Identifying Gaps in the Professional Development of Scientists Across Educational Degrees and Understanding the Impact to Retention

Abstract

Long-term employee retention has been a concern for many organizations across different industries. However long-term retention of scientists has not been a well-investigated topic, particularly around those who do not hold a Doctoral degree. To best understand the drivers of long-term retention for scientists and in particular the non-Doctorate scientist a research survey was distributed to scientists actively working in a research laboratory across the nonprofit and for-profit industries. It was found that 38% of non-Doctorate holding scientists were intending to leave their current organization in under five years of their employment and were looking to move into an organization that would offer more individual support. In comparison, only 18% of Doctorate holding scientists intended to leave their organization in under five years. However, this segment of scientists noted they would be looking for more growth opportunities and organizational support from their next employer. Participants across all educational degrees identified networking as a developmental tool that would help participants reach their career goals. When looking across the two industries it was found those in the nonprofit industry were looking for more organizational support in their next organization and identified networking as a developmental tool that would help reach their career goal. In comparison those in for-profit companies were looking for more growth opportunities, individual support, and desired more training and tuition reimbursements to help reach their career goals. Most importantly, across all educational degrees and industries the main reason participants had left past organizations and would leave their current organization was career advancement, highlighting the importance of the topic. These results highlight core areas of unmet need for scientists and particularly for the non-Doctorate scientist. In order to retain these scientists, organizations and supervisors must make areas of career advancement, individual support, and growth opportunities a focus and create a more equalized effort for both Doctorate level and non-Doctorate level scientists.