Rallying a whole team to recruit just one employee? Craziness! At least, that’s how it once seemed. Nowadays, though, it’s very common – and increasingly seen as best practice. It’s been shown to improve hiring results, and can customize the recruitment process to a company’s department-specific needs.
Collaborative recruiting is a hot topic, and there’s no better time than now to learn what it’s all about.
What is collaborative recruiting?
Also called “team recruitment”, collaborative recruiting is the practice of representing multiple departments and roles on a company’s hiring team. Because it involves the input of many different voices, this recruiting model makes it easy for companies to choose a hire that aligns with their unique internal needs.
The process can be even more effective when a recruiter is involved. Working collaboratively, a recruiter can combine their own industry expertise with current employees’ insights about what their teams need the most from a new hire.
How it can help
If a single hiring manager is responsible for finding the perfect hire, they likely won’t be able to consider the subtle needs and dynamics of every department. Enter collaborative recruiting! Including current employees in the quest to find a new one naturally results in a much more holistic and tailor-made hiring process.
A good collaborative hiring process involves surveying employees about not only the skills but the personality traits and values that they’d like to see in a new hire. This will ensure that the hiring team can find someone who is a good match for a company’s existing culture. This aspect of recruiting should not be overlooked – cultural fit is increasingly well-recognized as being an important aspect of employee morale and productivity.
As a side note: leading companies like Netflix, Apple and Google have recently adopted the collaborative recruiting model. We can’t know for sure, but it seems to be working out pretty well for them so far!
How to collaboratively recruit
If you’re a recruiter or hiring manager in charge of filling an opening, ask an employee in a similar or identical position what qualities they feel are important for the role. Chances are, their answer will reflect their company’s unique goals, priorities and culture. Whatever their response, it will certainly be more useful as a recruiting tool than a generalized job skills database!
Generally, a recruiting team should consider which employees are going to be working most closely with the new hire, and set priorities accordingly. On the other hand, collaborative recruiting will ideally also involve employees who are both higher and lower within the hierarchy of a company than the position to be filled. This way, the recruiting team can focus on finding a hire who improves workflow and efficiency for the company as a whole.
The role of external recruiters
Both recruiters and in-house hiring teams stand to gain a lot from working collaboratively to fill a role. A recruiter might be very focused on the technical side of things, but can’t immediately know the full picture of how a business operates. Using the collaborative hiring model, a recruiter can combine their industry expertise and connections with an in-house hiring team’s specific knowledge of their own company.
As a recruiter, collaborative hiring doesn’t have to radically change how you operate. It just means that in addition to your usual methods, the process will involve a lot of discussion, communication, and prioritization of different employees’ needs. Chances are, it will help you learn everything you need to know to find the best fit possible for your client company.
The takeaway
Onboarding the right person to a company is no small task. As with most big projects, collaboration makes the process much easier – and sets the whole team up for success.
The collaborative model of recruiting can help a company find the best fit possible for a role, and luckily, it’s here to stay. If you’d like to learn more about how we recruit here at Sci.bio, leave us a message on our contact form here.
Few people enjoy job hunting, and most job candidates have a story or two about bad application or interview experiences. For this reason it’s important for recruiters to make a good impression on candidates, and ensure they have a positive experience being guided through the application process. These days, there are plenty of communication tools tailored to help you stay in touch with candidates without increasing your own workload.
Communication Strategies: Automate What You Can
Calendly is a simple tool that allows candidates to schedule screening calls with you. It gives the candidate a feeling of control and easy ability to reschedule, while reducing the time you spend arranging (and rearranging) screening calls via email or over the phone.
Providing a chatbot (such as Mya or FlashRecruit) that addresses basic jobseeker questions is another way to reduce clutter in your inbox, by allowing the candidate to receive pertinent information about your opportunities and the application process at their own convenience.
Small and steady check-ins
It’s likely your job candidate is working with multiple recruiters and balancing a lot of job applications – all at different stages. For this reason, regular touchpoints with your candidate are vital. Don’t leave them waiting on promised updates, or wondering where their application is in the pipeline: if it’s with the hiring manager, if the hiring team is scheduling interviews yet. A candidate will prioritize applications where the timeline/anticipated next steps are clear, because it helps them plan the remainder of their job search and anticipate when offers might be made.
To help reduce your email inbox clutter, use personalized email templates sparingly. Job candidates don’t want to be on the receiving end of constant cookie-cutter responses, but email templates can be helpful when you have a range to draw from. Tools like Gorgias and Followup.cc allow you to manage customized email templates and keep on top of follow-up messages.
Keep innovating
New software is constantly being launched or upgraded, and communication trends change quickly. Be sure to check your workflow and organizational tools are still meeting your needs. How many hours a day are you actually fielding questions from candidates, for instance? Don’t be afraid to try new processes and experiment with the levels of workflow automation.
At Sci.Bio, we specialize in finding top biotech talent and adapting to meet your recruiting needs. Schedule an appointment with us today to learn more.
Life Science Jobs – When you think about what it means to be employed in STEM, do you think of syringes, microscopes, and lab coats? If so, you’re not alone! In reality, however, lab jobs are just one path you can take as a life science graduate.
Within STEM and biopharma, there are many hidden-gem positions that simply don’t get as much attention as they should. If you have an interest in science but also enjoy analysis, management, or communications, there is no shortage of exciting and non-traditional job prospects out there for you to explore.
STEM (Life Science Jobs) and Business
Not all STEM positions are primarily scientific. Most will require at least a foundational understanding of STEM concepts, but some also call for a strong big-picture grasp of business operations.
As such, if you possess both a science background and a keen understanding of economics, markets, and/or human behavior, you’re in luck. Job-seekers with passions for both science and business can consider the following options:
Medical science liaison: this position requires both people skills and a knack for clearly communicating important information. The main duty associated with this role is the provision of medical product information to key players in the pharma and life science industries.
Life science recruiter: if you have a strong network and enjoy the thrill of the chase, this position may be for you. Recruiters in the life sciences have the chance to make new connections across many different fields, and to gain an insider perspective on the back-end of science-based business operations.
Biopharmaceutical sales rep: if you have an advanced science degree, a go-getter attitude, and are a self-professed “people person”, you may find a perfect match in this position. The earning potential is very high, and for the right fit, the work environment can be exhilarating.
STEM and Communications
Any job in scientific communications will require both a keen analytical mind and the ability to articulate high-level concepts. If you’ve cultivated that elusive blend of “soft” communications skills and “harder” data and research skills, this may be the niche you’ve been searching for.
If you’re interested in finding a job in this field, here are some positions to keep on your radar:
Technical/Medical Writer: If you feel comfortable communicating scientific concepts to wide audiences, consider looking into medical or technical writing as a career. Some science writers work on a freelance basis, while others are employed by corporations.
Science Journalist: science journalism is similar to technical writing, but potentially broader in scope. A scientific journalist produces copy for not only scientific media but also blogs, websites, newspapers, etc.
Scientific Instructional Designer: this position is ideal for anyone with a teaching background as well as a scientific mind. Instructional design is a growing field, with many roles currently available at life science/biotech companies.
Another path less travelled: health informatics
When it comes to lab-coat-free science positions, health informatics jobs are just about as good as it gets. For one thing, they tend to pay well. And for another, the work they involve usually proves to be both stable and stimulating – the perfect combo. Positions in this field tend to involve management, advising, communicating, and/or analysis. If you possess one or more of these skills, consider that HI could make for a very fulfilling career path.
Here are just a few health informatics jobs available today:
Clinical Informatics Analyst: this position is all about the data. It involves compiling and analyzing health information, and using that analysis to make policy and workflow changes within an organization.
Health Information Technology Project Manager: think regular project manager, but with a little added expertise. For an employee in this role, projects often center on the implementation of new technology and the optimization of existing workflows.
Health Informatics Consultant: often contracted for on a per-project basis, an employee in this role advises a healthcare organization on health-informatics-related challenges, questions, and initiatives. Because of its broad scope, the nature of this position can vary greatly from client to client.
Look before you leap (into a career)
Depending on your skill set and personality, a lab position may be ideal for you. But no matter where you end up, you’ll never regret having explored your options. Remember: modern career paths are not always linear! What you learn now could come in handy years down the line.
Whether you’re looking for a medical writing position, a senior lab job, or just for some career guidance, Sci.bio’s recruitment services can help you get where you want to go.
Okay, chances are you never uttered those words as a child. As Allison Ellsworth, Sr. Recruiting Partner and Director HR at Sci.bio, says “The vast majority of people don’t go to school to become a recruiter. You kind of fall into it through different choices you make on your career path, as you follow and develop your skill set.”
So let’s assume that over the years as you either considered options for starting your career or have contemplated a career shift, you decided that recruiting might just be the job for you. After all, you like interacting with people and think you’re a good judge of them; you can see yourself enjoying the prospect of conducting interviews on a daily basis and think you might even be pretty good at it.
But there’s more to being a great recruiter than just an affinity for talking to talk to people. Of course, that’s a necessary trait; if you don’t like interacting with people recruiting is likely not the job for you. But there’s also much more involved than the interview alone; a number of different types of skills and attributes are necessary to truly stand apart as a great recruiter.
3 Types of Skills/Attributes
The skills and attributes required can be grouped into three categories: Interpersonal Skills, Personal Attributes, and Business Skills. Let’s take a look at what falls into each of these categories.
Interpersonal Skills
Interpersonal skills could be considered the ante just to get into the game; any great recruiter has mastered them. When your job centers around interacting with and assessing people on a daily basis, things like communication skills and the ability to build and develop relationships are a must.
Great Communication Skills
The ability to verbally articulate is certainly important, but good communication skills go beyond speaking, or even writing. The ability to read body language to ascertain the real meanings, feelings, and emotions behind the words a candidate is saying, as well as the ability to use your own body language to put others at ease are just as important. And being able to actively listen to the nuances of what a candidate says – again, going beyond the simple words – can go a long way in making a thorough and accurate assessment.
Relationship Building
Some may say that recruiting truly is an art of relationship building. And this means not only building and nurturing relationships with current and potential candidates, but also doing the same with hiring managers and even fellow recruiters. Finding and placing that perfect candidate in the perfect role is a team sport and requires trust, reliability, and a strong connection with all parties involved.
Personal Attributes
If interpersonal skills are the ante, certain personal attributes are the things that refine your ability to be a great recruiter even further. The tricky thing here is that some of these attributes tend to be inherent in a person and might be tough to learn if you don’t already have them. That’s not to say that can’t be learned, but if they come naturally to you, it may make being a great recruiter a little easier for you to attain. Some of the most important include:
Resilience/ Adaptability – when you’re dealing with various people, numerous variables can come into play, some that can even be beyond your control. People can be unpredictable, schedules can change last minute, and priorities and needs of both people and organizations can shift without much warning. When things don’t go as planned, the ability to bounce back and/or change your approach is key.
Patience/ Professional Persistence – sometimes it might take multiple tries to find and recruit the perfect candidate; the ability to play the “long game” and not give up after a first seemingly failed attempt can serve you well.
Results driven – recruiting can be a competitive profession, especially in industries that are in high growth mode where demand for talent may outpace supply. The best recruiters know how to set goals, keep focused on those goals, and work tirelessly towards them until they’re achieved.
Integrity – having a reputation for operating ethically and with honesty, and with the best interests of all involved always front and center can really set you apart from those who might use more questionable tactics to achieve their goals.
Business Skills
In a profession that is hyper-focused on people skills and relationship building, this final group of skills can sometimes be overlooked, but can truly level you up and make you stand apart from the rest.
Industry/Job Knowledge – having strong working knowledge of both the industry in which you are recruiting and the specific jobs you are trying to fill will make you more effective in assessing a candidate’s fit for an opportunity. Knowing the job intimately isn’t necessarily required, but having a working understanding of some of the key responsibilities and skills/experience needed to accomplish them will help you dig a little deeper in your interviews. Additionally, different industries often have their own unique attributes, needs, and nuances, and having a solid understanding of those will make finding the right talent that much easier.
Sales/Marketing skills – part of your job as a recruiter is to “sell” your ability to fill the role to the hiring manager, then “sell” the opportunity to potential candidates and the candidates’ abilities back to the hiring manager. Having natural sales abilities or being able to develop them can take your recruiting skills to the next level.
Problem solving & technical skills – some roles can be much harder to fill than others; roles that are highly competitive or require difficult to find skill sets may require out of the box thinking to successfully find and recruit candidates. In addition, knowing not only which technologies are available, but how to use them to find those hard to come by candidates can set you apart as well.
Time Management/Multitasking – this may go without saying, but being a recruiter means juggling multiple schedules, interviews, and job requisitions at the same time. Without strong organizational/time management skills and the ability to multitask, there’s no way you’ll be able to stay on top of everything you need to manage.
Want to hear what actual recruiters have to say? Stay tuned for an interview series with some of Sci.bio’s recruiters: learn what makes them tick, what it takes to be successful, and discover if recruiting is a career path that is a good fit for you!
In the first of our Meet the Recruiters series of blog posts, we’d like to introduce Kay Chow, Madison Giunta, and Carla Yacoub. They are all recent science graduates who joined Sci.bio within the past year as Scientific Recruiting Associates.
Madison is a contingency recruiter and focuses on business development. Kay handles RPO roles and ad hoc recruiting projects. As the most recent addition, Carla is completing her training and jumping in on various sourcing and recruiting projects as she hones her skills.
The Pathway Into Recruitment
All three had a passion for science and valued their STEM education, but realized more traditional STEM career pathways — academia, research, working in a lab — weren’t for them.
Madison graduated in 2020 with a BS in Nutrition Science from Merrimack College. Although she was passionate about the subject, she didn’t want to stay in school to pursue professional qualification. As part of her job search, she shadowed at a recruitment agency and fell in love with the career.
Kay graduated in 2020 with a BS in Behavioral Neuroscience from Northeastern University. She joined a research lab as an undergraduate, but realized “spending five plus years of my life on one thing was really not enticing to me.” However, she found she really enjoyed recruiting volunteers for her lab’s clinical studies, and decided to look for STEM recruiting jobs.
Carla graduated in 2019 with a BS in Environmental Biology from Smith College. She didn’t like academia and wasn’t interested in research careers, but knew she liked working with people and doing scientific outreach. “I really liked bringing new forms of education to communities that may not have been included in that previously,” she explains.
STEM recruitment wasn’t a career they’d considered before graduating, but after applying to Sci.bio and going through the interview process, they all saw how scientific recruitment would be a good fit for their personal strengths and career needs.
Although recruiting scientific professionals is a non-traditional STEM career, Carla, Kay and Madison enjoy learning about new areas of research through conversations with clients. Madison finds her STEM background helps her quickly understand new concepts and terminology.
At Sci Bio the first few months as a recruiter are spent in training, before they transition to their own projects. Most of their time is spent sourcing candidates and building relationships with their clients. Carla, who joined Sci.bio the most recently, enjoys working among a group of people who share the same values as her.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the working patterns of many people, including Sci Bio recruiters, who currently spend most of their time working from home, and go into the office once or twice per week. Madison enjoys the flexibility of remote working and structuring her day how she chooses.
On the flip side, Carla, Kay, and Madison found it easier to get distracted when working from home, or end up spending too much time on work at the detriment to their personal life. Kay has a “commute” to help her focus: she takes time after waking up to make herself a mocha latte and go for a short walk before starting work. These are the details we like to share in Meet the Recruiters.
Combatting Stereotypes and Growing as a Biotech Recruiter
All three enjoy recruitment, but encountered pushback from acquaintances who held negative or uninformed stereotypes about recruiters and alternate STEM careers. Some of Kay’s friends and family wondered, “Why did you get a degree in neuroscience if you’re just going to be talking to people all day?” not appreciating that her degree informs a lot of what she does.
Since Carla’s mother worked as a life insurance recruiter, she thought she knew what recruiting agencies and recruiters did, but she realized many of those preconceptions didn’t apply to Sci.bio: “It’s not about meeting goals, or sending a certain number of emails each day — it’s more like match-making.”
All three look forward to developing as recruiters and finding their niches, becoming the ‘go to’ sourcing expert for their specialty. Madison intends “make my brand” as a recruiter. Kay hopes to gain insight into international recruitment.
Fun Facts: Hobbies Outside of Sci.bio
Madison was a competitive cheerleader in college, and recently resumed competitive cheerleading in the post-collegiate leagues. She also coaches her high school team. In her free time, Carla does environmental videography and candid photography. She also enjoys coding and video games. Kay likes taking dancing classes.
