- You are here:
- Home »
- Blog »
- Uncategorized »
- The Role of Recruitment Agencies in Pharmaceutical Staffing
The Role of Recruitment Agencies in Pharmaceutical Staffing
There are several factors that contribute to the success of a business or an organization. Some are beyond the control of the business; these are known as external factors. They include things like government policies, the nation’s economy, consumer trends, and so on. There are also factors that the company or business has control over; these are known as internal factors. They include things like company policies, products and services, work culture, vision, and workers or employees.
Among the above listed internal factors, the employees of a company perhaps, have the most impact on the success of the company. If it is a product-based company, the employees are responsible for creating all marketed products and the same is true for a service-based company. Without them, no business will thrive, and this is especially true in large corporations that have a wide range of daily operations. Click here to learn more about product-based and services-based companies.
Irrespective of sector or industry, employees will always be an integral part of organizational success. In the health sector where people work to preserve human life, having the right staff can never be overemphasized.
This is because saving human lives require an advanced set of skills and discipline that not every worker can fully master. The pharmaceutical industry, like medicine, also needs only the best pharmaceutical staff for it to function as it should. But the time it takes to source, screen, and train staff is one that many pharmaceutical companies don’t have. This is understandable as they spend most of their time developing new drugs as well as improving existing ones.
So, if pharmaceutical companies can’t handle the recruitment of staff, how do they hire new workers? Well, this is where recruitment agencies come in.
What Are Recruitment Agencies?
Also known as staffing agencies, in their most basic definition, they connect employers to employees. They are firms that specialize in matching employers with the best potential employees for a job. They handle the entire hiring process from finding interested candidates to testing, screening, and all the way down to interviews.
Recruitment agencies have their fields of expertise. They specialize in such fields as engineering, accounting, medicine, pharmacy, and so on. Other types of recruitment agencies are thorough when hiring employees for their clients. However, hiring processes by medical and pharmaceutical staffing agencies are often more intense and thorough.
Reason being that most of the decisions health care workers make directly impact a patient’s life. Therefore, they cannot afford to hire any underqualified or under-experienced candidate as their reputation is at stake.
Responsibilities of Pharmaceutical Staffing Agencies
The following are some of the core responsibilities of these recruitment agencies:
Advertising Vacancies
Once a client makes known their desire to hire, the staffing company makes all the necessary arrangements to advertise the vacancy. This advertisement can be placed anywhere depending on where the target audience is. Since pharmacy is a highly professional industry, the ad will most likely run on LinkedIn. They may also post the job opening on their website and spread the word to their connection.
Usually, most of these firms have a database of candidates that have already submitted their resumes. Their first call of action would be to check their database for any match. If there aren’t, they make the vacancy known through their connection and social media as we explained earlier.
Screening and Shortlisting Candidates
Once they’ve got a set number of candidates that match the job, they take them through a series of processes to cut down the list to only the best few candidates. Depending on the role they are applying for and sometimes the employer’s request, candidates may be required to write a few tests.
This is done to prove their competence and understanding of the job they are applying for. Once the candidates have been shortlisted, the next step is to scheduling interviews.
Negotiating Contracts
At the time of announcing the vacancy to staffing companies, employers make known how much they are willing to pay for the position. This isn’t often a straight number as they want to give the staffing company power to negotiate the best offer. They typically give a range that guides how low or high the recruiter can go in the negotiation process. Reputable recruiters ensure these offers are never below industry-approved payment rates.
Back view of female job applicant make good first impression at work interview in office, millennial woman candidate talk, impress HR managers or recruiters at hiring. Employment concept
Scheduling and Preparing Candidates for Interviews
Once the payment for the job is agreed upon, candidates are scheduled for an interview with the employer. It is during this time that employers put a face to the names they’ve been reading about throughout the recruitment process. This stage of the recruitment process usually determines whether a person gets hired or not.
For many employers, first impressions are everything and they’ll make their decisions based on the impression a candidate leaves on them. Some recruiters may even go as far as preparing candidates for the interview. They tell them the dos and don’ts to increase their chances of getting hired. However, whether a candidate is hired or not often depends on how well they can sell their skills and experience to the employer. Visit https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/interviewing/making-good-first-impressions to learn more about making good first impressions.
How Are Recruiters Paid?
There are a few ways these staffing companies get paid and this is mostly based on which method they believe is most beneficial to their company. Some recruiters earn fees from their employers while others take a percentage of the employee’s hourly pay. Regardless of which payment method, the money comes from the employer and not the employee.
Benefits of Recruitment Agencies in Pharmaceutical Staffing
Aside from the staffing workload that these agencies take away from pharmaceutical companies, the following are other benefits that pharma companies stand to enjoy from hiring recruitment services:
- They know how to find the right talent. This is because they have certain metrics and strategies that make the work somewhat easier for them.
- Thanks to their robust network, they can find potential candidates much faster and accurately than an in-house recruitment team.
Final Thoughts
With these professional recruiters shouldering all the burden of the entire hiring process, companies can focus on growth, revenue, and other important areas of their business. While smaller companies with smaller recruitment needs can certainly handle their hiring process, bigger corporations that often need large numbers of workers on short notice will definitely benefit from the services of staffing companies.