Headhunting: solving the talent shortage

I had the window seat on the plane from JFK to Dallas. Not optimal. Aisle is optimal for bathroom visits and for stretching, but anything beats the middle seat, so I was pleased.
The guy next to me was a talker. He was, I gathered, the CEO of a small Biotech firm in New England, that was developing the “Lorenzo’s Oil” of the decade. When the woman he was addressing said she hears the buzzword, “biotech” a lot, but didn’t know what it meant, he looked stricken, turned to her, and with profound gravitas said:

“biology will be to the 21st century what information was to the 20th century”

I smiled. He was clearly expecting applause. Then he heaved a sigh and said:

“…but we can’t find the people to hire”

I smiled again. I’m a CEO too. I run one of the country’s largest headhunting firms that specializes in Biotech, CRO Services, and Pharm search work. It was time to go to work.

I introduced myself, made a mental note that this is why I fly first class, and proceeded to drill down. I explained to him that he was not alone. His competition was also finding their growth plans thwarted, not by lack of opportunity, but by a dearth of talent. “But why?”, he wondered, “just a couple of years ago I could interview four quality people for every job in a week’s time. I didn’t even have to pay people like you a fee, no offense.”

I assured him times had indeed changed. The normal laws of supply and demand and economic cycles, which have long determined employment levels and therefore recruiting strategies, have been thrown over for a more powerful driving source: demographics.

It is demographics that drive the current candidate centric marketplace, and it won’t change, regardless of inflation, interest rates, or cataclysmic events like 911 or Katrina, for nearly another decade. What’s going on? The baby boomers are slowly going “gently into that good night.” The oldest baby boomers just turned 60 and have started to retire. What makes them special? Their sheer numbers. There were 78 million people born between 1946 and 1964 as our fathers came back from war and stormed their wives like they did Normandy. They were the best educated generation. They became the wealthiest generation in history, and their achievements and influence have been magnificent. What they didn’t have were many children. The next generation, whom Copeland forever labeled, “Generation X”, in his book of the same name, born between 1964 and 1980, numbered only 28 million. And they had a very different idea of what life should be about. Often dubbed “slackers”, their desire for balance and a return to simplicity, was often wrongly assumed to be lack of ambition or a sense of entitlement. Many of them remain at home into their 30’s, paying a small portion of their parent’s bills, in what is commonly called the “failure to launch” phenomenon.

America is a youth culture. The biotech and pharma workplaces are no different. Given our druthers, we’d hire people with 7-15 years experience. These people tend to be 28-38 years old. When headhunters send in younger folk, they are deemed not ready. When we send someone older, they get politely passed on. We legislate equality and age discrimination, but the youth culture is deeply etched, and we simply keep interviewing.

But tick, tick, tick. The youngest boomer is 42 years old. So every day companies wait for the perfect candidate to come not from the 78 million person pool, but from the 28 million person pool. So they advertise and get a weak response. They post their jobs on Monster, BioSpace, and Careerbuilder and their HR department keeps recycling the same people.

Why, because they’re not out there!!

In the book, Impending Crisis, Roger Herman says that by 2010 there will be 10 million more jobs than there are people to fill them in the US. By comparison, in the halcyon days of the Dot.com boom, there were only 4 million more jobs than people.

To compete, Biotech, CRO Services companies, and Pharma must:

1) Stop the bleeding by putting in retention programs to keep from losing more of their own
2) Accept that there is a war for talent and start competing by making your hiring process about selling rather than the traditional, “what can you do for us?” mentality.
3) You must have a recruiting strategy which targets the “recruited candidate”, the one who is not looking for a job, has no resume, and is only accessible via headhunters niched in a specialized area of work.

At my firm, we focus on business development talent. Revenue drivers. We do this from the senior rep level all the way up to the V and C levels. We are connected. Our lifeblood is our network, which is ever expanding and does not sleep. We are, in essence, who we know. In the 30 years we’ve been impacting the bottom lines of companies and the careers of candidates, we have taken a stealth approach.

A candidate you get from Hobson Associates has been “cold recruited.” We found out via our network who was excellent, not who was out of a job or available, and we approach that candidate and challenge them to consider a change that will potentially change their lives.

We are dream merchants, hell raisers, and the ultimate mentors, because we believe people are happier when they continue to grow and evolve. We recognize that fear of change is natural, and we help our candidates overcome these fears. We are very proud that the national average for “offers turned down or placements rejected”, is nationally around 15%, and at our firm, has historically been 4%.

We bring impact players with an agenda for growth to companies with compelling stories to sell, and we allow them to compete for each other. Our approach has always been successful, but given the demographics, it has become critical to our client’s success.

I wrapped up this heartfelt pitch just as the plane was landing, and the belts were fastened and the tray tables up and locked away. My companion and fellow CEO asked me to call him. He needs to hire a CMO.

Maybe he’s wrong. Maybe Talent will be to the 21st century what information was to the 20th century.

Or maybe, in an ideal world, Talent will be to every century, what it has been in every century. The most important asset any company will ever have.

(the author, Danny Cahill, CPC is the CEO of Hobson Associates, a leading headhunting firm in the biotech, CRO services, and pharma space. Along with Executive Search, he does sales training and motivational keynotes for clients. The manager of the Life Sciences Practice is Steve Soto, CPC, one of Hobson's top producing headhunters. Call us at 203-272-0227 xt. 111or email at steves@hobsonassoc.com )