The Biotech Industry is no stranger to the complex and unchartered environment each business has been facing since 2019. From ongoing disruptions in supply chains to inflation and lowered valuations pricing, labor shortages are consistently named among this list of core concerns.
With the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showing a continued growth of 5.3% over prior year in number of overall Life Sciences employees for January 2022 (higher than the national job growth of 4.7%), as well as a staggering 11.5% growth in the Biotech Research & Development space, these talent wars are hitting the industry even harder than others. Whether a start-up or Fortune 500, there are 4 key steps to take now to ensure the right talent is there for your business when you need it.
- Sell the Role
The Job Posting is your greatest, and oftentimes only, marketing tool. Before creating or updating your posting, take a few minutes to search online job boards for positions with similar titles or responsibilities. You’ll find the majority are either poorly written, or involve a mundane checklist of basic skills or education needed. Fortunately, this makes it easy to stand out from the crowd by updating and adding a few key areas:
- Be transparent with the role and include actual activities or projects the new hire will be doing, as well as the lab equipment, tools, or similar aspects that they’ll use.
- Include a carrot. What can the individual learn or do in your role that they likely won’t be able to in similar roles at other companies?
- Incorporate a sentence or two about the team, department or company culture. Whether the group and work is “head’s down” or non-stop collaboration, you’ll draw individuals that thrive in that work environment.
- List a salary. Colorado’s law requiring job postings to list a salary range went into effect in 2021, New York City passed its bill in April of this year, and numerous other states including California, Connecticut and Nevada require employers to disclose the salary range if candidate’s ask for it. Including your salary range in the posting allows you to save valuable interviewing time with candidates that are not looking in that range and shows candidates that you value transparency.
- Define your Interview Steps & Timeline
Before you start recruiting for your role, identify the individuals that will be on the interview team, the sequence they will interview, what type of format each will be (phone, video, onsite), as well as what determines whether the candidate will move on to the next step. Establishing how long each step is anticipated to take and adhering to that timeline, as well as communicating it with your candidate, is key. Being able to make a hiring decision after each candidate, versus waiting for multiple candidates to try and compare, is often the difference between hiring the best choice, or having to start the process over again. Pre-scheduled, short weekly check-ins of 15-20 minutes with the hiring team allow everyone to be on the same page, as well as act as a motivator to stay within the set timeline expectations.
- Prepare for the Interview
A candidate that is ill prepared for an interview and knows little about the company, appears uninterested in the role, and can’t share intriguing details and background won’t make it past the first round. The same holds true for those conducting the interviews. The Job Posting may be the key marketing tool, but the interviews and conversations are what solidifies a candidate’s decision. Be well-prepared for the interview by having a written list of questions (several great resources and examples are available online), be able to speak to details such as what the day to day of the role involves or walk through specific paths for growth, and be sure to allow enough time for the candidate to ask their own questions. With the plethora of interview coaching material available to job seekers, the interviewer is being interviewed as much as the candidate.
- Follow Up
Whether from Forbes, US News, LinkedIn or a multitude of other surveys done, one of the Top 5 complaints candidates most frequently have is not hearing back from companies. Determine parameters and timelines for following up with candidates at all stages of the process, from application to final interview, and use tools at your disposal to ensure they are adhered to. Declining a candidate isn’t an enjoyable or comfortable act for most individuals. Having prepared communication that can be slightly customized for common scenarios and steps aids in quickly getting the communication out. A candidate would rather hear “No”, than nothing at all. Repeated lack of follow up starts to negatively impact company ratings on sites such as Glassdoor, which will quickly downgrade the quality and number of candidates you’ll be able to attract to future openings.
With the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projecting employment in the industry will continue to grow at least 8% through 2030, and sources such as the National Center for Education Statistics showing an astonishing decline of high school graduates enrolling in college as a whole, the talent shortage will continue to be compounded and even more difficult to overcome. A few key steps and changes implemented now can very likely make the difference between beating out the competition for talent, or losing every time.
