The working world is a bustling interconnected network – organisations have a lot more on the line when it comes to building an employer brand nowadays, and it means they can’t afford to throw away their hard work by offering a poor candidate experience.
News travels fast, especially bad news. A lacklustre recruitment process could hinder your chances of securing the best talent on the market. Thankfully, there are plenty of things you can do to bolster your recruiting efforts.
The life sciences move fast. From the talent to the tech and everything in between. Here’s why your recruitment might need a bit of work (and how to do it).
1. It’s too Slow
Speed and remuneration are typically the mainstay features of recruitment. At BioTalent, we’ve seen great companies lose out to top talent because they just didn’t move fast enough. There will likely always be demand for niche talent in the life sciences, it comes with working at the cutting-edge of innovation.
High demand tends to translate into plenty of options for the candidate. If someone is in a hurry to move roles, they won’t wait around for a lengthy process.
If they aren’t in a hurry to move, a speedy process is still a powerful tool – it can boost response rates, improve your talent pipeline, reduce the number of dropouts, and signify candidate investment.
Tips to Improve – Use a specialist recruiter, automate your onboarding process, combine interview stages, use clear and concise job ads, make applying as easy as possible, and always communicate.
2. There’s a Lack of Communication
Poor communication can stunt a recruitment process like nothing else. Whether that’s a lack of candidate feedback or poor knowledge sharing with your recruiter, communication can’t be neglected at any stage of the process.
Candidates deserve feedback and they need to be kept in the loop. If you’re not able to communicate their progress, a competitor will.
Moreover, people expect feedback. Whether that’s application confirmation, interview reports, or even general check-ins. A good recruiter can enrich this part of the process with ease, provided you can let them know the details.
· Tips to Improve – Prioritise transparency and feedback, leverage the right channels of communication (what does the candidate prefer?), personalise your comms, provide regular updates, articulate and stick to a timeline.
3. It’s not Inclusive
An inclusive employer brand starts long before you start the talent hunt, it starts with your messaging. Is your company’s online presence showcasing inclusive, accessible language? The same can be said of your job ads – biased and coded language can turn applicants away before you even have a chance to meet them.
The process itself needs to be accessible too. Are you prepared to make reasonable adjustments? Some interviews fail because they don’t accommodate the needs of the candidate. Everyone deserves an equitable chance to excel in their prospective role.
Tips to Improve – Use a bias decoding tool to write better job ads, write a diversity and inclusion statement, commit to regular bias training, measure progress with data, increase representation amongst your hiring managers, set diversity targets, and update your D&I policy to better reflect the current landscape.
4. It Doesn’t Attract the Right Candidates
Are you struggling to reach the right people? The cost of a bad hire might be more than you initially thought – according to HR News, a bad hire can cost a business £114,000 per employee on average.
There’s also the damaged morale and the stunted business growth to consider, and in a highly competitive talent market like the life sciences, avoiding hiring mistakes has never been so important. Golden opportunities await those that can navigate the talent shortages and match the right people with roles they can thrive in.
Tips to Improve – Write more specific job ads, showcase your company values and mission, widen your search (transferrable skills are invaluable in emergent areas like bioprocessing), promote your culture, get creative with your perks, keep communication open, get to know your candidates better, and consider employees from alternative academic backgrounds
5. You’re Looking in the Same Old Networks
Hiring managers who leverage the same old networks won’t come up with the results as quickly as a specialist life sciences recruitment partner will. Plus, you’re having to compete inside the same talent pool.
Many employers fall into the location-first trap approach too, and while this is certainly a main consideration, it might be worth shifting focus to a skills-first search if you can’t find candidates.
Tips to Improve – Use a specialist recruiter with access to a wider talent network, source overseas talent, look outside your hiring manager’s network, and utilise marketing to make your brand stand out from competitors in the right way.
Support from BioTalent
Here at BioTalent, we use a people-first approach to hiring in the life sciences, underpinned by our diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging methodology. By drawing from our unique community networks, we can create access to underrepresented, hard-to-reach talent that you won’t find anywhere else.
We can pinpoint the right talent at the right time, even if that time falls smack bang in the middle of a candidate shortage. Our specialist consultants have the means, passion, tools, and network to tailor a solution to your talent challenges. If you have any questions at all, reach out to the team for support here.