Client overview
Our client, a global pharmaceutical organisation, was undertaking a multi-site expansion of its AI-enabled and digitally integrated R&D capabilities, spanning discovery, development and translational science. The programme aimed to accelerate innovation velocity while maintaining regulatory precision, data integrity and global consistency across sites.
The challenge
The organisation faced several interrelated workforce and execution challenges during R&D site expansion. These included:
Risk of mis-hiring frontier digital roles before platform and operating models were fully mature
Potential loss of critical institutional and regulatory knowledge during transformation
Uneven capability readiness across sites as AI and digital systems scaled
Limited visibility into which roles should be retained, retrained, recruited or automated
Growing execution risk as workforce complexity increased faster than headcount
Company leadership required a systematic, evidence-based framework to align talent decisions with digital ambition and site-level execution realities.
Our solution
BioTalent applied a Talent Science™ workforce blueprint, using the Retain, Retrain, Recruit, Automate (4R) framework across 2,000 R&D employees. This allowed our client to:
Segment roles by urgency, automation feasibility, skills adjacency and attrition risk
Identify which roles needed to be retained, due to high knowledge density and regulatory dependency
Target retraining pathways for adjacent roles transitioning into AI-enabled workflows
Create precise recruitment profiles for capabilities that couldn’t feasibly be developed quickly internally
Select automation road-mapping for repeatable, rules-based R&D activities
The Talent Science™framework was aligned to platform maturity and site ramp-up timelines, ensuring workforce actions supported execution rather than disrupting it.
The results
Clear prioritisation of retain vs retrain vs recruit vs automate decisions at enterprise scale
Reduced risk of capability loss during AI and digital transformation
Faster time-to-productivity for new and expanding R&D sites
Avoidance of premature or misaligned external hiring
Measurable reduction in workforce-driven execution risk across digital programmes
The approach enabled our client to scale digital R&D capability without inflating headcount or destabilising delivery.
Why It worked
Systematic role classification: Decisions based on execution dependency, not job titles
Skills adjacency logic: Retraining focused where transition probability was highest
Automation discipline: Applied where risk and feasibility thresholds were met
Platform synchrony: Workforce actions sequenced to digital system maturity
Enterprise visibility: Leadership gained a unified view of workforce readiness across sites
Ready to turn your workforce into a strategic asset? Contact usto learn how BioTalent can help you access the insights that can turn talent from constraint to competitive advantage.