Tackling the Talent Gap in Life Sciences
The life sciences sector played an essential role in the COVID-19 pandemic. While this accelerated positive change within the industry, leaders in life sciences continue to face a number of challenges – one of the biggest being the fundamental shortage of talent.
All this disruption in life sciences is having an impact on talent strategies, demanding a new approach to recruiting, attracting, motivating, and retaining the best workforce in order to support business transformation and growth.
We recommend the following strategies to overcome the growing skills gap and attract top talent in life sciences.
1. Reevaluate Critical Skills
Focus on technical abilities AND what fundamental skills are necessary to create a workforce that embraces change in this ever-evolving industry. Talent leaders must help hiring managers to understand the value of candidates with a balance of technical, behavioral, and leadership skills.
2. Enhance Your Recruitment Process with Technology
In today’s competitive market, speed is key. Streamline recruitment through the use of HR tools and applications that eliminate time-consuming administrative tasks.
Organizations should also leverage mobile-first solutions. Studies show 90% of job seekers now utilize their mobile devices when looking for new job opportunities.
When it comes to recruiting top talent, money isn’t everything, but using dynamic job offers that demonstrate total compensation can help you communicate the full value of your organization's benefits package to potential candidates, attracting top-level talent to your company.
3. Emphasize Employee Retention
Give current employees the chance for career progression, whether that’s offering relocation opportunities or higher positions. Emphasize retention so your most important assets – your people – feel confident that career advancement is not only within reach but encouraged!
Now that remote options are being actively explored, companies are realizing that offering a hybrid work environment must be part of their talent acquisition strategy to remain competitive in retention and recruitment.
4. Align Both Talent and Business Strategies
Align talent and business strategies to help your company ensure the right talent is in place. Build an effective talent strategy that includes the following components:
- Tap into ongoing market intelligence with regular talent mapping
- Use executive coaching to grow and develop internal resources
- Incorporate strategic succession planning
Let EFL Help You Find Your Next Leader in Life Sciences
The talent pool in life sciences is relatively small and highly competitive. The key to competing for top performers in the ever-evolving life sciences landscape is to evaluate both the effectiveness of current talent acquisition strategies and address cultural considerations that will boost retention.
From talent mapping and succession planning, to market intelligence and process guidance, we can help you get the most out of your talent acquisition strategy.