Scientists Are Leaving Novartis

In September, Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan announced a plan to reduce the company’s total workforce by almost 20%. According to the plan, the layoffs would be focused on improving efficiencies in manufacturing, but would not affect scientists. Since then, the company has been shedding employees, but not just in manufacturing. In particular, the number of scientists employed at the firm has dropped significantly, our HR data analytics tools can show.

Novartis - Scientist Employee Headcount Over Time

Headcount in scientist roles has been trending downward since 2014, but the pace at which employees are leaving has increased since the announcement. The trend also appears to be specific to Novartis: Revelio Labs HR data analytics tools further show that attrition rates for scientist roles at a number of the firm’s competitors have actually dropped in the last year.

Novartis – Comparison of Attrition Rate Among Scientists Compares to Peers

This development may be particularly concerning given that Novartis started with far fewer scientists on the payroll than its competitors, especially Pfizer.

Novartis – Scientist Employee Headcount Compared to Peers Scientists Compares to Peers.