Do you need to outsource search?

Full disclosure. I founded a search consultancy specializing in the life sciences sector over 12 years ago and have since opened offices in Boston and Raleigh.

I’m very for the agency model.

But the reasons for this might surprise you.

The benefit of an ‘outsider’

I’ve worked with excellent people over the past decade and have seen the unique perspectives that search consultants bring to every role.

My favourite example of this is when my colleague at RBW, Daniel Cheetham, received a brief to hire for a certain role in a certain city. Most people would have gone away and found some great people meeting that specification.

Dan did something different.

From his many conversations with life sciences companies around the country, Dan knew that a different city would be cheaper to hire in, there would be less competition from other firms looking for similar people, and the market was generally moving towards this new location.

This company trusted Dan’s advice, hired in the newly recommended location, and have since built a department of 12 people – saving hundreds of thousands in salaries and office logistics.

This is a prime example of how a broader perspective from an outsider can result in tangible business benefits.

Internal teams are, naturally, closer to the business. But if the job is done well, external consultancies can be just as close with the added advantage of an external perspective on what tactics are being applied elsewhere to get ahead in the race for talent.

External agencies can offer a fresh perspective on which businesses are vying for the same people, what packages are attracting the best talent, and what new roles are being created within the industry.

Focus on relationships

Finding good people is tough. It’s why we exist.

This rings particularly true in the life sciences industry where most people aren’t looking for a new job.

When trying to find people from an already limited and specialist pool, who are happy where they are, and probably bombarded with new job offers regularly, we need to have strong relationships already in place, if we’re to sway them towards a new role.

At RBW, we dedicate a significant amount of time to finding talented, curious, resourceful people for our clients, and get to know what each potential candidate wants to achieve in their career, not only immediately, but long-term too. These close connections are why we can deliver talent that other companies simply cannot. It’s not that we know of a secret location where high-calibre candidates are kept, it’s just that they [the candidates] tend to answer our calls – a prior relationship built on trust and value-add counts for a lot when deciding whether to hit the ‘answer’ or ‘decline’ button on an incoming search call.

Another benefit of these relationships is that candidates will feedback to us much more candidly than they would to the company who interviewed them directly. If an organization finds they’re losing good candidates at a certain stage of the interview process, we can help find out why.

Looking beyond the hire

We see ourselves as an extension of internal hiring teams.

And we know how much pressure internal teams are under to keep costs low and efficiencies high.

That’s why we also offer our services to help streamline interview processes, strengthen talent retention, attract better candidates, and support with onboarding processes. We’re here to help and can share learnings from across the life sciences sector.

The life sciences industry is an exciting, fast-moving and competitive industry. That’s why I love working in it. This is also why it’s critical to get the right people through the door.

The right people will determine a company’s success more than any other factor.