Developing a strong, sustainable workforce remains one of the most significant challenges facing the medtech and life sciences sectors, both regionally and nationally.
Recent UK Government announcements introducing new higher technical qualifications highlight the scale of this challenge and the need to strengthen the pipeline of work-ready talent to support NHS productivity, healthcare innovation and future sector growth.
Across the West Midlands, employers and healthcare organisations continue to face ongoing pressures around recruitment and retention, widening skills gaps, early careers pathways and workforce resilience. Addressing these issues will require closer collaboration across the NHS, industry and education, and more effective approaches to developing and sustaining specialist talent.
HR Action Learning Workshop
This workshop brings together senior NHS and life sciences leaders to take a practical, peer-level look at shared workforce challenges that are increasingly difficult for any single organisation to address alone.
The focus is on real-world pressures across recruitment and retention of specialist talent, widening skills gaps across clinical, scientific, digital and leadership roles, early careers and pipeline development, and wider workforce resilience, wellbeing and productivity challenges.
Rather than a traditional discussion, this is a focused, structured working session designed to surface honest insight from across sectors. Participants will explore what is driving these challenges in practice, share what is working (and what is not), and identify where greater alignment or collaboration could realistically improve outcomes.
The aim is to move beyond discussion and towards practical, experience-led insight that can inform both organisational approaches and wider system thinking.
Who should attend?
This session is intended for senior leaders with direct workforce accountability, including:
- HR Directors and Chief People Officers
- Heads of Talent, Workforce or Organisational Development
- Senior operational or executive leaders responsible for workforce planning
Participants will be drawn from large life science and health technology organisations, NHS Trusts, and system-level organisations.
Places are limited to support a focused, peer-level discussion.
How to secure a place
To register interest in attending, please email: events@wmhtc.co.uk
Workshop Facilitator
Helen Dinsdale, HR Transformation Leader | Facilitator | People & Culture Specialist
With over 20 years of experience across all areas of HR, Helen is a skilled facilitator and leader of people-focused transformation. She specialises in guiding organisations through change, creating clarity, and bringing people along to deliver meaningful, lasting outcomes.
Known for her pragmatic and outcome-driven approach, Helen excels at simplifying complex HR and business challenges, enabling teams to move forward with confidence. Her ability to build trusted relationships and foster a supportive, non-threatening environment helps individuals and organisations navigate change effectively. As part of an outsourced HR team, Helen works as a true extension of her clients’ businesses—offering hands-on, flexible support that goes beyond advice to deliver real results.
To find out more on the WMHTC click here.
