Biohealth professionals discussed the importance of recruitment and retention — and the effects location and resources can have on them — at the annual BioHealth Capital Region Forum. Front and center discussion focused on diversity, opening space in more urban areas, and providing employees with a company mission they can get behind.
BioTrain™; has been working with Montgomery College to help students and professionals in the biotech field enhance their hard and soft skillsets for the past six years.
It’s no secret that the biotech talent market is tightening. With near full employment across the industry, the Capital Region is feeling the same growing pains as they build out strategic initiatives in the wake of COVID-19.
The BioHealth Capital Region (BHCR) has been witnessing a strong upward growth trajectory in recent years. The COVID-19 pandemic has only heightened the need for increased research, diagnostic and domestic manufacturing needs in the region. But while workforce needs are in demand, the right skills are in short supply.
Biotech, Medtech, and pharma companies of all shapes, sizes, and focus areas are struggling to fill vacancies during a growth boom created by the pandemic and advancements in biomanufacturing, cell and gene therapy, and other bleeding-edge sectors. This ongoing boom has created an uber-competitive talent acquisition and retention environment that’s pushing hiring managers, talent leaders, and c-suite executives to evolve and adopt new talent hiring and retention strategies that give them a competitive hiring edge.
‘Candidate experience’ is a phrase that is frequently tossed around by talent acquisition leaders seeking to improve their recruiting and hiring practices. This makes sense, as the current job market is competitive, and wholly candidate driven: most desirable candidates are currently employed, often evaluating several job options in addition to ‘yours’. With that being said, the experience that you provide your candidates can be the difference between winning a new employee, or losing great talent to a competitor.
Maryland’s reputation as the destination state for biotech jobs and life science research continues to climb as new startups emerge across its biohealth cluster regions.
BioTrain is a sector partnership of biotechnology companies, government entities, and nonprofit organizations led by Montgomery College that collaborates to shape a technical workforce that is ready for today and tomorrow. The program is located at Montgomery College’s Bioscience Education Center (BEC) and is a critical element to the BioHealth Capital Region’s (BHCR) workforce development ecosystem.
Over the recent decades, cancer immunotherapy research has made significant advances. In our continued quest to cure cancer, a commercial incentive is necessary to counterbalance the costs and risks associated with the research and development of cancer immunotherapies and to encourage new inventions.
2020 is over, but its impact on how employers recruit and hire talent will reverberate for years to come.
