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A curious thing about start-up board building is that it often seems to circumvent the principles of recruitment best practice. Not a great idea.
Board recruitment is a specialised discipline, but it is a recruitment process none-the-less and should have all the right checks and balances, particularly given that recruiting the right board for your start-up is so critical to success. Early-stage founders may feel that they need to approach potential board members with a level of deference that can rob them of objectivity. In our experience potential board appointees are, in fact, flattered to be approached, realistic about their suitability and magnanimous when not appointed for rational reasons. After all, they are generally world-wise, successful professionals with little to prove. They are rarely motivated by financial gain (a red flag if they are), have a genuine desire to help start-ups by sharing their knowledge and will only take on projects that they find inspiring. With that in mind here are a few pointers on to how to approach board recruitment so that you get it right first time and treat candidates with the respect that they deserve. DO’s
DON’TS
If you wish to enquire about how Luka Bio can assist you with the search and appointment of a board member or chairperson contact Dr. John Bethell here.
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If you are a professional it is very likely that you have a LinkedIn profile - you and 720 million others globally (at time of writing). At launch, LinkedIn promoted itself as a 'professional networking' tool and, whilst this broad definition still works, LinkedIn has essentially morphed into a recruitment tool, according to their own business model. If you have a LinkedIn profile, it therefore makes sense to view it as your de facto online resume. Your viewing audience certainly does. With that in mind ask yourself, how well does it serve that function? As a recruiter I look at LinkedIn profiles all day, every day so I have strong opinions on what makes a good profile. Here are three key tips to improve your online presence. 1. Make sure your profile photo shows you in the best light None of us are good judges of our own photos so best to outsource the decision. You can ask friends and family but they are not objective either, so I use a website called www.photofeeler.com to crowdsource opinion. It is a very cost effective way to get brutally objective feedback on a range of headshots. Examples below:  2. Keep your LinkedIn profile up-to-date One huge advantage of a LinkedIn profile over a regular resume is that is is dynamic, but only if you maintain it. So often we see profiles that have not been updated. Perhaps set a diary note to give your profile some love once every few months. 3. Pepper your profile with keywords You may not realise it but your resume is searchable by recruiters and potential employers, both through LinkedIn's own search engine and on the wider internet. Generally searches will be based around key criteria for the job and, if your profile is light on detail, you may well miss out on being contacted for a great new career opportunity. Make sure that you use keywords that reflect the job you are looking for next. There are plenty of other great ideas available on line but, suffice to say, the more work you put into your profile the better your chance of being visible to, and making a great impression on any future employer.  What is the first thing you do when you start recruiting?
The typical answer is, ‘write a job ad’. For me, this is the improv approach to recruitment. It might lead to a good outcome, but more likely, it will go off the rails at some point. Either way, you don’t know where you’re going until you get there. It would help if you had a plan Hiring someone is a project. It has a starting point, a set of procedures, a timeline and a clear goal at the end. You should treat it as a project - and every project needs a plan! In this case, it is the job description. Get this right, and everything that follows should flow more efficiently, on time and increase your chances of a successful outcome. You will use this blueprint to craft your ad copy, construct screening and interview questions and drive the reference and offer stages. Even after you have hired, you will use it to onboard, set goals for and performance manage your employee. Start with your needs ... then look for the right person Another typical mistake is to start with a particular person or profile in mind. My advice is to start by considering what outcomes you need for the business and then build a profile around those criteria. If you do this well, then candidates will have specific criteria against which to measure themselves. This will broaden the field to include backgrounds you may not have considered, yet it also makes applications more targeted to the job requirements. A bit of effort up-front saves you time in the long run As a busy start-up founder or CEO, you may feel writing a job description is a time investment you cannot afford, but without doubt, it will save you time and money, and improve your chances of success. Build a Job Description Template The easiest way to start is to use a standard template, and I recommend creating one for yourself. To give you a head-start you can use the following headers and suggestions to build your own template. Title Note: The title you use internally may be the same as the one you advertise publicly, but not always. For example, a ‘Business Development Manager’ can mean very different things depending on the makeup of the role and the needs of the business. The reader will interpret this title through their own lens. Objective Note: Describe, in a brief paragraph, the main deliverables that you want from this role. This should be a high-level statement – there is room for detail later. You can be specific, e.g. if you expect this person to deliver a particular project or an annual sales target. Reporting Line Note: Who does this person report to? What is the nature of this reporting relationship? Relationships Note: Who does this person interact with in their role? This should be divided into Internal and External relationships. Include anyone that reports to this person. Tasks Note: This should be a comprehensive list of activities that this person will be responsible for in the course of carrying out their duties. Use bullet points. Skills Note: What skills will be required to carry out this role? You can divide this into essential and desirable skills. Candidates rarely come with all skills intact – some will need to be learned on the job. Use bullet points. Experience Note: What prior experience would be advantageous for this person to have? Sometimes previous experience, and the networks that come with them, can be an immediate advantage when someone starts a role. However, bear in mind that someone with less experience but who has strong innate attributes will likely be a better asset to the company over time when compared to an average performer with prior experience. Also, experience in another setting can often be associated with bad habits that need to be unlearned. Qualifications Note: Divide into mandatory and nice-to-have. Attributes Note: These are the personal qualities, values and attitudes that will best suit someone in this role and your company culture. Value alignments with the company should be consistent over time and across all employees. Other personal qualities will vary with the position, e.g. a salesperson will have different attributes from someone in a regulatory role. Try to avoid cliches like ‘self-starter’ and ‘team-player’ as they come across as meaningless unless you define what they mean in this particular role.  Let's face it - there is not a lot of hiring taking place at the moment. If anything, businesses are more inclined to be letting people go, but if your start-up is thriving in the current environment, you might be forgiven for thinking that you're in a buyers market. The arguments for this go a bit like this:
However, there are some inherent pitfalls in thinking this way:
So, by all means, keep hiring, but stay on your toes. Here are some things you can do to mitigate your risk:
So what difference does a month make? Well, not that much according to our data but the top line story is that there has been a small but consistent improvement in sentiment across all areas of business. When aggregated the overall sentiment index improved from 50% in April to 54% in May. Financing continues to be the major concern but shows the largest jump by six points from 43% to 49%.  SENTIMENT BY SECTOR Our results show a similar pattern to April with the additional data from CROs (87%) and Industry Consultants (38%) top and tailing the industry, reflecting an appetite to outsource research at one extreme, and a reluctance to incur additional costs at the other. Sentiment in Telehealth surged, with an average sentiment of 73% up from 59%, while Digital Health softened slightly from 62% to 56%. Biotech held steady at 56% while Pharma softened from 58% to 53%. Diagnostics improved to 54% from 43% and Medical Devices lifted to 47% from 42%.  SENTIMENT BY REGION Hungary has a strong showing in all areas with an average score of 74%. This may correlate with the low incidence of COVID-19 (total of 486 deaths by 24th May 2020). Amongst big movers, Ireland has lifted from 33% in April to 62% (more diverse sector representation) and Scandinavia drops from 67% to 53%. Switzerland has leapt from 37% to 53%. The Baltics is a newcomer at 56%. The UK and Italy currently rank as lowest sentiment overall at 42% each.  OUTLOOK
The overall mood across the industry in May is distinctly more sanguine than in April 2020. In our discussions with leaders this month there is a recognition that times are going to be tough in the short-term, particularly with regards to securing finance, but that the long-term prospects for the industry are either for a full recovery, or the more prevalent point of view is that life sciences will flourish in a post-COVID world. There is broad agreement that some sectors will ride the white water better than others, and this is certainly borne out by our findings. The challenge for most companies, particularly smaller start-ups, is how to fund themselves through the lean times ahead. Some tough decision making, and creative thinking are required. Founders need to ask themselves if their innovation is still relevant in the new economy. As in any crisis, the strongest, fastest and most adaptable will survive, while the vulnerable (and the unlucky) will be caught out. We don’t sense panic in the marketplace at the moment. On the contrary, many are thinking about or already seizing opportunity. The disruption will create plenty of space for new companies to emerge. There is also a general sense that Europe will emerge as a stronger competitor on the global stage within life sciences and that the industry, as a whole, will receive much more positive attention from investors, the media and the general public. The Covid-19 pandemic has so completely disrupted the global economy, health systems and our daily lives that we are all reeling. Much of the economy is clearly in trouble, but what about the life sciences innovation industry? We wanted to get some sense of what the future holds, so we reached out to our network to collate the general mood of the market. We gained some useful insights to share but we also wanted to put some metrics around our findings. At the start of April 2020, we conducted a prospective sentiment survey, asking 54 entrepreneurs across 16 European countries how they feel their business will be impacted in three key areas – R&D, finance and workforce. We targeted smaller start-ups (headcount less than 20) who represented over 95% of respondents. The full report can be downloaded HERE ... but this is a high-level look at our findings. Which Sectors Are Most Optimistic? Our results show a distinct difference between digital/tele-health businesses, as most optimistic, compared to medical devices as the least.  There appears to be a couple of driving factors. Firstly, companies that rely on physical locations for R&D e.g. animal studies or engineering labs, have been heavily impacted by the lockdown, whereas computer-based research can be carried out remotely. On the demand side, companies in digital and tele-health are well positioned to take services off-site, and in fact, the need to do so has accelerated the uptake of their solutions. Tele-health in particular has seen a large increase in sign-ups. IT software solutions can also be rapidly re-purposed to meet the needs of the market in a crisis – hardware, less so. Which European Ecosystems Are Most Optimistic? Here our results show a wide variation in sentiment across Europe. Scandinavia and Benelux were the most bullish with Ireland showing particular pessimism.  The northern powerhouses have strong and established ecosystems and have been generally less affected by Covid-19 than southern countries. The UK is less optimistic than might be expect - possibly a combination of ongoing Brexit concerns plus a general anxiety about the projected spread of the Covid-19. Size Does Matter We also noted a correlation of optimism between size (and probably, therefore, maturity) of businesses.  Impact on R&D vs Finance vs Hiring There is a clear pattern in April 2020 regarding which of these factors is most impacted. Headcount and hiring intentions are least affected, with most respondents reporting a 'wait-and-see' policy. R&D, in pockets, was immediately affected for those that cannot attend their place of work to carry on research. Concerns around financing is clearly the greatest cause of pessimism with anecdotal evidence that the flow of private money is already being restricted, though public money less so – particularly for projects directly related to Covid-19. Will Sentiment Improve or Deteriorate With Time? Our result showed that the life sciences innovation sector is perhaps ‘alert but not alarmed’ – at least in the first 2 weeks of April 2020. That said, this is a fast-changing situation. It is notable (and measurable) that sentiment dropped between the first and second week of the survey. Will this trend continue? Our intention is to repeat the same survey at the start of May 2020, and your participation is most welcome. The best way to keep track of follow-up surveys and results is to join our LinkedIn ‘Covid-19 Life Sciences Business Sentiment Survey’ Group. Here you can access the full report, engage in discussion and receive notification of future surveys.
If your project shows promise, then one thing is for sure. You are going to have to grow. Of course, you are going to need investment - that’s a whole challenge of its own, but the other thing you’re going to need is a bigger team.
DIY Recruitment So what do you know about recruitment? Chances are not much - it just not a practical skill that is taught well in most business courses, and not at all in the sciences. But you’re an entrepreneur now, so it’s time to learn on the job. Luckily your first hires are likely to be junior versions of yourself, which means you kind of know what you are looking for. But as your growth accelerates, you are going to hit a couple of significant bottlenecks. Firstly you will find that recruitment is very time-consuming. Hiring one person is manageable, but what happens when you need to bring on several new employees a month? It can quickly take up most of your valuable time. Secondly, as you move from proof of concept to commercial scale-up, you are going to start hiring people whose expertise is outside your sphere of knowledge. It will be increasingly hard to know where to find them. Also, how will you judge if you’re hiring the right person for the job? Crunch Time This might be an excellent point to think about outsourcing recruitment. It may seem like a cost to the business to pay someone else to do it, but what is the opportunity cost of your time? More importantly, what is the cost of a bad hire, or an empty desk? It’s sobering to remember that a high-performance employee can outperform an average employee by a factor of 4, so you owe it to yourself to attract the best. Chicken or Egg? Another thing to consider is this. Ask any venture capital expert 'what is the most important factor in your decision to invest in a start-up?', and they will tell you, ‘it’s all about the people - if that isn't right we walk away’. So before you go asking for investment, ask yourself - 'do I have the right people on my team?' Rule of Thumb It can be tough to know exactly when is the right time to engage with external recruiters, but I would suggest asking yourself the two following questions: Can I afford to yet? Can I afford not to? The answer quickly becomes apparent. It's all about the science! At least it is in the beginning. Later, comes the money dramas, strategic decisions, clinical trials, patents, regulatory issues - and so on, and so forth.
But with all that growth inevitably comes team growth, and suddenly you go from subject matter expert to rookie recruiter. Where do you start? When I ask founders about their first efforts to recruit, and which digital tools they have used, the answer is often - email folders, spreadsheets or perhaps a digital drive somewhere. Cheap from a cost perspective, but expensive in terms of time wasted and opportunity lost - you may overlook the best candidate. There seems to be a perception that recruitment software is expensive and complicated, but this is not necessarily true. There is a host of varied options that suit startup needs and budgets, and the benefits are many, including:
I do not propose to endorse any one system here (though you can find an excellent list here), but it is useful to have a glossary of searchable terms and acronyms for founders to determine which might be best for them. Job Board: a website where employers can post jobs. Some are generalist sites for all career types, while others are specialised for one industry or even job role. Some require payment, but many are free, especially those run by an industry representative body. Job Board Aggregator: a website that captures jobs from many boards and re-posts them in one place. Your job ad can be picked up and spread far and wide by an aggregator. Job Posting Software: a single website where you can post your job once and have it distributed to many job boards, which saves a lot of double entry. Applicant Tracking System: An ATS is a software tool that combines job posting with the tracking and management of candidates through the recruitment process. Candidate Management System: A CMS is like an ATS, but has additional functionality to facilitate an ongoing relationship with candidates, allows you to develop your employment brand and attract candidate enquiries between hiring assignments to grow your talent pool. Vendor Management System: If you are already using external agencies, a VMS allows you to take control of recruitment procurement from outside providers. You can control which agencies you wish to work with, and direct them to present applications through a single channel to avoid duplication and unsolicited submissions. So how to choose the right system for you? If you have no system in place, it is better to start with something cheap and scalable. Simple, intuitive systems save you external consultancy fees and time for setup. As an additional benefit, when you organise your recruitment data from the beginning, even if you move to a more complex system in the future, the transition will be much less painful. I recommend putting some of the terms above into your favourite search engine and see what comes up. Most systems these days are SaaS and cost are constrained by monthly rate and number of users, so they are easy on the budget. Of course, I have my favourites, but every companies' needs are different. Feel free to contact me to talk through your situation, and I will recommend a selection to consider. Happy browsing... Founder teams often have a special bond. You all set out together and there is a fantastic collegiate spirit. Everyone mucks in equally and everyone is included in the coffee round.
But comes the day when you need to grow - and that is one of those never look back moments. In biotech and life sciences, the founder team is often made up of friends or colleagues who come from a science or engineering background. You know your subject matter inside out. But what do you know about recruitment, or managing new staff? No matter who joins your team in the early stages they are going to have a profound impact on your team - for better or for worse. So choose wisely. But of course, in order to choose, you need a wide selection of excellent candidates to choose from. What is your recruitment methodology? Where do you look? What is your pitch to attract the right people? How do you screen the good from the bad? When you first go to market, you might find that you have no Employment Brand - the magic ingredient that makes your company an obvious place to work. How do you create one when you have never hired anyone? Let's say you manage to find and persuade someone amazing to join your team - what happens on day one? Do they have a clear understanding of their role? Do they have all the access, logins, equipment and training they need to do their job properly? How soon will they be contributing positively to your company? And, once they are working, how will they know if they are working on the right things? More importantly, how will you know? The good news is that every question posed above has an answer. You don't need a complete suite of HR tools and technologies in place to get it right first time. It does not need to cost a lot in terms of money or time. In fact, do it wisely and it will save you both. At LUKA BIO we specialise in advising nascent teams on how to set up a stage-appropriate recruitment function to make sure you get it right first time. For more information contact us on info@lukabio.com for a free diagnostic discussion. Biotech founders are a special breed.
It requires a particular type of gumption, coupled with an extraordinary level of technical expertise, to take a scientific concept and set out on the long and arduous journey to bring that idea to life. In my conversations with life science innovators, I have found them to be passionate about their mission - to do some good in the world. This is very much an industry to which we feel aligned. My colleagues and I come from a different background - a unique mix of clinical medicine and human resources, with a focus on talent acquisition. We have noticed that life science startups often face a critical inflexion point when they start to hire new team members. As every entrepreneur knows, you usually have to develop skills and systems on a short timescale, just as the need is arising. HR and hiring skills are no different, and providing advice on this is the sweet spot that LUKA BIO intends to occupy. We aim to help biotech founders develop their HR and recruitment systems to a level that is appropriate for their stage of development. We can find the right people - recruitment is our core skill. However, our broader mission is to make sure that our clients learn how to hire and select the right people, successfully onboard them and then set up their new team members for success. We want to be a partner on your journey to develop and grow as a business, as we grow ours. Let's enjoy the adventure together. |
AuthorDr. John Bethell has 25 years experience in medical & life sciences recruitment. He is co-founder of two successful recruitment firms employing over 100 staff. Archives
November 2021
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