The market for candidates within the life sciences has never been so competitive and now’s your time to act proactively.

There are ways and means for you to attract the right talent by standing out against your competitors. Your market pool of candidates are self-serving, so they will actively search the opportunities available to them on job sites. It’s how you post and then go on to handle your applicants that is the difference between loosing and securing a great person for your organisation.

We’ve compiled some top tips on how you can make yourself attractive in an overcrowded market of similar business models.

Tip One

Job adverts is your first opportunity to get your potential applicants excited about the opportunity and prospect of working for you. You should really consider what your benefits look like.

Think about what will excite them, what are the benefits of choosing your company over a competitor.

Why should they work for you?

What does it look like to work within your company?

What is your company culture like?

This is your time to really sell your company as a great place to work and a fantastic organisation to be a part of.

Tip Two

We’ve all seen the job adverts on the boards where they do not give a detailed description of what they’ll be expected to do.

Get yourself a well written job description but be mindful to keep it concise. Your potential candidates want to know what a typical day looks like but doesn't want to be made to feel overwhelmed and turned off applying for the role.

Keep it simple, snappy and straight to the point. A three-page job description isn't needed. Use terminology that’s relevant and where possible simplify it.

Tip Three

Unfortunately, gone are the days where a salary would be enough to make someone apply to your role. They seek further clarification on what you can do for them.

Benefits is a great way to seal the deal with your potential employee. So, it’s time to think about what benefits you can offer your employees to give them an experience for working with you.

What benefits do you offer that your competitors don’t? If you have any key selling points that stand out about the rest, share them with your potential new recruits!

Let’s look at what benefits you may have or could consider seeking:

Expected Benefits: Pension contributions, cycle to work scheme, gym memberships, annual leave so on so forth…these benefits are a given and are often overlooked

Career Progression: If you have the opportunity for your employees to experience career progression throughout the organisation, share it. Everyone loves to know that they have room to move within a company and can grow professionally in status and salary.

Culture: Have you won any type of award for company values or culture? If you have then get it shared! Culture unsurprisingly is at the top of job seekers lists. It’s vital that they feel supported and valued within a well-structured company.

Hybrid Working: We know how important wellbeing is now and a big one is working from home. Can you offer the flexibility for your employees to work from home?

Flexible working: It’s now known than you no longer need to work the 9am-5pm graft in order to get the job done. Giving your employees the flexibility to work around their own schedules opens you up to an amazing pool of very talented people who will work hard for you without feeling restricted by old fashion working hours. We know that this isn’t possible for every business, so don’t worry too much if you cant achieve this.

Pay Rises: This somewhat falls into the career progression box. However, by stating that gaining pay rises every year is imbedded within your policies, it provides a level of trust to your new recruits.

Essentially however big or small your benefits may be, share it with your audience.

Tip Four

The days of a one-way interview have now gone. You’re not the only one interviewing, the candidate is interviewing you. We hear time and time again that it's a candidate market and a sentence has never been so true.

We have worked with our clients over the years to perfect their interview process. When you hire directly, you may never receive this great feedback. We’re here to bring this honest feedback to you.

Let’s dive into it.

Do you currently operate on a 2-3 interview stages process? Could this be completed in one stage?

Maintaining the attention of your candidates has never been harder for any company. If you allow lots of time for people to stew and potentially start engaging with other companies who act faster, you’re likely to lose this candidate.

We would always recommend acting quickly on the right people. If you like them and can see them being a part of your business, why interview over and over again.

Do you only conduct interviews during working hours? OR could you open the diaries for evenings and mornings?

Think about it, the best people are working and don’t really have time in their busy schedules to interview during their working day. We always recommend that if you have a candidate that on paper is ticking every box, why wouldn’t you host an interview out of working hours! This could be the difference from you gaining or losing a great person.

Just make your recruitment process seamless and easy!

Tip Five

Do you offer feedback quickly to your candidates?

Feedback is so important to candidates in this market. As we’ve already discussed it’s a competitive market, so letting them know a timescale for feedback will help. Just make sure you stick to this timeframe.

The more streamline your recruitment process is the quicker you get commitment and won't miss out on a candidate to a competitor.

We can guarantee that other companies (your competitors) are making these things, to present themselves as a more attractive employer, so beat them.

By following these tips above alone, you’ll improve your appearance on the job boards and improve on the timeframe and the way to treat each person during their recruitment experience with you.

Are you struggling to find the right candidate for a role within Life Science? Get in touch.