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6 Ways to Attract Candidates Away from Big Pharma

Written by: Lucy Walters
Published on: 18 Nov 2021

6 Ways to Attract Candidates Away from Big PharmaAttracting candidates away from big pharma can be challenging, especially if your organisation doesn’t have the budgets to match the competitive packages offered by these large companies. However, recent research has proven that attracting high quality talent isn’t all about offering the highest salary or the most benefits, and this is especially true for younger generations of jobseekers.

A 2020 survey by Hobson Prior showed that the top three things that Life Sciences professionals look for in a new job are:

  • Career progression (24%)
  • Flexibility and work-life balance (23%)
  • Chance to work on an exciting project (23%)

Although competitive packages are desirable, they aren’t always the top priority for Life Sciences jobseekers. Also, only 2% of those surveyed ranked company reputation as the most important factor when selecting a new job. This proves that even the most well-established organisations need to go the extra mile to attract the best talent.

In this article, we outline 6 ways you can attract more Life Sciences candidates away from big pharma, using your position as a smaller or mid-sized organisation to your advantage…

Define Your Company Culture

Your company culture is a huge part of your employer brand, and both should be at the forefront of all your recruitment activities, as these are the things that are going to set you apart from big pharma companies.

Defining your company culture well help to align all your recruitment strategies as you’ll be able to show candidates exactly what they can expect from a career with you, outside of things like salary and employee benefits.

Strengthen Your Employer Brand

Your employer brand is essentially your reputation as a place of work, and like your company culture, should be unique to your organisation. As a smaller pharma company, you may need to work harder to familiarise candidates with your employer brand, and this means developing your online presence and implementing new ways to deliver your brand straight to your target audience.

For more tips, read our recent article on the importance of employer branding in life sciences recruitment.

Highlight the Positives

There can be many differences between working for smaller and bigger pharma companies, so focus on highlighting the key benefits of working for a smaller or mid-sized organisation in your marketing.

Some of the positives of working for a smaller or mid-sized organisation could include:

  • Having more control and autonomy over workload/projects
  • Having a flexible role with varying responsibilities and regular opportunities to increase skill sets
  • Being able to influence change and see change happen more quickly
  • Being able to get to know colleagues at different levels of the organisation
  • Gaining insights into many different business areas by collaborating on different projects rather than having big teams assigned to one project

It’s important to stay up to date with current recruitment trends and to really focus on making a career at your organisation appeal to what jobseekers are looking for the most.

Read our recent article on what Millennial and Gen Z jobseekers are looking for in 2021.

Don’t Wait for Candidates to Find You

To compete with big pharma companies, you need to be proactive in how you reach candidates, and this means taking your roles straight to them. If your organisation isn’t as well known as a large, global pharma company, then you can’t always rely on candidates typing your name into a search bar to see your current vacancies.

One way to take your roles straight to candidates is with PharmiWeb’s Targeted Email Campaigns. These allow you to send the latest news and current vacancies from your organisation straight to the heart of your target audience. In an average month, we send around 2.5Million emails to our registered jobseekers, keeping them informed about organisations of all sizes across the Life Sciences industry.

Grow Your Network

Don’t underestimate the power of building a high-quality network on platforms like LinkedIn. Although it’s important to target jobseekers, you’ll also need to build a network of professionals in the industry who aren’t currently job searching to reach both active and passive talent.

As well as inviting people to connect, attract new contacts by sharing original content and engaging with posts outside of your immediate network as well as with those already in it. Be on the lookout for good opportunities to attend or participate in industry events and really focus on making long-lasting professional relationships.

Create Meaningful Partnerships

The partnerships your organisation has can say a lot about your business. Creating meaningful partnerships with organisations whose values align with your own can help to strengthen your employer brand and raise the profile of your organisation.

Creating partnerships may also open you up to new opportunities such as gaining access to an event or collaborating on a project that helps you to reach new audiences. Take a look at our partners here: https://www.pharmiweb.com/partners.  

Stay Up to Date With News and Trends in Life Sciences Recruitment…

To keep up with the latest industry news and trends, visit PharmiWeb’s Recruiter Blog – a dedicated space for you to access our tips, insights, research and guides on Life Sciences recruitment.