Leadership Lab: 5 Ways Biopharma Execs Can Restore Trust, Retain Talent After Layoffs

Welcome to Leadership Lab, a column dedicated to biopharma executives aiming to enhance their leadership skills and advance their careers. Every other month, Michael Pietrack, the practice lead for Kaye/Bassman’s pharma and biotech recruiting team and host of “The Pharmaverse Podcast,” shares a valuable leadership insight. 

In this column, we’ll discuss five ways leaders can help their team after a layoff. Those who follow these five imperatives are restoring trust with employees, which helps their companies retain talent.

The biopharmaceutical industry is undergoing a period of painful contraction. Clinical setbacks, shifting pipelines, economic headwinds and capital constraints have forced even the most promising companies to make difficult personnel decisions. While these decisions are often strategically sound, the impact on people is significant and long lasting.

For those who remain in leadership roles, the real challenge begins after the layoffs. Teams are now leaner, and team psychology is often fragile. What your employees need at this moment is not just a manager of tasks, but a true leader.

This is not leadership under normal conditions. This is leadership under pressure. And in these moments, five imperatives emerge for biopharma leaders committed to restoring trust and retaining talent.

Layoffs don’t just change headcounts, they change people. Those who remain often wrestle with survivor’s guilt, a blend of gratitude, anxiety and moral discomfort. If left unspoken, these emotions can quietly erode trust, motivation and, ultimately, retention.

Strong leaders name the moment for what it is. They acknowledge the complexity. They create space for conversation. Some do it in town halls, others in team meetings, while others prefer one-on-ones or informal check-ins. These aren’t just touchy-feely exercises. They’re trust-building interventions.

The most credible thing a leader can say might be, “This has been hard. We’ve lost not just our colleagues, but part of our team’s identity. It’s OK to feel conflicted. Let’s process this together, and let’s find a way forward…together.”

The leaders who have the best results after a layoff acknowledge the emotional fallout openly, empathetically and often.

After a restructuring, the strategic landscape has almost certainly shifted. But too often, employees are left guessing what the new direction is. Without clarity, teams revert to outdated assumptions or try to do everything. This could create chaos, burnout and misalignment.

Your job as the leader is to bring clarity to the company’s vision, priorities and purpose. Answering these questions for your team can help:

• What’s changed?
• What hasn’t?
• What are we focusing on, and what are we explicitly not doing?

Clarity isn’t a one-time memo. It’s a sustained effort. Repeat your priorities until you’re tired of hearing them. Only then will your team begin to internalize them.

A common and dangerous outcome of layoffs is overwhelming the remaining employees. Often, they inherit the work of their former colleagues without adjustments to expectations, timelines or support. This quietly overloads the employee and leads directly to burnout.

As an executive recruiter in the biopharmaceutical industry, this is the No. 1 pain point I hear from candidates in this current landscape. Many people now feel they have two jobs, one paycheck.

So, what should leaders do? Instead of merely redistributing work, take time to co-create realistic roles with your team. Try asking your employees these questions:

• What about your role feels unclear now?
• Which activities are no longer feasible?
• What needs to come off your plate to make your workload sustainable?

Redefining success doesn’t mean lowering the bar. It means setting achievable, focused targets that reflect the new reality. Just as your team is going to take on more work, their leader is now going to need to offer them more support to handle the increased workload.

In the wake of a downsizing, uncertainty and sometimes chaos rush in to fill the gaps, so if you’re an executive who sits outside the C-suite, absorb the turbulence for your team. Help them stay focused by blocking unnecessary fire drills, and tactfully push back on unrealistic asks.

Since your team now has an increased workload, they need a leader who guards their time so they can focus on increased demands. The best leaders don’t pass pressure downstream. They take the hits so the team doesn’t have to. Be the shield.

Layoffs fracture more than org charts, they fracture culture. Often, employees’ trust in the company and/or upper management is shaken. With colleagues missing, the team’s collective identity feels unstable. The culture won’t rebuild itself. Leadership must reestablish it.

How? Start by reminding your team why their work matters. Rearticulate your employees’ values. Celebrate wins, name contributions and share moments of levity. These small acts, when repeated, can rebuild your team’s culture after a downsizing.

As the leader, you may want to acknowledge that the culture that emerges from the downsizing will likely not be the same as before. The upside is that the current team can help create a new one. Your job is to ensure that the new culture is strong, honest and rooted in a shared purpose.

Lean times are when leadership is most essential. When the path is most unclear, true leaders emerge. Remember, your team doesn’t just need a manager to keep the wheels turning. They need a leader who can restore trust, clarify purpose and reforge culture. That’s not easy. It requires empathy without passivity, strength without rigidity and vision in the face of uncertainty.

The five imperatives above—acknowledging emotions, clarifying priorities, avoiding overwhelming workloads, shielding your team and reestablishing culture—aren’t just tactics. They’re the blueprint for leading after a layoff so you can restore trust and retain talent.