Hiring in Life Sciences – Finding the Right Talent

Introduction

Life Sciences industry is always leading technology advancement and innovation for health and well-being of society. The need of an affordable and effective healthcare system increased the market demand of high-quality services. This resulted in pressure on entire healthcare supply chain. This pressure triggered a shift within entire healthcare system and exposed the urgent need of innovation, and scale up of healthcare workforce to meet this demand. As a result, life sciences companies are always in search to meet this demand. The Covid-19 pandemic has amplified this demand to multifold. The pharmaceutical industry is experiencing rapid changes globally after Covid-19 pandemic. Since this transformation is occurring at such a rapid pace, it is crucial for us to invest in developing young talent and adjusting to their needs.

According to the second edition of Aon’s Salary Increase and Turnover Study –

71% of life sciences companies plan to increase their workforce, with more than 1/3rd of them by greater than 15%. Even in cases of modest turnover, companies will need to hire more than 25% next year to meet hiring goals.

Rise of Talent Hunt in life sciences sector during the Covid-19 Pandemic

According to Life sciences workforce trends report, the industry grew by 1.4% during the peak of pandemic. While overall private sector industry declined by 5.1%. US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts, occupations across life, physical and social sciences are expected to grow 7% by 2028. 2021, a significant year in advancement of life sciences industry. Hiring is expected to be faster than the average for all other occupations. The COVID-19 epidemic has also shifted the job landscape by emphasizing the importance of the biological sciences industry.

Expansion

Life sciences industry is expanding significantly and the world has watched the pharma industry pivoted to combat COVID-19 in real time. The accomplishments were remarkable as drug development and distribution ramped up seemingly overnight. While this happens, it leads to the creation of more jobs and requirements in the industry, leading to an increase in the demand for executives more in pharma domain. A gradual shift has been underway in the life sciences sector where technological advancements have been taking inroads into the development, testing phases of various new drugs, disrupting erstwhile processes to unleash innovations to create new opportunities and an evolved business model, disrupting the old processes. The life sciences industry will also need to adjust to the changing workplace dynamics and cultivate a strong image as an ’employer of choice’.

Focus

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the focus has been significantly on the pharma, life sciences and healthcare sector, as they played a crucial role in getting the world through the tough times, and information technology was looked up to strengthen the new avenues to allow these sectors to continue serving the community and society at large. In addition to the change of pace for the industry, small and medium-sized businesses are heavily competing for market share, as they are very agile and growing rapidly. Due to the rapid expansion of the industry, identifying reliable talent who can boost creativity and contribute to profitability becomes a top priority.

Conventional Practices in Hiring

Unlike IT, telecom, and other developed sectors, life sciences has highly conventional hiring practices and looks for the best match to their requirements before settling for those close by with an active learning attitude and the ability to upskill. The prospects for job seekers in this sector have increased greatly and are changing as policy makers and healthcare professionals (HCPs) embrace innovative technologies like never before for achieving the better patient outcomes. In 2021, the healthcare, pharma and the allied sectors observed the maximum hiring as compared to the other sectors.

There is a paradigm shift in the life sciences sector that created numerous opportunities with the help of technology and the digital transformation. Therefore, the need for trained and skilled talent has been increasing significantly that amounts for significant efforts in identifying, screening, short listing, and selecting the right candidate.

Few Challenges in Life Sciences hiring

Every year, life sciences companies face new challenges and opportunities, but 2021 was the year when it is in the spotlight more than ever. Because of the pandemic’s need, there is a fierce and considerably more demand for talent than ever before and employers may face issues due to mismatch of a rising supply and demand mismatch for trained individuals. Companies would have to undergo a more extended recruitment procedure to fill life sciences, especially in specialist areas. There are few challenges which we have faced and overcome in our experience are:

• Lack of Skilled Talent
• Employee Retention
• Candidates expecting Remote roles
• Research and Development is 1st choice
• Candidates looking Incentive based salary structure

We know Life Sciences industry

At i-Qode Digital Solutions, as a pharmaceutical and healthcare recruiter – we have worked with clients in the industries related to Pharmaceuticals, Medical Devices, Hospitals, Universities, Research organizations, Biotechnology, and Clinical Research Organizations (CROs). We understand the research and development process, and the steps life science companies take to achieve approval from various regulatory agencies. With our functional knowledge of the drug development, medical device, medical technology, and clinical research industries, we can recruit for specific positions within these sectors.

Through our experience in the industry, we understand that the pharma and health care sector has diverse domains from core research to data analysis, medical information, economic analysis etc. It is thus important for our clients to find reliable talent who have the ability to focus on the different stages of product innovation in the long run. We are committed to provide time bound and high-quality value-added search solutions for a wide range of executive and managerial roles.

Conclusion

i-Qode Digital Solutions provides staffing and other human resources services, using an operating model that relies on the expertise of recruiters who have themselves worked in the industry sectors they support. That higher level of knowledge leads to better vetting of candidate skills and experience resulting into better matches of job candidate to job. We bring years of experience influencing our clients’ businesses by finding top talent for roles in clinical research, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, biotech, food and nutrition sciences, consumer products and chemical.

For more information, please reach out to info@i-qode.com

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