Consider your hiring process. It can be both a blessing and a curse: your organization is growing quickly, and you are ready to bring on a lot of new talent. But those open roles need to be filled fast, and all at once!
When is high-volume hiring needed?
In some industries managers can expect to need high-volume hiring seasonally, like when companies bring on large numbers of temporary employees to meet increased holiday shopping demand (the National Retail Federation estimates U.S. retailers hire around half a million seasonal staffers each holiday season).
In biotech, seasonal needs can sometimes pop up, like towards the end of the academic year when new or soon-to-be graduates are on the job hunt. But more often high-volume hiring is required in biotech companies to meet growth needs. Start-ups can expand rapidly, and staff is needed to scale up accordingly. Or, if a large company moves into a new research focus, they may need to hire a lot of people quickly to get the new project up off the ground and running or to bring in a necessary specialized skill.
The end of 2022 is quickly approaching. As you look towards the new year and build out hiring plans for 2023, you will want to have a strategy in place if you are planning on filling a lot of new positions. Here, we’ve put together some steps you can take to energize and execute your high volume hiring process.
1. Design a candidate-first strategy that puts a premium on quality.
While high-volume hiring is in part focused on quantity, it’s important to design your hiring process and write position descriptions to attract quality employees. Early on in the process, work with your team to fully understand the spectrum of needs each position will require. Be exact and explicit when laying out expectations in job descriptions, and don’t forget to detail benefits and aspects of your company’s brand that will appeal to high-quality applicants. If it’s applicable to the role, consider implementing screening questions to a position’s online application to determine if candidates should move on to next steps in the process that require more work on your part.
2. Look to your previous contacts and candidates in the hiring process.
You probably have a list of candidates you’ve been in touch with in the past but put on hold and didn’t hire. These candidates are great options to first turn to when looking to hire fast – you already know them, they already know you, and chances are they’re still interested in working at your company. Now is the time to tap into any hiring pipelines you’ve cultivated. It’s also worth looking at internal candidates and considering if they can grow into new or needed roles if you haven’t already.
3. Use multiple platforms to get your jobs in front of more candidates and cast a wide net.
To hire a lot of workers, you need to get your job postings in front of a lot of eyeballs. In addition to looking to your already-existing pipeline, make use of all possible platforms including your website’s careers page, social media, and relevant online niche groups and job boards. Make sure search engine optimization, or SEO, is polished by including relevant keywords in your job posting.
4. Consider using technology to speed up the search.
When hiring in high quantities, modern technological tools can help reduce some of the burden. Artificial intelligence tools and automation software can help you manage outreach, communications, and real-time status of open positions, as well as analyze recruiting data and streamline review of resumes.
The takeaway on the hiring process:
As your company grows, adds new projects, or expands into a new research focus, you may need to hire a lot of employees quickly. Use these tips as a guide and remember that Sci.bio’s targeted biotech recruiting approach can help you fulfill your hiring needs. Feel free to get in touch with us today to learn more.
You’ve probably heard the terms “talent acquisition” and “talent management” before – and you’ve probably used them yourself. Though they might sound like the same thing, talent acquisition and talent management serve two different but essential purposes in hiring. Read on to learn more about what these strategies are and why they can both help you hire and retain great employees.
What is talent acquisition?
At its core, talent acquisition involves attracting and hiring skilled and qualified employees. This includes all the basic practicalities you must do in order to build a workforce, including creating and advertising job descriptions, reviewing applications, interviewing candidates, and making offers.
But talent acquisition also comprises more nuanced and proactive steps you take when looking for employees and building out a hiring pipeline. Some of these steps include sourcing hires from diverse backgrounds, keeping in touch with past candidates in case future opportunities arise, maintaining relationships with recruiting agencies and other talent sources, and building and communicating a strong brand that conveys your company’s values. Talent acquisition is not simply focused on filling vacant roles, but on acquiring quality candidates long-term.
What is talent management?
Talent management is the continued process of keeping employees within your company and facilitating their development and success. Some talent management steps include building hiring and succession plans, identifying and mentoring promising employees, rewarding and promoting them for achievements and growth, and providing employee training programs. Talent management also involves fostering employee engagement and feedback, as well as creating a supportive “inboarding” process when existing employees are promoted into new roles. In all, it’s a process that engages and rewards the employees you already have, to the overall benefit of the entire organization.
How they’re different, and how they rely on each other.
The difference between talent acquisition and talent comes down to purpose. Simply put, talent acquisition focuses on finding employees, while talent management focuses on keeping them.
But while they have different functions and involve different actionable steps, both talent acquisition and talent management rely on each other, with the success of one boosting the success of the other. An employer that promotes from within and rewards growth might become known for treating their employees well. That reputation, in turn, might encourage high quality applicants to positively respond if a recruiter reaches out about applying for a role with the company.
Why they both matter in hiring.
The above example illustrates why talent acquisition and talent management are important. Obviously, without a recruiter from the company reaching out to high-quality candidates there would be no applicant pool to hire from. But without the positive company profile generated in part by the opportunities for growth, those great candidates might be less apt to apply and accept an offer. Talent acquisition found the great candidate, and talent management provided them with a selling point.
Cultivating a strong talent acquisition presence also enables you to:
Save time and stress by anticipating and preparing for future and potential hiring needs, rather than simply filling vacancies as they arise.
Hone a vision of what kinds of candidates you want to attract to your company.
Identify employees with rare combinations of skills and experiences, for both immediate hiring needs and in case of future openings.
Hire people with potential to grow beyond their role.
Maintaining a focused talent management strategy allows you to:
Boost morale and make employees feel valued and appreciated.
Increase retention, boosting productivity and combating knowledge loss.
Foster innovation and ideas by giving employees opportunities to challenge and stretch themselves.
Help your employees reach their full potential and achieve professional fulfilment.
Proactively attract candidates who value opportunities to grow, thus benefiting your talent acquisition. Again, when done well these processes are cyclical!
Both talent acquisition and talent management matter in hiring. One helps you get in touch with excellent candidates, and the other helps you sell them on your company — and encourages them to stick around once they’re hired. If you’re eager to start attracting some great talent, Sci.bio’s recruitment services are here to help.
Establishing your own recruiting niche as a junior recruiter might feel like a slow and arduous process. The temptation is to expand your client base as fast as possible, which would mean taking on projects in different therapeutic areas and handling a bit of every type of recruiting work. However, there are several long-term advantages to specializing in a particular therapeutic area or type of biotech role, and starting that specialization process as early as possible.
Expert recruiters can offer clients and job seekers insights on their competitors, as well as an understanding of general hiring trends and unwritten rules of the sub-market (e.g. the most enticing job description language). They understand the technical requirements of roles and can easily talk with bench scientists about their qualifications. This expertise makes the recruiter desirable to clients and jobseekers, because it increases the likelihood of finding the best candidates for the position.
In smaller biotech niches – constrained either by specialty or geography – recruiters working in the space will quickly learn who are the “hot” candidates currently on the market and build connections with them. Knowing that a qualified candidate with a coveted skillset is looking for new opportunities – perhaps because the recruiter has worked with them before – endears these recruiters to their clients.
While exposure to different therapeutic areas and types of recruiting (e.g. contingency versus full cycle) is important to help you develop as a new recruiter, your niche is a long-term investment for success and becomes part of your professional “brand.” Don’t be afraid to lean into your strengths; keeping abreast of the latest scientific or business developments in your area of expertise.
Recruiting niche at Sci.bio
Sci.bio is a boutique agency specializing in matching STEM professionals to biotech roles. Our recruiting partners all have niches: through their STEM degrees and many years’ industry experience. Here are some of the recruiting specialties amongst our team:
Laura Helmick: Clinical development and medical affairs
Kendra Hodges: Immuno-oncology
Carter Lewis: Gene therapy
Meg Wise: Director-level accounting and finance
Mike Cordano: Sci.Bio business development, as well as Gene Therapy recruiting
Carla Yacoub: Medical devices, with additional expertise in engineering, medical writing, gene therapy, and clinical roles
Consider hiring ‘old talent’. When an employee is finished with you, they’re gone for good, right? Not quite. The “boomerang employee” has existed since the dawn of the workplace and is alive and well today. In the wake of the pandemic and the associated Great Resignation, many employees who left their jobs started to have second thoughts about their decision – and many employers are open to rehiring them.
Here we’ll discuss why employees seek to return to their old workplaces, and some of the pros and cons of bring former quitters back into the fold.
Why do employees return?
In a study of people who quit their jobs during the mass exodus that began with the pandemic, job leavers gave several reasons for wanting their old job back again:
Former coworkers (38%): workplace morale can make or break a job, so employees who don’t click with their new coworkers may soon find themselves missing their old work pals.
Former customers (22%): if your employee had customers at your company, perhaps they found them easier to connect with.
Familiarity with the old role (31%): your employee may have overestimated his or her ability to adapt to a different environment and seek a return to a familiar role they know they can perform well.
Paycheck (19%): Often, employees simply can’t find a better deal elsewhere (though they won’t want you to know that!).
Work-life balance (16%): if a new job demands overtime or gives little consideration to needs outside of work, people find themselves dreaming about a former position with more understanding management
As long as your former employee seems genuinely interested in returning and keen to keep performing well, you should at least consider taking them back. Feel free to ask what they preferred about their experience with you. That way, you can aim to keep them satisfied in those areas – and maybe gain some insight into retaining your other employees.
Advantages of rehiring old talent
When training boomerangers, you’re not starting from scratch. They’re already familiar with company procedures and culture, so you won’t have to pour as many resources into training them. What’s more, their connections with former customers may encourage those customers to come back.
Rehires can also draw on experiences working elsewhere to bring you fresh insights into the current market. Maybe they discovered a more efficient way to manage lab inventory or learned new strategies for launching a cosmeceutical product online. Whatever they spent their time doing, they likely gained knowledge and experience you’ll want to hear about.
Rehired employees also tend to be more reliable than they were before. Having tested outside waters and found them less welcoming than they’d hoped, this time they’ll lean toward sticking around. They’ll appreciate that you took them back and feel a renewed sense of investment in your company.
Potential pitfalls
Take a good look at your own motivations and see if they stack up. Are you overlooking more suitable candidates in favor of an easy rehire? Think long-term and resist the lure of momentary convenience. If many qualified candidates exist for the job you need to fill, you have a good chance of finding that fresh star who will more than make up for training costs.
Another caveat: depending on their experiences after leaving your company, former employees may come back with higher expectations or a different attitude. To get a sense of their mindset, ask probing questions during the re-interview and consider whether you’re still a good match for each other.
Trust your instincts when rehiring old talent.
Rehiring a former employee can save time, costs, and headaches. Just bear in mind that the process comes with some risks. Bottom line, no two rehiring scenarios look alike, so take some time to consider the pros and cons of your situation. And don’t ignore your instincts: sometimes your gut speaks more clearly than any checklist.
If you’d like some guidance on hiring—or rehiring—the best talent for your company’s current needs, Sci.bio has the life-sciences expertise to get you started.
When there’s a hiring freeze, it’s not the easiest time to be a biotech recruiter: As you may know, biotech companies have been experiencing a surge in layoffs in recent months, and nobody knows for sure when this trend will ease up.
While an industry-wide dip in hiring may concern you, it also creates an opportunity to step back and take a look at your clients, your stats, and your marketing strategies. Here, we’ve compiled some ways to stay busy and hone your craft while you find yourself with a little more time on your hands.
Strengthen candidate relationships during hiring freeze
If your stream of new talent is running thin, don’t despair – you can still reach out to your existing candidate pool and get to know them better. Find out how they’re doing, what they’re working on, and what their goals are. As you chat, be honest about what’s going on – and explain the action plan you’ll implement once the industry picks up.
At the same time, don’t limit your outreach to existing candidates. If you haven’t already, test out new talent engagement pipelines such as email, social media ads, and sourcing software. Experiment with different strategies and see which ones promise the best return on investment.
Review your process
Now that you have fewer day-to-day details to worry about, take a step back to look at the big picture. How is your overall strategy working for you? Any weak spots that could use some tweaking? Take inventory of four key metrics: average cost of hire, average time to hire, typical sources of hire, and employment acceptance rates. Are these stats where you want them to be? If not, use this time to make adjustments to your recruitment process.
You can also change or expand your strategy for attracting new clients. Assess your engagement rates, conversion rates, and the profitability of your advertising channels. Does your branding convey a cohesive message? All your social media should work synergistically and let prospective clients know exactly what you’re about.
Start planning now
When the hiring freeze ends, which may be sooner than you expect, you want to be ready to get back in the game immediately. To get into position, look at your databases of both candidates and employers. Take advantage of this time to reach out to new potential candidates and explain your services.
As you prepare for the next hiring surge, stay on top of hiring trends. When the economy booms again, demand for both traditional and non-traditional science roles will surge. A keen eye for upcoming trends, from health informatics to rare oncology, will give you an edge. Find out what’s hot and tailor your strategy to that.
Remember, you’re still in business
Companies rarely stop hiring entirely – even during a hiring freeze, you can reach out and ask what kind of roles potential clients are looking to fill. In uncertain times, businesses often place special emphasis on the quality of their new hires, while trying to cut down on the quantity. You’ll earn employers’ gratitude and loyalty if you can deliver top talent in trying times, so spend some extra time and energy finding hand-in-glove matches for clients who are hiring. By the same token, don’t forget about your existing candidate roster. In a frigid job market, candidates will need all the support they can get.
The takeaway
\When you’re a recruiter and there’s little recruitment to be done, it’s easy to get bored or restless. On the other hand, if you stay busy by investing in long-term relationships and business strategy, this hiring freeze may turn out to be the proverbial blessing in disguise. Before you know it, work will pick up – and you’ll be grateful you took this time to stay relevant and connected.
