Pharmas looking to recruit younger workers should meet members of Generation Z where they’re at: namely, TikTok and Instagram, according to a new report from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI).
The report was based on recent surveys of teenagers and young adults aged 16 to 25 and STEM teachers and academic career counselors in the U.K., plus a STEM-centric focus group of 14- to 25-year-olds.
The research found that drugmakers could benefit from greater outreach to young job hunters, as only 17% of those surveyed said they felt like they had a “broad” or “good” understanding of what pharma companies do beyond developing medicines. The rest of the group maxed out at an awareness of “some company names,” without knowing what those companies do beyond making meds; more than 20% of those surveyed said they have “no real understanding” of the U.K. pharma industry at all.
When asked what would help them better understand the career opportunities within the pharma industry, respondents most commonly requested information about necessary qualifications, the recruitment process and available career paths as well as more practical considerations like drugmakers’ locations and starting salaries.
As for how to share that information with Gen Z job seekers, the report highlighted social media’s outsized influence on the cohort.
Social media was the second most common answer when the young people surveyed were asked about the resources they’ve used to decide on a potential career—close behind job search websites and ahead of more traditional avenues like career fairs, school career portals and company websites.
Interestingly, the social media platform the group found most helpful for gathering career insights wasn’t the one dedicated to professional networking. TikTok and Instagram outstripped LinkedIn in that respect, with each of the first two garnering support from about half of respondents, compared to LinkedIn’s 36%.
In terms of how that influence plays out, the most popular responses, each backed by around 30% of respondents, were that social media has provided inspiration to widen career options, helped find jobs and offered snapshots into influencers’ working lives.
The report found that members of ethnic minorities were even more likely than the overall group to agree that social media had influenced their career decisions in those and other ways. As the ABPI noted, this suggests that “investing in this type of content could also help to diversify future talent pipelines.”
With those findings in mind, the ABPI recommended in the report that pharmas “explore the appropriate use of social media channels to provide trusted, accessible and authentic careers content that demystifies, showcases relatable and diverse role models, and reaches new or previously remote audiences.”
Such content might include short, “behind-the-scenes” videos that highlight employees’ stories and their daily routines in an authentic way.
That was a common refrain when the respondents were asked about the types of career-related social media content that they find most interesting or useful. Topping the list were “day in the life”-style posts from “ordinary people,” followed by short-form video content like TikTok videos and Instagram Reels, real-life success stories and medium-length video content, such as five- to 10-minute YouTube videos.
Less popular, with fewer than 20% of respondents selecting them as particularly helpful or useful tools, were interactive quizzes, podcasts, articles, longer video content, infographics and webinars, in that order.
“Our research shows Gen-Z values transparency and real-life experiences over polished corporate messaging,” the ABPI said in the report, further explaining the generation’s preference for TikTok and Instagram content rather than the more formal LinkedIn setting.
The association noted that while this type of informal, shorter video content may be new for some pharmas, its popularity with Gen Z is a “positive” because of its relative simplicity to create.
“Companies, regardless of size, across the sector can trial these new formats with a minimal budget,” the ABPI wrote. “They draw on companies’ most valuable resource—their people.”