Follow the Talent: What Makes a Winning Medical Device Operations Location

Real-time health monitoring wearables…implantable bioelectronics…software-driven pumps, defibrillators, and more.
 
Once possible only in fantasy, these high-tech solutions are becoming a reality thanks to advancing technology, soaring patient demand, and the medical device experts who show up to work each day.
 
As Industry 4.0 technologies such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IOT) transform the manufacturing environment, your organization may be facing growing pressure to adopt the latest equipment, technologies, and facility management strategies for a sophisticated production environment. Access to tech-savvy talent is a must—a shift that will play out across the country as device makers make location decisions.
 
Companies have clear motivation to follow the talent, considering current industry momentum. Globally, the medical device market is projected to grow annually by 4.5 percent to reach roughly $409.5 billion by 2023. The sector is also performing well for shareholders—medical device stocks rose by 18 percent from 2011 to 2016, while the S&P 500 rose by only 15 percent.
 
What’s Driving the Talent Change?
Your organization, like many, may be expanding its offerings to fulfill new possibilities and meet skyrocketing patient needs. But today’s increasingly complex devices require more sophisticated R&D and manufacturing processes than were needed in the past.
 
For example, the convergence of medications, devices, and IOT requires different kinds of expertise for medical device R&D and production. In turn, the job descriptions for medical product personnel are changing. You may be seeking not just traditional scientists with doctorates in chemistry or the biological sciences, but also data scientists to analyze clinical data to guide research. Manufacturing is increasingly data-driven, too, with the adoption of data-generating IOT technologies on the factory floor.
 
Savvy medical device companies are bringing in more “digital natives” to fill positions in all these areas. To accomplish recruitment and retention goals, you may need to rethink how and where you are selecting sites for your facilities.
 
Seeking Out the Right Location in Talent Hotspots
Today’s top medical tech talent, particularly millennials, are flocking to cities across the United States that offer the rich live-work-play environments they crave, including an atmosphere of connected innovation. And, according to JLL’s Life Sciences Outlook report, companies seeking medical-related technical and scientific workers are willing to pay a premium to be near the talent in top clusters like Boston, San Francisco, and San Diego.
 
By setting up shop near leading academic research centers, your organization can attract the talent it needs now and ensure a future pipeline of talent from the surrounding R&D ecosystem. To stay competitive, however, you’ll need to consider how location decisions can help ensure access to talent, while also keeping operating expenses in check.
 
For example, at JLL, we’re seeing a number of companies choosing to locate just close enough in to attract the talent, but far enough out to avoid the highest rents. Case in point: Innovation Square in South Boston, a major new development just outside the medtech epicenter in central Boston and Cambridge.
 
Another way companies can locate near talent while keeping operating expenses in line is to look for proximity to their customer base. The 650-acre “Medical City” health and life sciences park in Orlando, Fla., is home to the University of Central Florida’s Health Sciences Campus and other innovation centers—as well as close to a large potential patient base: central Florida’s sizable senior citizen population.
 
Looking Ahead, with Advanced Data and Insights
When you’re looking for a new laboratory location, balancing real estate costs with the need for talent requires a thoughtful assessment of the options. Today’s site selection tools can help medical device leaders quickly analyze different sites by different decision criteria to make the most strategic decisions for your larger business goals.
 
Just as technology is transforming the medical device production business, it’s changing the way companies in many industries are choosing their next locations. Sophisticated location analysis technology and dynamic screening tools allow you to dig deeper into demographics, revealing markets offering the right kind of talent and access to customers. By examining a range of filters, you can pinpoint locations that best match your organization’s long-term needs.
 
These tools can layer in multiple types of data, such as current labor pools, competition, and demographics. As market dynamics change, labor markets also evolve. You can use site selection tools to compare metro areas to identify where employees are today and where they are likely to be in the future, giving executives more confidence when making long-term decisions.
 
Data and analytics tools can also enable you to analyze specific locations by how well they’ll appeal to the target workforce. For example, millennials prize flexibility, so evaluating fine points like access to public transit and the state of public infrastructure could play into the decision.
 
Such considerations may be new, but they are also newly needed. After all, to stay ahead in the race to serve more patients than ever, with ever-more advanced tools, medical device organizations must attract skilled talent who can create, produce, and deliver life-saving products. Smart site selection is one key way to sweeten the recruitment deal.
 
Note: This article is the third in a series of three.
Click here to read the first article.
 
Click here to read the second article.
 

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Roger Humphrey is executive managing director of the Life Sciences practice at JLL, where he guides a team of more than 2,400 professionals helping medical device, pharmaceutical, and biotech companies reduce costs and boost productivity throughout their real estate and facilities portfolios. He can be reached at [email protected].