What does the long run maintain for recruitment in life sciences? Properly, we all know a couple of issues. We all know that the trade has seen speedy progress for the reason that pandemic—when it was catapulted into prominence and compelled into cutting-edge improvements—and that it’s nonetheless rising at a vastly sooner tempo than all different occupations within the U.S. economic system. We all know that, whereas a document variety of folks are graduating with life sciences experience (the variety of researchers working in life sciences grew by 79% between 2001 and 2021, in comparison with simply an 8% progress in different U.S. occupations), the life sciences trade had the second-lowest unemployment charge of all U.S. industries in April 2022—which means discovering expertise may be extraordinarily tough for all times sciences organizations.
We all know that the life sciences trade employes a larger proportion of high-skilled staff than different industries; that turnover in these organizations is excessive; and that variety, fairness, and inclusion (DEI) is top-of-mind for each staff and employers: in a latest survey, 73% of life sciences professionals felt that racial minorities have been underrepresented on the most senior ranges, whereas 63% stated they felt girls have been underrepresented on the prime.
However we wished to know extra. That’s why we surveyed over 100 expertise acquisition professionals in life sciences as 2022 got here to a detailed: to get a collective sense of ache factors, priorities, expectations, and objectives, together with a shared sense of what 2023 may need in retailer. We requested about every part from tech stacks, to headcount plans, to variety hiring, to worker advantages, to recruitment advertising and recruiting KPIs. We additionally segmented responses by firm dimension on this report, recognizing that recruiting groups in smaller organizations (1-999 FTEs) and bigger organizations (1000+ FTEs) could also be having totally different experiences proper now.
Right here’s a few of what we discovered:
Recruiting workforce—and general headcount—progress is predicted
Within the final half of 2022, 15% of recruiting organizations at life sciences firms noticed reductions in drive. But 43% of smaller organizations and 58% of bigger organizations noticed recruiting workforce progress. And the outlook for 2023 is optimistic: solely 3% of life sciences respondents count on their recruiting groups to shrink this yr, whereas 86% say they count on Recruiting will both keep the identical dimension or develop in 2023.
What’s extra, 78% of expertise acquisition professionals at life sciences organizations say they count on company-wide headcount will increase—whether or not slight or vital—in 2023. (11% count on decreases.)
Constructing expertise pipelines is the #1 exercise expertise groups are partaking in in preparation for a market return
Recruiting groups’ prime 3 priorities on this market are constructing expertise pipelines (round 48% of each giant and small orgs are doing this), constructing and/or strengthening their worker worth propositions (26% of smaller orgs and 31% of bigger orgs are doing this), and evaluating their DEI initiatives (round 26% of all orgs are doing this).
Bigger firms usually tend to be investing in recruiter upskilling (19% v. 4%), whereas smaller ones usually tend to be spending time on knowledge cleanup (30% v. 21%). In the meantime, 38% of life sciences firms say they’re not experiencing downtime. (And if you wish to understand how prime expertise leaders spend hiring slowdowns, we’ve bought a useful resource for you.)
Assembly variety objectives and initiatives continues to be difficult
Almost ⅖ (38%) of smaller life sciences organizations and greater than ⅘ (81%) of bigger ones say they’ve formal variety hiring initiatives or variety objectives in place. 31% of all respondents, no matter firm dimension, say they’re assembly their variety objectives (right here’s what number of of them are doing it). This implies 69% of groups see no less than some wrestle in assembly these objectives.
The largest barrier for organizations on the subject of variety is discovering underrepresented expertise to start with (37%), adopted by transferring underrepresented candidates by way of the hiring funnel (20%) and retaining underrepresented staff (16%).
“Gem offers an awesome barometer to know what number of feminine engineers I’m reaching out to—and down the road, what number of I would like to achieve out to if I need gender fairness in my pipelines… to go from zero to 29% feminine illustration, zero to 64% underrepresented illustration in eight months, that tells me outcomes with Gem have been about as instantaneous as you may get when your objective is organization-wide variety.”
– Greg Troxell, Sr. Recruiting Supervisor @ Wheel
Time to rent is the #1 knowledge level life sciences groups are monitoring—although supply of rent is catching up in 2023
The highest 3 KPIs life sciences recruiting groups tracked in 2022 have been time to rent (63% of groups tracked this), supply of rent (52% of groups tracked this), and provide settle for charge (51% of groups tracked this).
For essentially the most half—and surprisingly—smaller organizations usually tend to say they observe the next KPIs than bigger orgs are: passthrough charges (35% v. 10%), supply of rent (61% v. 42%), prime of funnel exercise (30% v. 12%), provide rejection causes (48% v. 35%), and high quality of rent (39% v. 27%). Two exceptions are retention charge of rent (48% v. 26%) and variety (42% v. 30%)—bigger organizations usually tend to observe these metrics. (Respondents from bigger organizations have been additionally a lot extra prone to say “I don’t know” when requested about whether or not they tracked specific metrics.)
In 2023, the highest use circumstances for knowledge will likely be: to uncover finest sources of rent (46%), to report on time-to-hire and cost-per-hire (44%), and to trace passive candidate outreach (42%).
“We had a scientific evaluation that lots of people have been failing; we checked out our passthrough charges in Gem and noticed the proportion of candidates who have been dropping out at that stage within the course of. So we determined that as a substitute of constructing all candidates undergo a simulation interview, we’d give them the choice of finishing a house evaluation take a look at.
Gem helped us uncover a sample and work towards clearing that hiccup within the funnel, which is able to imply rising the variety of certified candidates who move by way of to the following stage. Gem has additionally achieved wonders for workforce collaboration, as a result of the workforce has visibility into what the highest-performing sourcers are doing to get the numbers they get. They will iterate on finest practices based mostly on their teammates’ successes.”
– Sandra Osorio, Recruitment Specialist @ DotCom Remedy (previously Scientific Recruiter @ Mindstrong Well being)
Sourcing instruments and recruitment advertising tech are prime priorities in 2023
Sourcing instruments and tech are the #1 expertise recruiting groups within the life sciences house will make investments funds on this yr. Recruitment advertising instruments and tech are #2; specialised candidate databases are #3. Smaller firms are almost 3x extra prone to say they’re investing in an ATS in 2023 (32% v. 11%), whereas bigger firms are maturing their tech stacks with specialised candidate databases (30% v. 16%).
Distant/hybrid work takes the #1 place by way of expertise workforce focus
Totally embracing distant/hybird work was the #1 exercise respondents stated recruiting groups needs to be specializing in in 2023 (63% of smaller orgs and 40% of bigger orgs stated this), adopted by pay transparency (53% of smaller orgs and 36% of bigger orgs stated this). Expertise professionals at smaller organizations additionally emphasised structured interviews (26% v. 6%), inside mobility (32% v. 17%), social recruiting (32% v. 17%), and re-engaging previous candidates and former silver medalists (37% v. 23%); whereas these at bigger organizations emphasised expertise sourcing (47% v. 26%) and recruitment advertising (23% v. 11%).
Discovering certified candidates is 2023’s prime problem for all times sciences recruiting groups
No matter firm dimension, the highest recruiting and hiring problem expertise acquisition professionals anticipate in 2023 is problem discovering certified candidates (58% of smaller orgs and 53% of bigger orgs anticipate this problem). In mixture, uncompetitive gives (39%) and nurturing passive expertise over the long run (33%) are available at problem #2 and #3, respectively.
Smaller life sciences organizations usually tend to foresee problem assembly variety objectives (47% v. 6%), sub-par referral packages (26% v. 6%), and undefined employer model (26% v. 11%) as challenges; whereas bigger organizations usually tend to foresee battling recruiting course of delays (26% v. 11%).
There are numerous extra insights in our 2023 recruiting tendencies in life sciences report. We hope this useful resource helps you higher perceive the broader life sciences recruiting panorama, assess your organization’s place in that panorama, and anticipate what could lie forward. It’s as vital as ever to maintain a finger on the heart beat of the trade.
