Get the right staff
Operating under its parent company Kelly Services,
Kelly Scientific Resources is the
world’s largest scientific staffing agency.
Alan Edwards, vice-president and product leader
of its
Americas Product Group, Science, explains how
keeping abreast of changing trends within the
pharmaceutical industry can facilitate a seamless
recruitment process for clients and employees
In line with increasing levels of drug development,
the pharmaceutical industry is undergoing a period
of transition. No longer monopolised by large
conglomerates, smaller entities are now seeing
a
considerable share of general revenue.
In recent years, the market has also become more
flexible, with employment positions being found
on
a temporary or contingent basis across the entire
supply
chain, from the preclinical and manufacturing,
to sales
and marketing. As a result, a seamless recruitment
process
has become paramount when it comes to filling
positions
efficiently and ensuring that the employee fits
the ethos
and image of the respective company.
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"Kelly has honed an ear-to-theground
approach in sizing up
market trends so it can providecustomised
solutions" |
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Consequently, Kelly Scientific Resources has
adapted its workforce solutions. While employing
approximately 8,500 scientific professionals in
a range of temporary, contract and permanent positions,
predominantly in North America and Europe, it
has also expanded into the more specialised fields
of R&D, clinical, IT and engineering.
“We do a variety of things,” says Alan
Edwards,
vice-president and product leader of Kelly’s
Americas Product
Group, Science. “Looking at recent developments
within the
pharmaceutical environment, companies are looking
to the
likes of Kelly to provide talent in a staged deployment.
This
means that talent is used when and how they need
it.”
A tailored approach
Given pharma’s recent period of robustness
and dynamism, Kelly has honed an ear-to-the-ground
approach in sizing up market trends so it can
provide customised solutions. “In the US,
in particular, there are not enough scientists
to fill the number of job openings out there,”
says Edwards.
“We have to make sure that we are well-integrated
within
the scientific communities on a local and global
scale.”
Edwards also alludes to versatilability™,
a criterion that
underpins Kelly’s approach to the recruitment
process.
Using its team of consultants and managers, most
of whom
hail from scientific backgrounds, this refers
to the need
for candidates to have a mix of ability and readiness
in
order to ensure productivity within the workplace
from
the outset.
“Today, companies are no longer willing
to hire someone
and then train them up for six months,” he
says. “Over the
last year, we have heard more and more clients
talking
about an ingrained understanding of the cultural
fit as
being essential to the recruitment process.
“We take the pulse of the company and assess
its culture
and what types of individuals would fit in; for
example, a
biotech environment can be very different compared
with a
classic pharmaceutical company as it has a very
different
mindset and resources to work with. It’s
not just a case of
someone walking through the door and saying, ‘Here
I am’;
employees need to have soft skills, too.”
These soft skills pertain to how candidates function
as an individual as well as in a team; a great
deal of
emphasis is now placed on sourcing employees who
hold the right balance of technological know-how
and
communicative attributes.
is the biggest issue for people coming out of
academia and going into the workplace,” says
Edwards.
“Employees need to be able to understand
how to mix
their technical skills with soft attributes, which
are
necessary in the societal culture of companies
today.”
Competitive edge
Looking to the future, Edwards sees Kelly’s
competitive
edge continuing to lie in its ability to tailor
its services
to industry trends, while developing strong partnerships
with clients.
“Currently, demand in the marketplace is
greater than
supply,” he says. “This is causing people
to do things
differently; for example, the 25-30 year career
job doesn’t
really exist in our society anymore.
“Most jobs are temporary, therefore we are
starting
to look more at strategic and transactional work
across
locations and companies, because this is the preference
for a lot of employees these days. You also have
to
partner with companies in a way that you have
never done
before by becoming part of the network model and
the supply chain.”
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