MedCity News has a new jobs section, offering employers in the healthcare industry another avenue to promote job openings. To highlight this new segment, company executives are sharing insights on hiring trends and emerging roles in healthcare.
To learn more about posting job announcements on MedCity News, please contact Winnie Liu at wliu@breakmedia.com.
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Andrew Bott, Country Director of Talent Acquisition for Medidata EMEA and APAC, shares his insights on hiring trends in the industry in response to email questions.
notes: This exchange has been lightly edited
Which role is the most sought-after?
In short, all positions are in high demand, and we see hiring needs across all functions. From sales professionals bringing stories to market, or R&D specialists driving innovation across the software development lifecycle, or customer-facing professional services, they can conceive solutions for customers and help them get the most out of a specific technology. We see this across our organization and across the industry, hiring across all functional areas.
The challenge is to find people with a functional skill set, whether in sales, professional services or technology, with extensive experience in life sciences and clinical trials. It can be said that this is the “silver bullet”. Artificial intelligence (AI) and data science are still relatively young industries and concepts, so finding these product experts can be extremely challenging.
Compared to other industries such as financial services, healthcare and life sciences, technology has traditionally been slower to adopt and invest in. While this is changing in recent years, the global focus on industries driven by the pandemic has dramatically disrupted and accelerated technology adoption and investment. As such, this is of interest to private equity, consultancies, global health organizations, big tech companies, startups, and more. All of a sudden, the talent market is very crowded and very competitive because we all want to deal with growth and demand. We’ve been living in a candidate-driven market for some time now, but this has become more apparent in the past two years.
What strategies are companies using to attract the most qualified candidates to compete with larger organizations?
Companies aren’t just competing with larger organizations for talent. The benchmark for career-focused professionals is no longer that all paths in your career lead to joining a larger organization—it’s an outdated and old-fashioned view of what a candidate wants. High-quality candidates do not define jobs by the size of the organization, but by the quality of the role and the impact they can make. This means that the company is competing with all other companies, regardless of their size or growth.
Traditional talent acquisition strategies are no longer enough. You have to be sharp and innovative across all avenues and channels to reach candidates. Your company’s employee value proposition must be clear and easy to understand. Candidates aren’t just looking for jobs — they’re looking for a company that aligns with them in values, diversity, opportunity, inclusivity, commitment to corporate social responsibility, culture, employee well-being, work/life balance, and more. So it’s not that you just need to activate every channel and target it to candidates, but it needs to be backed by a strong and clear employee value proposition.
At Medidata, we are taking several initiatives to attract talented candidates. Over the past 12 months, we have built an internal global talent sourcing function. We believe we are best positioned to express our message and employee value proposition because we live as employees ourselves – investing time and resources into this process is key.
We also have an enhanced employee referral program to drive our own network and motivate employees to propose candidates. Additionally, as a talent acquisition team, we are working with hiring managers to drive a teamwork culture, share talent pools and jointly agree on outreach strategies. Recruiting is a team sport, not a TA-exclusive role. Where we achieve this, we are winning and attracting top talent.
What emerging job roles/recruiting trends are you seeing in your company and companies in this industry?
We see many emerging roles in artificial intelligence (AI) and data science. While this is true for most industries, it is particularly relevant to Medidata and our Acorn AI business. Medidata has been processing clinical trial data for the past 20 years (over 25,000 clinical trials have been conducted on our platform to date), so we’ve been investigating how we can use this data to better serve patients and increase the potential for trials speed and drive better decisions earlier in the process.
Medidata’s AI team has grown 35% since the beginning of 2020. For Medidata, the pandemic has also greatly accelerated the growth of our patient cloud business due to the increased adoption of Medidata’s patient-facing technologies, solutions and devices – all designed to enable patients wherever they are. Access clinical trials anywhere.
The hiring trends we’re seeing in this industry are similar to what we’re doing at Medidata — focusing on elements outside of any particular role. This includes the company’s mission, work/life balance, employee benefits, corporate social responsibility initiatives, a strong work culture, and more. Candidates are a more discerning crowd now, especially after the pandemic. They have clearer needs and what is important to them has changed. They demand more comprehensive satisfaction. Companies need to provide employees with a way of life, not just a job, and a community where they are welcome, respected and able to make an impact.
To learn more about posting job announcements on MedCity News, please contact Winnie Liu at wliu@breakmedia.com.
picture: exdez, Getty Images
