% of men ranked opportunities for advancement as important. That suggests that men are clearly looking for opportunities for advancement in their careers, something that companies can emphasize during the recruitment process.

Good health benefits followed with a 75% ranking from men.

Strong retirement benefits and a company with a good reputation were also important to men, with both receiving 68% for men surveyed. Coming in right behind that at 65% is a company that has a strong financial performance. In the pharmaceutical sector, a company that has a strong drug pipeline was more important to men than women. The survey shows that 56% of men want a company with such a pipeline, compared to 49% of women.

Another area of keen interest to men is whether or not a competitive bonus will be offered. The survey results show that 62% of men expressed a desire for such a bonus to their compensation as opposed to 56% of women.

Areas that were of least importance to men in comparison to women, according to the survey, are in diversity of leadership, issues of social responsibility and remote work opportunities, all of which were more important to women. While 61% of women ranked diversity as important, only 46% of men did so. Also, 43% of men ranked corporate social responsibility as important compared to 51% of women. For remote work opportunities, 45% of the men polled ranked it as important compared to 54% of women. There was a 10% difference when it came to flexible working hours. Half of the surveyed men said it was important compared to 60% of women.

Men and women were closely aligned in their indifference to whether or not there is a physical office environment, if a company has a wide geographic footprint and opportunities for customer-facing roles. For men, all three of these were only considered important by less than 40% of men, with customer-facing roles coming in at 28%.

At a glance, the Ideal Employer Report suggests that men are focused on being part of a success story and want to be rewarded for their contributions.