What Talent Wants: The Full Report

Welcome to the first instalment of our monthly newsletter: What Talent Wants, where we share data-driven insights on how life science companies can maximise their hiring to attract, secure and retain the right talent for their teams.

In this edition, we share our research report on candidate motivations, full of industry data that you can use to improve your hiring.

How do you attract top talent to your company?

Securing the right talent is the key to your company’s growth and success and can be the difference between medical devices and pharmaceuticals coming to market.

The life sciences industry is a competitive market for talent, with various pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies vying for skilled professionals.

With competition on a global scale, it can be a challenge for life sciences companies, especially emerging companies to stand out and attract strong talent from competitors.

So how do you secure the best talent?

As specialist life sciences recruiters, we investigated how businesses can compete for the best talent by asking life sciences professionals what elements of looking for a new job impact their decisions.

Hear from life sciences professionals

Our aim was to identify what top talent wants so life sciences companies can strengthen their offerings in the competitive market.

We especially focused on the opportunities for smaller, lesser-known businesses to compete with larger, household names in the industry.

We interviewed life sciences professionals across several sectors to identify what talent want and have collated the data and research alongside various tips and insights into how best to secure top talent in a competitive hiring market.

You can access the full report here: https://www.hobsonprior.com/what-talent-wants

Key Findings

We asked life science professionals to list their top motivations when looking for a new job out of the 9 options. Career progression, company culture company reputation, flexible working, job security, location, remote working, salary, working on exciting projects.

• The top three most influential factors in attracting top talent are: Career progression and leadership opportunities, competitive salary and working on projects that inspire them.

• Salary remains a core influencer, but respondents highlighted many factors that would outweigh a high salary in their job decisions.

• A poor recruitment process not only frustrates candidates, but can result in not completing the hiring process and even offer rejection.

• 90% of respondents were not against working for emerging businesses. Furthermore, 78% were not influenced by company reputation.

• Company size and long-standing reputation of the company ranked low, suggesting emerging businesses should not be intimidated in attracting top talent.

• Emerging life sciences companies can present competitive offers by promoting improved flexibility, purpose-driven company culture that larger companies may struggle to adapt to introduce.

• Three core areas that may improve a life sciences company’s ability to attract top talent are: Optimising the hiring process, openness to various forms of working flexibility and presentation of company purpose and culture.

Access the full report here

Areas for improvement

Based on the results of the survey, we have been able to determine three core areas of improvement that would enable life sciences businesses to enhance their job offerings and have more chance of securing top talent.

Rethinking Flexibility

Flexible working schedules can include flexible hours, remote work or part-time contracts. By showing that you care about workers’ time, you may be better equipped to compete with other vacancies that offer high salaries.

The Hiring Process

Slow responses and one-sided interviews lead to candidates taking roles at other companies. Your hiring process is your first impression to candidates, so it is important to optimise and show top talent you respect their time and talents.

Company Culture & Vision

Showing prospective candidates the impacts of your company both within the healthcare industry and internally is an effective way to engage them in wanting to be part of your team culture. Hearing positive stories from the people who are impacted by your company and who work within it gives you a competitive edge to attract top talent.

Access the full report here: https://www.hobsonprior.com/what-talent-wants

Preview the executive summary

We've collated some of the core findings from the report into an easy-to-read executive summary.

Take a look at a snapshot of the data and insights of the full report before you download.

Download the executive summary

Access the summary and full report here

Interested in more data-driven insights to securing top talent?

We will be sharing regular updates and insights on how to best attract top life sciences talent so make sure you subscribe to not miss any new updates!