As important as hiring the right candidate can be, many employers or hiring managers don’t consider the ramifications of being ill-prepared for the interview process.
While inviting team members to interview the job seeker should be encouraged, the fact is, everyone may not be prepared for the process. The interview team can be distracted by their jobs and not have time to get ready to meet the potential new hire.
Just like candidates spend time researching the company, interviewers should be ready to evaluate candidates properly to avoid making costly hiring mistakes. Good preparation pays off: Here are some tips to ensure you and your team are properly prepared to meet your candidates.
1. Know your Candidates
Sitting across from a job seeker without having reviewed their resume or background can mean that important questions won’t be asked. And also shows the candidate that you’re not taking the interview seriously. By knowing the person’s background, you’ll avoid asking for information they’ve already provided. Be prepared beforehand by reading the resume and making notes of key points concerning their skills and experience. You can then use interview time to elaborate on these points or ask for the new information you need to help with your evaluation.
2. Plan your Interview Questions
Before the interview, you and your team should prepare a series of questions built on behavioral question models. Examples of how to phrase these include:
• “Tell me about a time…” • “Give me an example of when…” • “Walk me through…” • “Describe for me…”
Questions constructed around these examples offer the potential for answers that say a lot about a candidate’s personality and interpersonal style. They can also spark a meaningful discussion that leads to the interviewer’s deeper understanding of past situations, tasks, and results the applicant has experienced.
3. Give Everyone on the Hiring Team a Role
Giving each member of the interviewing team a role helps them focus and enables them to have a specific goal for the upcoming interview. Providing a direction will also ensure your interviewers will be prepared with questions that will meet the goals set out for them. For example, each member could focus on a key piece of experience criteria or on the desired behavior.
4. Use the Same Criteria for Each Candidate
Be sure you and your team apply the same process and ask the same questions during each job interview. This approach enables you to gather information uniformly and make the next step — evaluating how well each person does — that much easier. It can also help minimize unintended or unconscious bias and other negative factors that may creep into the interview process.
A Last Word
The interview process is crucial in helping you find the right candidate. You need to assess their strengths and weaknesses quickly, but even more importantly, you need to evaluate whether they’ll be a good cultural and professional fit. A well-prepared interview team can give you a complete view of the candidate – helping to ensure the right hire!
Sci.Bio is a leading recruitment and search firm based in Boston. We specialize in finding and hiring the best talent to fill temporary openings, long-term positions, and executive roles in the Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals, and the Life Sciences industries. To learn more, visit our website today!
When looking to hire senior executives in the biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and life sciences fields, it’s important to remember that most of the great candidates aren’t hanging out in a database or waiting to be contacted on LinkedIn.
While using your organization’s in-house resources (HR department, hiring managers) may work for less specialized job placements, neither likely have the combination of research skills and the extensive network of professional resources needed to identify and hire top executive talent on time.
Instead of spending a lot of in-house time on an executive hiring search and hoping for the best, many science-based companies are reaching out to executive search firms to optimize the process. Here are some reasons why you may want to consider this strategy for your next high-level hire:
1. A Search is Incredibly Important at the Executive Level
Searches for senior management positions that report to the C-suite are too important not to go out to a retained search firm. Executives at that level can make or break a company. A retained search firm can help mitigate the risk.
2. The Position Requires an Executive with Unique Skills
If you’re seeking someone with very specific knowledge and skills, a search firm can help. The best executive search firms will deliver candidates with the right mix of knowledge, skills, and abilities, along with the requisite cultural fit you need.
3. Your Senior Leadership Team Lacks Diversity
Because women, Black, and Latinx candidates are not well-represented at the senior executive levels – especially at science-based organizations – search firms can help level the playing field by conducting searches that ensure equal opportunity for all candidates.
4. You’ve Just Created the Position
When an organization has a new executive-level role to fill, there can often be a lack of knowledge re: the kind of candidate you need. Search firms that specialize in the functions and sectors that are new to the organization can help fill that knowledge gap and identify the right talent.
5. You Have to Replace an Underperforming Executive While Still in the Role
Lining up a replacement while a senior executive is still on board, can be highly complicated. The last thing you want is for the individual to find out. Search firms offer a much-needed cloak of confidentiality. They can manage a confidential search and recruit candidates without even mentioning the name of the client company.
6. You’ve Exhausted your Personal and Company Networks
If you’ve burned through your network of connections for possible referrals, it’s time to access another network. Executive search consultants are among the most well-networked people in the business and can find the right candidates while you’re working on running your department or business.
Summing it Up
Executive recruiters who understand the biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and life sciences fields can identify, contact, and engage executive talent beyond the reach of employers who go it alone. Before contracting with a hiring firm, be sure they understand your business, have access to the right talent, and provide communication throughout the process to ensure you’re meeting the best candidates.
Sci.Bio is a leading recruitment and search firm based in Boston. We specialize in finding and hiring the best talent to fill temporary openings, long-term positions, and executive roles in the Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals, and the Life Sciences industries. We can also help you understand and improve your cost per hire numbers – so visit our website today!
A career in the Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals, and the Life Sciences industries can be very rewarding and fulfilling. But it often means working long, stressful hours.
Professionals in these industries are often mission-oriented, and aware that what they’re working to create, or manufacture can change lives. But what happens when there’s a significant amount of work that consumes everything else you do with no end in sight?
When your Job Becomes your Life
While it’s admirable and sometimes necessary to work whatever hours it takes to complete a project, it can be increasingly easy to forget to take time for yourself. As a life science professional, doing anything but work can seem like laziness or self-indulgence.
However, burnout is real, and if you’re not operating at full capacity because you’re exhausted, your work and personal life will suffer.
Try Keeping One Day Meeting-Free Often, meetings take time from being productive. Try establishing one day a week (or two afternoons) as “meeting-free.” Setting aside a day to get work done will do wonders for your productivity. You’ll get more accomplished during the day and take home less work (and stress) at night.
Don’t Always Be the First Person in or the Last Person Out Punctuality and a good work ethic are important. But professionals who spend ridiculously long hours at work may only be demonstrating poor time management. Make an effort to prioritize tasks and leave on time at least three nights a week. One tactic is to put an appointment on your calendar for the end of the day, so you have a reason to leave.
Learn to Say “No” Every time you say “yes” to another task, you’re increasing your work time, and decreasing your “me” time. Set a list of priorities and make decisions accordingly. Obviously, there will be times when “no” is not the right answer, but in those cases, ask which project is more important and set your priorities.
Protect your Time Away from Work If you have to take work home, make sure you set time limits for yourself, so it doesn’t eat up all of your personal time. Triage the important stuff. Respond only to the most critical emails, then leave the rest for when you’re back at your desk.
Make Family a Priority The people you love and who love you aren’t expendable – and your job should be built around that. If family emergencies happen, show up. Consistently make time to be there for the people that you love and count on you.
Take a Vacation (or Staycation) Remember: Vacation and personal time exist for a reason. Take the day’s you’ve accrued. You’re supposed to use these days, and you (and your manager) will ultimately be glad you did. Let your coworkers know you’ll be offline until you return. Your work and attitude will improve after taking a break.
Conclusion As a life science professional, your work is important. But it’s also important to recognize that you can operate much more effectively if you regularly take some time for yourself. No one can survive for long – or perform at their best – by running at 100 miles an hour all the time!
As a hiring manager or recruiter working with a life sciences company, an employee referral program is an excellent source for locating talented candidates.
Employee referrals are a way of leveraging the existing employees in an organization to help identify and recruit quality talent. For many reasons, employee referrals have proven to be one of the best ways of sourcing.
Many life sciences companies have implemented employee referrals in their organizations – some using methods such as a referral program, and some are keeping it less organized. No matter how it’s set up, what matters most is to actively engage your staff through employee referrals.
Listed below are five benefits to implementing an employee referral program, and why it could be your best way to hire the most qualified talent:
1. Saves Time and Money Sourcing candidates requires a lot of effort, which means it can cost a company both time and money. It was found in one study that referred candidates are faster to hire. An advantage of employee referrals is that your current team member makes the connection and saves the recruiter the initial time of sourcing the candidate. Further, the candidate could be a better match compared to others who apply externally. This can help expedite the process and cut back on the need to find alternative options.
2. Receive Qualified Candidates Employees often want to work with someone who they know can do the job. With a referral, you can have much more confidence in the candidate’s ability to perform the necessary tasks, since they are “pre-sold.” In addition, a personal recommendation that is already within the company can instill confidence that the reference is in fact, valid and reputable.
3. Higher Retention Rate Studies have shown that finding and retaining life sciences professionals is an ongoing challenge. The good news is employee referrals tend to stay around longer, perhaps because they are personally connected to their peers. That’s not to mention that the referrer themselves may feel more respected and valued after the company takes their recommendation. And when an employee feels respected and valued, they can become more dedicated in the long run. You may also want to give an employee referrer a bonus to show your appreciation!
4. Better Cultural Fit A referred new hire will help alleviate the concern that a candidate may or may not be a good cultural fit. A successful employee referral program can help achieve this goal. Your employees are in the best position to understand the suitability of a referral to fit within your business.
5. Improved Employee Engagement Encouraging qualified referrals can be the best way to engage your employees in more meaningful ways. When a company asks staff members to find the next great hire in their organization, they feel more empowered. At the same time, it’s a feeling of accomplishment for them by helping their friends achieve their next career move.
Conclusion
When it comes to finding candidates with specific life sciences skills, employee referrals have proven effective time and time again. Referrals are a great way for recruiters and hiring managers to fill positions with “pre-recommended” talent that possess the critical skills and cultural fit you’re looking for.
Sci.bio is a leading recruitment and search firm based in Boston. We specialize in finding and hiring the best talent to fill temporary openings, long-term positions, and executive roles in the Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals, and the Life Sciences industries. To learn more, visit our website today!
For recruiters and hiring managers, there comes a time when it makes sense to dust off your social skills and make professional connections. Most recruiters know why it’s important to network – career growth, knowledge expansion, and gaining new business being the primary reasons. But why the hesitation? Maybe networking doesn’t come naturally to you. It’s okay – let’s face it, networking can feel weird, artificial, and awkward. Or maybe you tried networking and didn’t get that much out of it. There are definite benefits to networking for recruiters and managers – and the following tips will help you gain confidence as you gain contacts:
1. Virtual Networking during COVID-19 Before the pandemic, the best way to the network was to attend industry events – or even host your own. But that’s changed – at least for now. As we all adapt to the new reality of remote work brought on by COVID-19, we will also adapt the social behaviors that enable us to stay in touch and forge new relationships with potential new hires. Creating and maintaining virtual relationships is now fundamental to maintaining mental health as well as business success. Search out online networking events, webinars, and chat rooms that will allow you to make new connections and foster existing ones.
2. Be Prepared It may be a virtual get together, but you should still have a game plan to help approach potential job candidates during networking events. Take a look at the guest list and identify some key people you want to chat with. Depending on the scenario, you can message them before and plan to meet or approach them with knowledge of mutual contacts and interests.
3. Prepare your Profile Make sure your LinkedIn is up to date, including a recent (that means within the last three years) profile picture and accurate work information so people can easily find you.
4. Build a Rapport When meeting people online or in person, it’s crucial to set yourself apart from other recruiters and organizations. Make sure you’re actively listening and showing your engagement by asking follow-up questions. This should allow the conversation to flow more naturally, and help you get a better idea of how this potential hire would fit into your company culture.
5. Debrief Be sure to debrief yourself after the event and, if possible, organize any information you may have brought back with you. Add contact details to online address books and pencil future events into your calendar – anything to ensure you’ve got all the information you need.
6. Practice Makes Perfect Remember that the more time you spend doing anything, the better you’ll get. Try to make it your business to check out as many industry networking events and recruitment conferences in your area as possible – and put everything you have into practice. Slowly, the fear should start to lift, and networking will seem like second nature.
Summing Up Making professional connections can be challenging – especially during extraordinary times like these. But with some preparation and research, you’re sure to find success and get the results you need. As a recruiter, building and leveraging a specific network of professionals should be an ongoing effort to ensure growth, leadership, and retention. The above tips will help you get there.
Sci.bio is a leading recruitment and search firm based in Boston. We specialize in finding and hiring the best talent to fill temporary openings, long-term positions, and executive roles in the Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals, and the Life Sciences industries. To learn more, visit our website today!
