Top Talent Acquisition Trends in Life Sciences
3 Key insights from the 2024 TA Benchmarking Report
In September 2024, we asked member organizations of the LEAP HR Life Sciences Searchlight network to identify the metrics that matter most to them and would benefit from benchmarking with their peers. We collected unaided survey responses from some of the most progressive Life Sciences organizations within the LEAP TA community. Respondents represented Life Sciences companies ranging from 50-person Emerging Biotech firms to large Pharmaceutical companies with over 100,000 employees, spanning the entire biopharma ecosystem.
In this article, we highlight 3 key insights from the 2024 TA Benchmarking Report. You can also access your Summary Guide here.
Shifting Workforce Dynamics: Rising Turnover Rates in Small Firms Amid Industry Instability, While Larger Companies Stabilize
45% of companies reported an increase in turnover over the last 12 months, with more than half of those attributing the majority of departures to involuntary reasons, such as reductions in force and low cash positions. While most respondents have turnover rates in the 6-10% range, companies with fewer than 100 employees were more likely to experience turnover rates exceeding 15%, potentially due to the instability of working in a preclinical environments and reduced investment in the life sciences industry post-pandemic.
Larger global companies reported turnover rates in the 11-16% range, noting that these have decreased over the past 6-12 months.
High Job Acceptance in Life Sciences, but Talent Acquisition Comes at a Cost
Over ninety percent of companies reported a job acceptance rate of 90-100%. All companies with a 100% acceptance rate were small biotech organizations with fewer than 100 employees, with one company stating that they only extended offers when they were certain of acceptance.
Eighty-eight percent of participating companies tracked reasons for job offer declines. Thirty percent reported that candidates were interviewing for multiple positions and preferred a competing offer, while twenty percent of rejections were due to compensation being too low. With limited cash flow, life sciences companies are increasingly needing to attract talent through means other than compensation. One company mentioned that they were successfully attracting the right talent and repelling the “wrong” talent by promoting their culture as they scaled.
Empower Your Employees to Become Your Strongest Talent Ambassadors
Ensuring that employees enjoy working at your company is essential for retention, productivity, and building a positive work culture, among other benefits. Additionally, over 70% of companies reported that employee and contact referrals were their most successful hiring source. By fostering a workplace that values its employees, companies increase the likelihood that employees will recommend the organization to friends or former colleagues.
LinkedIn remains the most popular job board, followed by platforms such as Indeed, Handshake, NUworks, SeekOut, and Untapped.
Explore what's next in the Talent Acquisition space and see how your organization measures up against:
Time to Fill
Time to Hire
Turnover
Acceptance Rate
Diversity Tracking
Pay Transparency
Cost per Hire
Requisitions per Recruiter
Quality of Hire
Sources of Hire
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