Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Vanguard Pharmacy Limited, Pharm. Taofik Odukoya, has urged community pharmacy owners to stop blaming young pharmacists for the industry’s workforce challenges and instead create workplaces that attract, develop and retain talent.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Pharmanews in Abuja, the award-winning community pharmacist said the dynamics of the pharmacy workforce have changed significantly, with pharmacists now having a wider range of career opportunities beyond traditional practice, making competition for skilled professionals much more intense.
“For me, the greatest workforce reality is that the landscape has changed and the competition for talent has completely changed. I don’t think many of our colleagues are seeing it that way,” he said.
He explained that unlike in the past, when pharmacists had relatively few career options after graduation, today’s professionals can build careers in health technology, fintech, e-commerce, digital media and several other sectors.
“A lot of them are doing content creation online and earning good incomes. Many industries are now competing for the same pharmacists community pharmacy wants to recruit,” he noted.
Odukoya said this reality demands a change in how pharmacy owners approach workforce management, stressing that human capital decisions should no longer be left exclusively to human resources departments.
“The whole idea of understanding this bigger picture is to shape our thinking. Workforce management should no longer sit only within the human resources department. It should be discussed at the highest strategic level of the company so that decisions capable of truly impacting people can be made.”
He cautioned against the common tendency to blame younger pharmacists for changing jobs frequently, arguing that employers should instead examine their own workplace culture and management practices.
“The younger generation is not the problem. The same people we complain about go into fintech and other industries and perform exceptionally well. Those organisations also find ways to retain them. So, the real question is: What are we not doing right as community pharmacy employers?”
Odukoya also described employee development as the foundation of sustainable workforce management, revealing that Vanguard Pharmacy has consistently invested in staff training for more than a decade.
“For over ten years, training and retraining have been treated as a fixed annual cost in our organisation. It doesn’t matter whether someone stays for one year or ten years—we invest in developing them.”
He explained that the company deliberately rejects the fear that investing in employees is wasted if they eventually resign.
“Our philosophy is simple: If we don’t train people because we think they might leave, what happens if they stay? We would rather continue to train and retrain because when people leave, they become ambassadors of our brand wherever they go.”
On the growing migration of healthcare professionals, Odukoya acknowledged that no organisation can realistically retain every employee, particularly with changing career expectations among younger professionals.
“There is no organisation in the world that can retain 100 per cent of its employees. Today’s workforce is different. Many young professionals are unlikely to spend 25 or 30 years with one employer as previous generations did.”
He advised employers to maximise the contributions of employees while they remain with the organisation and maintain positive relationships even after they leave.
“When they eventually move on, they should become lifelong ambassadors of your organisation. That should be the goal.”
Offering advice to young pharmacist-entrepreneurs, Odukoya encouraged business owners to build organisations founded on openness, fairness and a clearly communicated long-term vision.
“It’s not just about money. People want to know where the business is going and whether they have an opportunity to grow with it. Share your vision with them. Let them understand your five-year or ten-year plan.”
He added that although some employees would inevitably leave, many would remain committed if they could clearly see opportunities for personal and professional growth.
“Not everyone will stay forever, but if people believe in your vision and see a future for themselves within your organisation, many will choose to stay and help build that future with you,” he said.
