Attracting and retaining motivated staff

One of the issues increasingly concerning scientific employers is staff retention.

While this is nothing new in an industry that is generally regarded as a poor payer, especially in R and D, the problem does appear to be getting worse.

At technician level, poor facilities, mundane work and obscure prospects exacerbate the problem for graduates who had hoped for a more exciting and purposeful future.

Conversely, the low unemployment levels in high-skill roles has reduced the level of risk associated with a job move, and head-hunters are increasingly being employed to approach, attract and secure a competitor's key players.

This has led to increased salaries, inevitably encouraging middle and senior scientific staff to consider their options on a regular basis, thereby undermining loyalty and destabilising the workforce generally.

If junior staff see their managers moving on, how can we expect them to remain committed themselves? Of course the pharmaceutical industry, often considered alongside other scientific and R and D functions, is known to pay well and claims to offer great prospects.

This has somewhat skewed the market and good recruiters have to manage the expectations of their candidates carefully if we are to prevent an exodus from our labs.

Too many recruiters simply take a job spec from a client and try to fill it, with little or no consideration of the wider implications for the long term employment of that individual.

Certainly at lower levels a clear motivational pattern must be recognised and addressed early in the individual's employment if further recruitment is to be avoided down the line.

Following a period of induction, the new employee settles down and focuses on improving his/her performance.

In a lab environment, this typically reaches a plateau, as there are only so many tests or procedures one can carry out.

The time eventually comes when either there is some opportunity to progress and make a more varied contribution, or demotivation sets in and the employee starts to look around for other opportunities.

The above is hardly rocket science, yet this is a scenario we see regularly, and employers often appear to accept it as part of the "employee life-cycle".

The job of the skilful recruiter is to help identify ways around the cycle or, at worst, extend the time of optimum productivity.

Jenesis Scientific Recruitment challenges its clients to examine and reconsider some of their commonly used recruitment models.

A job spec is typically presented by the client, and the recruiter is expected to 'go fetch'.

Jenesis has found it far more effective to meet the client on site, investigate the job itself; its challenges, responsibilities and key skill requirements, and from there build an overview of the requirements of the position, rather than simply looking for the type of employee that has historically filled such a position.

In addition to the usual job spec, Jenesis write up a personal profile.

As times change, so do the types of people who apply for different jobs.

For example, our clients often request a science graduate to do a job that does not specifically require a graduate.

Graduates understandably have their own career aspirations and become rapidly demotivated if they spend all their time in a lab filling pipettes.

Perhaps a lesser qualified individual would be just as suitable, and in many ways more so.

Day-to-day motivation is likely to be higher and the very fact that salary and career expectations are likely to be lower should be enough to ensure their productive life-cycle is extended significantly.

Jenesis therefore goes to great lengths to gain an understanding not only of our clients' requirements, but also of the detail of the job itself.

Employers of higher level scientific staff sometimes focus solely on qualifications and ability to do the job, when it is the work ethic and behavioural traits of an individual that are likely to determine whether he or she is either fired or promoted.

Although the nature of a scientific environment is technical, it helps if all employees are happy in their work and enjoy their surroundings.

Middle and senior managers play a key role in setting this tone.

It is therefore the recruiter's job to ensure that the individual 'fits' and that there is a high level of cultural agreement.

An extreme example is the highly qualified individual employed in a genetics company who was morally against the human embryonic research that represented a third of the company's business.

Personality fit goes even further than this.

For example, while it is usually the HR division that conducts the interviews with a candidate, how often does a recruiter insist that the candidate at least meets his or her direct line manager? Again, the candidate may be able to do the job, but if there is a clash of personalities, the new employee is unlikely to last.

This is where personality matching can be useful - even more so when considered alongside the personality of the line manager! Before even considering how candidates should be sourced it is important to establish at the outset how they are to be motivated and managed.

If this is not pre-determined, then how can expectations be delivered? The following guidelines might help establish a framework: Ambition and Expectation.

Identify the candidate's ambition and decide whether you can deliver the expectation, and preferably beyond.

If you can't, then don't employ the candidate, however good they may appear.

Find out how often the candidate has changed jobs in the past.

Does he/she constantly need new stimulus? If so, will his/her new manager and your company be able to sustain it.

While the candidate may be ideal for the job, and regards it as an exciting move for them now, how will they feel next year? Many candidates do not recognise this restlessness in themselves, and the interviewer needs to identify it.

A survey of job-seekers revealed that 11.6% said they were looking to move because they were bored and a further 21.3% said they were unhappy with their promotional prospects.

That's nearly a third of all employees who would not be looking to change jobs if their career expectations had been met.

How often do we oversell those expectations at interview to secure that person we think will excel ? Where Did They Go? When it comes to recruiting the right individual timing is usually critical, yet we squeeze interviews in between our other activities.

How does this make the candidates feel? Any delays and they are gone.

Get the good ones while they are red-hot.

They are seldom in the job market for long.

Also, are our managers (who are so good in their primary roles) actually trained to interview? Power of Partnership.

Let your recruitment consultancy get close to your business.

Once it understands your culture, core values and business objectives it can respond with people who will complement your business, and help with strategic planning.

A good consultancy will look beyond the immediate recruitment need and identify areas that might need to be addressed prior to commencing a recruitment campaign.

Blinkers Off.

Don't just satisfy the immediate company need - can the candidate bring added value? Don't restrict yourself to hiring from within your own industry.

Many of our clients instruct us to recruit people from within a very narrow band of experience.

Once we understand a client's business, not just their immediate need, we can cast a wider net which will attract not only compatible, but also highly complementary experience and expertise.

This often leads to new areas of creativity within a company, as well as allowing the employee to secure his/her own ownership.

A platform for career growth and development, securing long-term service, is consequently built.

We all know we need to recruit at some time or another - yet we are often reactive to it and have a weak structure in place.

We should be planning to recruit permanently.

Your recruitment consultancy can also work with you in strategic planning during quieter periods, avoiding the hasty recruitment decisions that can lead to mistakes as a result of recruitment knee-jerking.

Of course, in these days of on-line job boards and virtual recruitment agencies, it could be argued that there is no longer a need for a traditional recruitment agency at all.

Yet the market, particularly in scientific, has never been stronger.

While the internet, in all its guises, has automated many of the processes involved in sourcing candidates, it has effectively shot itself in the foot as well.

By enabling CVs to populate numerous databases almost simultaneously, the net is causing CV overload.

Those HR managers who had expected to streamline their processes and save some agency fees into the bargain are now being inundated with CVs, many of which are irrelevant, out of date or duplicates.

Unless contacted immediately, the best candidates are snapped up as their credentials are concurrently available to any prospective employer.

Those who remain are those who have not been snapped up, and it takes a lot of management time to find out why before sending a rejection letter.

The HR manager ideally wants to be presented with a small selection of excellent CVs, not have to wade through hundreds of specs.

We live in times of low unemployment coupled with acute cost-consciousness, and no more so than in the scientific disciplines.

It is in this environment that the function of the human recruiter comes into its own.

Employers need an ally - someone who knows what is happening in the relevant market.

Someone who knows people who may not be on the market, but are certainly 'in the market and who can be at least be encouraged to talk.

Someone who knows people who know people.

Therefore, if you employ scientific staff I would urge you to move forward in your recruitment initiatives.

Consider the ultimate aims of your business by incorporating holistic solutions to your recruitment campaigns, methods and procedures, and take full advantage of the expertise that a seasoned recruiter in this niche market can offer.