Author: Claire Jarvis
Although we’re in a candidate’s market right now, not every company is successfully filling advertised positions and attracting top candidates to their roles. If your biotech firm is struggling to hire new talent, there are a few probable causes worth investigating.
Why you have trouble finding candidates.
The salary isn’t listed in the job posting or website. With rapid rises in the cost of living, candidates are demanding higher salaries to account for the recession. If you are listing a salary range, check you aren’t offering below-market rates.
An unclear job posting: either the job description is too generic, it’s not clear what experience level you’re hiring for, or the job responsibilities aren’t spelled out. The end result means you attract the wrong candidates.
Bad company reviews or interview experiences are posted on Glassdoor. Candidates check review sites like Glassdoor to learn about company culture and check for red flags. Keep an eye on these sites for bad reviews that need addressing.
You don’t offer remote or flexible working. Even when candidates are willing to come into the office, they don’t want to feel like attendance is mandatory, or give up flexible working practices.
The job application process requires more than ‘one-click’. Candidates are used to applying for jobs via LinkedIn Easy Apply – which requires no more than a pre-uploaded resume and hitting the ‘apply’ button. They certainly don’t want to copy information from their resume into a job application form, or click through multi-page application portals at the start of the process. Consider whether you need this much information about all the candidates during the screening stage, and if there’s a more modern application software you could use.
Your company website is confusing to navigate or outdated. Candidates will apply to five or more jobs in a single session – if they can’t immediately find Careers information on your website they’re going to stop looking and move on to the next company.
What happens when you can’t fill a job position?
Most of the issues outlined above can be fixed, though it might take a while. Other issues are harder to control (company location, need for a technical expert with specialized skill set). In both of these scenarios, consider short-term sourcing options to help your company meet its business needs.
Sci.bio is a specialist biotech recruiting agency that can accommodate most of our clients’ full-cycle recruiting needs. Our targeted, efficient, and scalable approach supports companies of all sizes: from agile start-ups to multinational conglomerates, with cost-conscious and scalable services tailored to our clients’ recruiting needs. Get in touch with us today and learn more.