Protecting Prized Personnel from Predators

Laboratory managers who ban calls from executive search firms make it easier for recruiters to lure top talent, according to Al DiPalo vice president of Searchforce Inc., a Clearwater, Fla.-based executive recruiting firm that specializes in life scientists. "I love companies that tell people if they're talking to a recruiter, they'll lose their jobs on the spot," he exclaims. "All I have to say is, 'Do you really want to work for a company that is so afraid of you looking for a better opportunity that they would do that, no matter how good you are, how many years of experience you have?'" DiPalo is one of a breed of headhunters who make a living by probing organizations for weak spots that allow them to entice good people away from their employers. The headhunters try to make the scientists feel valuable and wanted. They thrive on mistakes made by managers in life science companies and departments. Knowing what headhunters see when they're looking for vulnerable companies can help managers spot and plug gaps in their retention schemes for key employees. Several experienced recruiters agreed to share trade secrets with The Scientist, to contribute their unique viewpoints to the bank of management know-how. DiPalo calls his job "snapper fishing." Snappers, or baby bluefish, are even more voracious than the ever-hungry adults of the species. For DiPalo, the baby bluefish exemplifies scientists who want to move to their next job--now. "You don't even use bait," the headhunter says. "Just throw a bright lure in the water and crank fast. Recruiting from some companies is like that. You can literally throw your hook in the water without any bait and they bite by the hundreds." Anemic Ecomony Makes Headhunters Hungry Industry Change in the number of executive searches 4Q 2000 to 1Q 2001 1 Q 2001 to 2 Q 2001 Professional, technical, and scientific services -75% -45% Educational services -62% +17% Pharmaceutical and medical manufacturing (including biotechnology) +51% -51% Source: Association of Executive Search Consultants Note: AESC does not track the actual numbers of people recruited because the information is considered proprietary Preferred Relationships Inviting recruiters in may be the best way to make sure they'll keep their hooks off the talent, says David Jensen, a principal consultant who works out of the Sedona, Ariz., offices of Search Masters International Inc., a life sciences recruiter based in Downers Grove, Ill. "All recruiting firms have clients and nonclients," Jensen says. "You can't recruit from your clients." Nonclients, however, make fair game. Many companies have preferred relationships with a few search firms. But to the excluded recruiters, companies with preferred client relationships make bountiful waters for talent fishing. "I've been on the positive side of those preferred relationships, and it's great," Jensen says. "The problem is everybody else and their brothers know they don't have a chance at that company. [Recruiters] will call and target that company's people like crazy the minute they are shut out." One of the simplest, most effective, and most overlooked shields against talent takers, Jensen says, is to establish procedures at the company switchboard that make it harder for headhunters to get through to the scientists. "Recruiters are lazy people. We have to be on the phone all day long," comments Jensen. "If companies have trained secretaries and receptionists in not giving out names and titles, it makes it harder for us. If you know one company won't give you names and another one will, you go to the one that makes it easy for you." Jensen's advice might make life sciences operations think twice about bragging over their people on their Web sites. But another recruiter points to a contrary problem: outfits that don't boast about their scientists risk losing them. "One sharp person I signed up, I finally got their attention by saying, 'They should be recognizing you for what they achieved.' The candidate [responded], 'Well, they never talk about that.' I asked, 'Why is that a secret?' and that did the trick," recalls Jerry Lareau of the Hampton Group, a life sciences recruiting firm based out of Southhampton, N.Y. What's Next? Anytime he's talking to a scientist who is enthralled with his current project, Lareau makes sure he asks--casually, of course--where the scientist will progress after completing the present assignment. "I was talking to a very senior guy, a very good scientist, who just got a plum assignment at his company," Lareau relates. "I asked him, 'What's next?' and he knew. They had already discussed it with him. I knew I didn't have a chance with him at that point." Failure to lay tracks for future advancement leaves talent free for the taking, adds Jensen. "A person who doesn't know how to get to the next level on the career ladder--it's called "plateauing"--is very susceptible to being recruited," says Jensen. "If it's vague and mysterious how to get to the next level, or if the rules are spelled out but you don't see anyone living up to them, you take the call from the headhunter." Headhunters know which companies only provide training grounds and where promotions only rarely occur. They all know the "bad bosses," too, Jensen says. Recruiters keep watch for supervisors who persecute their people or who prove to be petty with promotions and perquisites. Want to know which company is in merger talks? Ask a recruiter--he or she will get a flood of resumes from jittery scientists. The economy can also give headhunters headway unless supervisors learn to manage it. The biotechnology boom has begun to dissipate; money is tight and many stock options are only "useful for redecorating the living room," says Marc Hennebert, a partner at Arthur D. Little, management consultant, and chief of its life sciences group. Countering the disruption of merger or of layoff rumors makes for a major management challenge, he says. Executives should cast about for more creative ways to keep valuable employees in their seats during mergers and other potentially threatening events. Overseas assignments, for example, can be attractive enticements, Hennebert suggests. But whatever incentives given to merger-nervous staff, managers should execute a merger or a downsizing fast. To head off a rush for the exits, managers should explain the necessity of any downsizing honestly, and be honest about the company's fortunes once the restructuring ends, Hennebert advises. "The worst that can happen is indecisiveness and uncertainty. Uncertainty is the worst enemy of life sciences companies and yet we have to manage uncertainty all the time," he says. "We have to deal with it, because it doesn't go away." Not only do recruiters monitor a company's uncertain financial fortunes; they also keep an eye peeled for negative action from the Food and Drug Administration. "We read the industry journals. We subscribe to expensive newsletters that tell us how clinical trials are going," says Jensen. "When you're part of a project team, you're psyched. You have this goal, this mission. You're super-excited. You're going to work early. But the FDA says no and people get mighty discouraged. That company is a potential target." Sense of Purpose A recruiters' drive comes from the same forces that drive deep-sea fishers: the thrill of pursuit, the satisfaction of setting the hook, the glories of a prize catch. But life sciences recruiters also may have something in common with their prey: the sense of a higher purpose in their work. Paula Blank readily admits recruiting money-driven professionals such as stockbrokers might be an easier way to make a living. But she still prefers working as a recruiter of life scientists for Lewis & Blank International Inc., based in San Mateo, Calif. Recruiters who work with scientists sometimes share the sense that they can help improve the quality of human life, Blank explains. "This particular area has held me for 20 years, so it must be doing something," she says. "It's dynamic; it's evolving; it attracts a very stimulating group of people." Like any angler, Blank also understands the fishery. She appeals to scientists' desire to do meaningful work to recruit them to her clients' firms. "If people are going into an organization where they personally feel they are working on something really worthwhile and that they are within an organization where the leadership allows them to be focused in that particular area, rather than having to be all over the place, that's the best of all worlds," the recruiter says. The promise of freedom, particularly the promise of freedom to tell other scientists about a discovery, can also be effective bait, Blank says. "I've seen organizations where people involved in discovery were not able to publish. They could file for patents, but they were limited in terms of their ability to publish," she says. "When we spoke to these people, they would note that during particular periods there were restrictions on their publications, for whatever reason." Corporations that want to keep their scientists on the payroll may also need to incorporate other freedoms that researchers in academic settings take for granted, Blank adds. "Sometimes the best way to debate theorems is while tossing a Frisbee back and forth in the hallway." Peg Brickley (pegbrickley@hotmail.com) is a freelance writer in Philadelphia, Pa.

Protecting Prized Personnel from Predators

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of