“We Needed More Skilled Talent to Save Lives” | How Bristol Myers Squibb Used Skills Data to Solve a Life-or-Death Talent Shortage

In this in-person episode of The TechWolf Podcast, we sit down with Ben Wein, Director of Workforce Skills Enablement at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), live from the Flanders House in New York City.

Ben shares the inside story of how one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies is becoming a skills-based organization—starting with a business-critical talent shortage in cell therapy manufacturing. He explains how BMS uses skills data to drive faster hiring, smarter workforce planning, and ultimately, patient impact.

💡 Final Takeaway: In pharma, solving the right talent problem isn’t a nice-to-have—it can literally save lives. Skills data is how BMS gets there.

Ben shares:
✔ Why time-to-fill became a life-or-death metric at BMS
✔ How skills helped solve a manufacturing talent crisis in cell therapy
✔ What not to focus on in your first year of becoming skill-based
✔ Why AI and task-level data will define the next wave of skills strategy
✔ What pharma gets right about workforce planning—and what others can learn

Time stamps:

00:00 – Welcome & Introduction of Ben Wein (Bristol Myers Squibb)
01:11 – The cultural traits powering skills strategy: Trust & transparency
02:33 – Timeline: How long BMS has been on the skills journey
03:15 – What is a skills-based organization? Ben’s definition
04:30 – Why now? AI, business urgency & talent shortages
06:40 – Cell therapy as a high-stakes use case for skills
07:53 – Skills data in pharma: Planning 5–10 years ahead
09:18 – BMS’s starting point: Talent acquisition and internal mobility
11:42 – Skills data quality: “From zero to one” and evolving governance
13:37 – Managing expectations with the business
15:18 – Speaking two languages: Business vs. HR
16:23 – How the BMS skills team is structured and evolving
18:34 – Internal mobility as the first North Star use case
20:35 – Roles, tasks, and skills: Why jobs still matter
23:56 – Still cracking the model: Tasks and the future of work
25:10 – Change management: The real skills transformation hurdle
28:44 – What’s next? Planning for AI & the future of the pharma workforce
31:02 – Where Ben goes to learn: Peers, forums, and building internal trust
33:11 – Ben’s question for the next guest