Growing pains - building A BIOtech team

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.
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