Headhunting in Life Sciences and diversity – oops we did it again!

A lot of the positions we’re filling in the Life Sciences industry are very challenging ones, often including high-level responsibilities. To match candidates to these job profiles can be a long and complicated process. Our experience shows that the complexity of the job profiles in this industry often calls for a more complex search. Somehow we thereby, almost without the concrete intention, advocate for change and diversity in the client’s company. How does that happen?

Disruption and diversity aren’t too far apart

The words fusion and disruption come up rather frequently in conversations about the state of the Life Sciences industry. Understandably so, since dealing with rapid changes seems to be one of the major challenges the industry continues to have. Advanced technologies, innovative business models and the like call for candidates that can handle it all. Not seldom do these disruptive developments also mean that a new perspective is necessary and someone with a different view can add a lot of value. Here’s where diversity comes in because these candidates often tend to be diverse. We can see how they quickly add to the dynamic and make C-suites and boards more effective and more versatile. A number of studies have actually shown that diversity adds to productivity and general content in a company.

Diverse candidates are good candidates

Often we need to persuade our clients when it comes to these diverse candidates. It’s not always instantly apparent, why we might think a diverse candidate is the perfect fit. But more often than not they have a certain edge that the position needs and they bring in a unique perspective. Often they have an interesting variety in experiences that can make up for possible career inconsistencies or a missing degree. AND – and that’s almost the most important factor – in a growing competition for talent, diverse candidates can significantly widen the choice and give an impossible search the happy ending it needs.

Handling diverse candidates

Business has been done a certain way for a long time and conservative and conformed routines are very hard to break. Diversity is still a major challenge to the industry and most people are simply not used to handling diverse candidates and staff. Being a multinational company ourselves we reflect the global nature of our sourcing and positions and know how to deal with diverse candidates. But we’re very aware of that this is not as easily put into place in our client’s companies. These processes need to be prepared and consultation is required along the way. Getting diverse candidates is just the first step, you want to keep them too.