According to Chris Robinson, who is working as the Chief talent officer in Third Rock Ventures in Boston, the rate of unemployment in Massachusetts is 2.9%. The biotech companies have loads of openings for which they are not getting employees with the right skills. So, what are these biotech companies doing to fill up their vacant posts with the right people?

How Biotech companies in Cambridge, MA, is talent hunting?

The biotech firms in Cambridge, which is fast becoming the hub for such companies, and other places in Massachusetts, cannot get skilled people to suit their needs. These biotech firms are now recruiting from other states, especially from Connecticut. These two are neighboring states, and hence tapping the talent in these states is more feasible. The biotech firms mostly tap these pools of techies for recruitment in their firm:

 

  • Academic pool

Cambridge and Boston’s city is fast emerging as a hub of biotech innovators and inventors in the USA. It includes biotech and pharma giants, prominent medical research institutions, NGO foundations, and life science companies. These institutions recruit from the pool of new and budding scientific task force from various academic institutes. Boston harbors Boston College, Harvard University, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), the University of Massachusetts, and so on, which offer life science programs. The Cambridge biotech companies also tap the young minds in various academics of neighboring Connecticut State by offering them internships and training in their firms and later recruiting them there.

 

  • Tapping the techies in neighboring states

Massachusetts has Connecticut and Rhode Island in the south, New Hampshire and Vermont in North, and New York towards west. Like Cambridge in MA, places in Connecticut are also developing rapidly, with many biotech and bioanalysis firms operating there. Relocating their skilled task force to Cambridge and Boston has become a prevalent recruitment method in Cambridge Biotech firms. Although the relocation costs a massive amount to the company, some firms believe in in-house work. The companies provide huge incentives and pay-packages to the techies to motivate him for relocation in Cambridge. Some Employment agencies can help the biotech firms in locating prospective employees in Connecticut and other places.

 

  • Remote location recruitment 

Like IT companies, some biotech firms are now recruiting remote location employees. Although the experiments in biotech need the personnel to be on-site, these remote location employees visit the lab at regular intervals and carry out the necessary experimental work. It has a significant impact on cost-saving as it reduces the relocation expenses. Secondly, the remote employee can work better from his residential location and hence increases his work efficiency. Some biotech firms in Cambridge have collaborations with their sister firms or research institute to outsource some services. The remote location employee can also work there if it suits him. Many biotech firms have their units operating at different locations in the state. To cut the cost and take maximum benefit of the skilled employee, these companies locate them for a specified period at all these units across the region.   

Massachusetts is fast emerging as the biotech hub of the USA. More than 1,100 biotech firms are operative in Cambridge and Boston. These firms tap the academic and industrial experts from neighboring states like Connecticut to recruit at strategic positions in their firms.