Why Employee Development Stalls in MedTech Teams

What You Will Learn in This Post

• Why providing training doesn't necessarily mean people feel they're developing
• How the demands of medical sales and clinical roles can push development aside
• Why doing more work isn't always the same as progressing
• How employers can create development opportunities through the job itself

You've invested in product training. Courses are available. Managers are having regular one-to-ones. Yet some of your team still don't seem to be developing.

It's tempting to assume they've lost ambition.

Sometimes, of course, an employee simply doesn't want more responsibility or a promotion. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that. Not everybody wants their career to follow the same path.

But when development seems to have stalled across several people, it's worth looking beyond individual motivation.

One of the things we regularly hear from candidates is that they had gradually started doing more work, but not different work.

That's an important distinction.

Development isn't only about completing training. People also need opportunities to use new skills, take on different responsibilities and see that their role is changing as their experience grows.

Training and Development Aren't the Same Thing

Training clearly has an important place in MedTech.

People need product knowledge, clinical understanding, systems training and the information required to do their jobs effectively.

But completing more training doesn't automatically mean somebody feels their career is progressing.

A Territory Manager can attend several courses and still be managing exactly the same accounts, with the same responsibilities and the same level of autonomy two years later.

A Clinical Specialist can become increasingly knowledgeable without ever being given the opportunity to mentor somebody else, take responsibility for a project or become involved in something beyond their usual case support.

Development starts to become more meaningful when what somebody is trusted to do changes too.

That might mean taking responsibility for a more complex account, getting involved in a product launch, mentoring a new starter or being included in a project that exposes them to a different part of the business.

Development Gets Crowded Out by the Day Job

Most people working in medical sales and clinical roles don't have large amounts of spare time waiting to be filled with development activity.

There are customers to see, territories to manage, cases to support, targets to achieve, CRM to update and internal meetings to attend.

When development is treated as something employees should fit in once everything else is done, it's hardly surprising that it keeps moving down the list.

This doesn't mean every business needs to block out hours of formal learning every week.

Often, the better opportunity is to build development into work that's already happening.

Could somebody take the lead on a particular account?

Could they be involved in an upcoming product launch?

Could they accompany a more senior colleague to a national account meeting?

Could an experienced team member mentor somebody who's just joined?

Could they take ownership of a project rather than simply contributing to it?

Development doesn't always need to happen away from the job.

One-to-Ones Can Become All About Performance

Managers have their own pressures too.

When you're responsible for a sales team, it's easy for a one-to-one to become a conversation about targets, pipeline, activity, accounts and whatever problem needs solving that week.

Development gets added to the end of the agenda.

Then time runs out.

“We'll come back to that next time” can quite easily become six months later.

That doesn't mean managers aren't interested in developing their people. It means development conversations need enough space to actually happen.

They don't need to be complicated.

Ask:

• What would you like to get better at?
• Is there anything you'd like more exposure to?
• Which parts of your role would you like to do more of?
• Is there something you'd like to take more responsibility for?
• Where would you like your role to be heading?

The answers won't always involve promotion.

And that's important.

Promotion Can't Be the Only Sign of Progress

Many MedTech businesses have relatively small teams and fairly flat structures.

If you have one Sales Manager and six Territory Managers, there isn't a management vacancy available every time one of those Territory Managers is ready for something more.

Nor will all six necessarily want to become managers.

Career development can also mean increasing someone's:

• Responsibility
• Autonomy
• Account complexity
• Commercial influence
• Clinical or product knowledge
• Exposure to different stakeholders
• Involvement in launches or projects
• Responsibility for mentoring others

For one person, progression might mean moving towards key or national accounts.

For another, it could mean developing deeper expertise in a particular therapy area.

Someone else might want their first experience of managing or mentoring people, while another employee may be interested in gaining exposure to marketing or product management.

If promotion is the only visible way to progress, employees in smaller teams can quickly conclude that the only way to move forward is to move company.

Doing More Isn't Necessarily Developing

This is where employers need to distinguish between increased workload and increased responsibility.

An experienced employee will often become the person everybody relies on.

They pick up difficult accounts. They help newer colleagues. They solve problems. They're asked to cover when somebody is away.

From the employer's perspective, that can look like increased responsibility.

From the employee's perspective, it can sometimes feel as though they're simply doing more.

Ask what has genuinely changed.

Do they have more autonomy?

Are they making decisions they weren't trusted to make before?

Are they developing experience that will help them take their next career step?

Have their contribution and increased responsibility been recognised?

If the answer to all of those is no, adding more tasks may not feel much like development.

Development Needs to Lead Somewhere

Even when there isn't an immediate promotion available, people need some idea of what their development could lead to.

Otherwise, completing courses, taking on projects and accepting additional responsibility can eventually start to feel rather pointless.

That doesn't mean promising somebody a promotion that may never exist.

Be honest about what is and isn't possible.

If there isn't likely to be a Sales Manager vacancy in the foreseeable future, don't create the impression that there is.

Instead, talk about other ways their role could evolve and the experience they could build.

Development works much better when both the employee and manager understand why they're doing it.

Give People Opportunities, Not Just Permission

Telling somebody that you're happy for them to develop is different from giving them an opportunity to do it.

If an employee says they'd like to gain experience of strategic accounts, look for an appropriate opportunity to involve them.

If they want to move towards management, could they mentor a new starter or take responsibility for part of a team meeting?

If they're interested in product management, is there a launch or project where they could gain some exposure to the marketing team?

Not every opportunity will be available immediately, and not every employee will be ready for everything they ask to do.

But practical experience often tells somebody far more about their next career step than another generic training course.

Development Is a Shared Responsibility

Employers can't take complete responsibility for somebody else's career.

Employees need to be willing to learn, ask for opportunities, act on feedback and take some ownership of where they want to go.

Equally, it's difficult for somebody to develop if every opportunity requires experience they're never given the chance to gain.

The best development conversations therefore work both ways.

The employee is clear about what they want to develop.

The manager is honest about what's realistic.

Together, they identify what the person can actually do to move forward.

Pay Attention When Good People Stop Growing

Development doesn't always stop with a dramatic announcement.

Somebody can still be hitting target, supporting customers and doing everything expected of them while quietly feeling that their role hasn't moved for a long time.

By the time they start looking elsewhere, that feeling may have been building for months.

In recruitment, we regularly speak to experienced MedTech professionals who aren't leaving because they dislike their company or manager. They simply don't feel there's anything new for them to learn, take on or move towards.

That doesn't mean every resignation could have been prevented.

But if good people repeatedly leave because they feel they've stopped progressing, it's worth asking whether development in your business is translating into anything they can actually see and experience.

Make Development Part of the Job

Employee development doesn't have to mean creating elaborate career frameworks or sending everybody on more courses.

Start with something simpler.

Talk to people about where they want to go. Give development enough space in your one-to-ones. Look for practical opportunities to stretch people's experience. Recognise when somebody's scope and responsibility have increased.

And don't assume that giving somebody more to do automatically means you're helping them progress.

Sometimes the question isn't whether your employees are working hard enough to develop.

It's whether anything about their work is actually changing as they do.