Our Life Sciences Practice is well-versed in team builds. As Pharma companies expand their sales force or put greater emphasis on Market Access and Medical Affairs, they’ve worked with us to effectively recruit those highly specialized positions.
Why do team builds happen?
Team builds happen when an organization needs to hire multiple people within a short period of time or to a similar role. For our Life Sciences Practice, this often happens with regional roles like Medical Sciences Liaisons, for which Elise Gay often recruits. Jessica Gurley, another Life Science recruiter has garnered team build experience in the market access space.
A company in the Life Sciences space may need to increase scalability for a number of reasons. Elise’s Medical Affairs team builds usually happen in anticipation of a product approval or launch or when a company moves into a new therapeutic area. Jessica’s team builds often happen for companies who were previously outsourcing marketing access or health economists.
How do they work differently than individual searches?
Team Builds require considerations and conversations that individual hires may not. In a team build, recruiters must work synergistically with hiring managers to deliver the right talent to the right roles. This is important for any search, but the benefits of an effective, understanding partnership multiply when working on a team. Not only must the recruiter know what their client is looking for, but they must have a keen understanding of the company culture to build a new outfit that complements the existing operation. Partnering with a specialized recruiter who is embedded in the key market to provide an ideal match in a timely manner benefits both clients and candidates.
Understanding the goals and priorities of the hiring company is another key ingredient of a successful multi-role search. The recruiter must quickly determine which roles will be most pivotal to success and focus on those first. Then, they make decisions about where to deploy resources such as a marketing specialist, researcher, other recruiters on their team, and their other contacts. As they begin a search, the power of referrals multiplies, and recruiters are able to tap into a network of connected candidates. Recruiters also become better brand ambassadors when they work on multiple searches for the same company. With each conversation, they tell a fuller story about the organization.
Team builds are earned.
No recruiter expects to be handed a 10-person exclusive search the first time they partner with a client. Rather, in Elise’s experience, she proved herself one search at a time, and as new needs arose from the client, she earned them one after the other. It wasn’t until after she filled 10-15 roles with a company in the women’s health and oncology space that she was referred to an exclusive search with another company. “As I proved myself and the team continued to expand, they gave me every role, whether a backfill or new territory.”
As market access continues to become one of the most crucial functions for the success of a product, Jessica has found that her strength is leaning into her expertise. “Since I’m highly specialized in this area and its nuances, I can cut through the noise a lot faster.”
Team builds are just as rewarding as they are involved. They challenge recruiters in new ways, but the payoff of seeing a company improved by a well-functioning team is equally powerful.
Click here to learn more about the Life Sciences Team at ThinkingAhead and the services they offer.
