Recruitment in Biotech is Broken, Here’s How to Fix it

Zocket Life Sciences online recruitment

How can changing the way your company hires, improve your business and result in better employees? Zocket brings a fresh approach to a long-standing challenge, to a systemic problem in our industry.

There are multiple challenges when hiring new talent in a growing biotech. Given the rapid growth of the industry and the worldwide shortage of talent in life sciences, outdated and tedious recruitment practices need to be ditched.

Hunting down candidates in LinkedIn and recurring to personal networks or agency recruiters are solutions that alienate the candidates. As the famous quote goes, “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.Zocket aims to cut through this insanity.

No agency recruiters allowed in Zocket,” says Kieran Canisius, CEO of the company seeking to change the rules of the game in life-sciences recruitment. Zocket’s career development platform, “developed by and for life-science professionals”, matches professionals and employers according to their personality traits, skills, expectations, and aspirations.

The Recruitment Challenge

Let’s face it, recruitment is not an easy or particularly pleasant process for both the employer and the prospective employee. Although it would be ideal to be in direct contact with candidates from the beginning, the reality is that companies rather spend their time reviewing an avalanche of applications from candidates who are mostly not an ideal fit for the company. This definitely slows down an already lengthy and ineffective process.

Zocket life sciences recruitment

Companies without an HR department often hire their first employees from their direct network in order to avoid complications. However, as projects grow and multiply, bringing in someone with a different influence and perspective can make a big difference.

When that moment arrives, many companies turn to agency recruiters, which are assigned the task of finding someone whose CV meets a series of technical requirements. This middle person typically turns to social media channels, an accepted yet often uncomfortable hunting ground for professionals.

However, many professionals do not engage at all with social media hunting. The reason? Responding to a job offer is often felt as disloyal to their current employer. In addition, professionals often don’t know whether their personal lives will fit with a new company, and figuring this out takes time.

At the end of the day, we deal with people. People have personal preferences. Why are we using just keyword searching in online job platforms to find people?” adds Kieran.

No Recruiters Allowedshutterstock_272897303 - Edited

Zocket goes beyond posting job ads. It strives to make candidates understand what is like to work for a certain employer, for example how much they will travel, what they will earn, what they can expect in terms of work-life balance… and help both parties engage in a chat to determine whether an application should be the next step.

Zocket gets rid of the expensive role of the agency recruiter with an algorithm that matches companies directly with applicants that are truly a good fit for the job. The employer and potential employee are in direct contact from the start, without any middle parties interfering in the process, which also eliminates the large fees charged by recruiters.

This cost-effective system doesn’t hunt down candidates, who can opt to be in visible, incognito or stealth mode. It also helps companies of all sizes access an equal playing field, where it’s not their size or resources what matter. Their culture and values will be the first and most important features for potential future employees to consider.

It’s a Match!

So how does Zocket match employees with their dream company? A job seeker signs up and creates a profile where they can upload their CV or import their LinkedIn profile. But their personal profile also includes a questionnaire with a list of job preferences. What salary are they expecting? Would they relocate for work? Do they prefer working from the office or from home?

On top of that, Zocket matches employers and professionals using the OCEAN personality test (also called the Big Five), which measures five main personality traits: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism. Zocket chose this test because it’s designed to understand the relationship between personality and academic behaviors and is recognized for its ability to remove the bias given by mood or circumstance.

Zocket life sciences recruitments online profile

All jobs on the platform are also attached with a personality test to identify the ideal candidate, and a chat between both parties will only start if both sides are interested (much like Tinder). Then, the platform gives the company the opportunity to explore the candidate’s profile to ensure they fit in.

In exchange, Zocket earns a fee that is shared by the company and the new employee. Its ultimate goal is to empower individuals to make the most of their careers while helping their employers reduce costs and time in the recruitment process.


Whether you’re looking for an employee or a job in the life sciences, Zocket can help you find the best match. To learn more, visit the website to sign up or meet Zocket at Labiotech Refresh next week!


Images from travelfoto, Jat306, Blan-k /Shutterstock; Zocket

 

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