AUGUST 2022LIFE SCIENCES REVIEW8IN MY OPINIONh.D. holder in Biology, Brian Thoma has completed his post-doctorate fellowship from MD Anderson cancer center. He began his journey in the biotechnology industry with QIAGEN in 2005 as a field service engineer repairing and troubleshooting the medical equipment that QIAGEN sells. Later in 2007, he moved into a leadership role within the field service and continually raised roles and responsibilities over the years. Thoma became the Director of service solutions North America for QIAGEN four years ago. He is responsible for post-sale support, from telephone support to technical service to onsite field service troubleshooting. He handles repair center depots around the country and manages service contract sales and service administration for billing and invoicing.According to you, what are the major challenges that the pandemic brought in?Obviously, everything is influenced and framed by the pandemic. Most companies experienced challenges with the supply chain, whether it is procuring raw material or hiring new talent for the job. Also, it was more challenging to train the workforce as face-to-face interaction was not possible. To deal with this, we have adapted to remote training, but still, it was difficult to deliver the same quality of training to new employees through remote training than face-to-face. Moreover, we are also experiencing challenges while serving our customers as most businesses require proof of the vaccination to enter sites and work on the equipment. Initially, we had several employees who were not vaccinated, which made it difficult for us to service clients the way we have committed to. So we have to be very sensitive moving forward as it is the personal liberty of employees how they feel about vaccination and cannot force them to get vaccinated. Could you tell us about the project initiative that you are currently working on?We are still dealing with numerous different challenges that the pandemic brought in, especially with recruitment. We are relying heavily on engaging our current workforce to help us recruit good-fit talent for our company. This is effective as the existing workforce can talk about the company's work environment, culture, and benefits to individuals and at the same time bring credible talent to the organization. From a training standpoint, we have embraced video conferencing and leveraging the hybrid model for preparing the workforce for the job. For example, we send instruments to where our trainees can gain hands-on experience of the equipment while the trainer directs them remotely. It is proven to be effective than just reading a document or having a completely hands-off experience. We need to take a strategic approach that is appealing to customers on a personal and emotional level. We can engage with them in an empathetic way as even our clients are experiencing similar challenges within their organization. We should PADOPT NEW TRENDS TO BE COMPETITIVE IN THE INDUSTRYBy Brian Thoma, Director Service Solutions, QIAGEN
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