As the cost-of-living crisis continues and the demand for high calibre candidates in the science industry remains high, organisations are set to face even greater challenges as they battle to recruit top talent in 2023. To compete, hiring teams are being forced to evaluate the effectiveness of their recruitment process.

In light of the challenges ahead, we were keen to know what our clients think recruiting will look like in 2023, and we gathered their opinions via a short staffing and recruitment questionnaire.

The findings of our survey offer useful insights that will help businesses determine the changes they need to make to tackle a highly competitive market and enhance their recruitment success in 2023. Furthermore, the analysis provides guidance on the top recruitment trends to expect within the chemical, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and clinical sectors.

A key indicator from the survey revealed just how critical it will be for organisations to adapt and engage new recruitment strategies going forward, with an emphasis on the candidate experience.

The Highlights of this year’s survey are as follows:

– 81% of businesses said that they are planning on enhancing their recruitment offering in 2023 by making changes to improve the employee experience.

– Only 36% of businesses said that adopting a digital-first approach is a priority for 2023.

– 54% said that employer branding as a competitive differentiator is the key trend that will shape the way they recruit and retain talent in the future.

– The top 4 trends that businesses said will shape the way they recruit in the future are candidate experience (63%), employer branding as a competitive differentiator (54%), focus on Diversity and Inclusion and recruitment marketing, (45%).

– 63% said they believe that the entry of AI into the recruitment environment will improve the candidate experience.

– The 3 top perks businesses are planning on offering in 2023 are health and wellness packages, (72%), flexible working and performance related bonuses (54%).

Summary of findings

Our survey findings bring into focus the challenges and opportunities as we head into 2023 and highlights that organisations are prepared to work harder to enhance their recruitment offering. The majority of the businesses we surveyed agreed that strengthening the employee experience in 2023 will be critical component of their improved recruitment & retention strategy. It’s positive news that organisations are planning to take an employee centric approach to recruitment as they continue to navigate change and plan for the future of work.

Two thirds of those we surveyed agreed that the entry of AI into the recruitment environment will improve the candidate experience, highlighting benefits such as faster and more efficient communication, a speedier hiring process and the mitigation of bias and discrimination.

The top HR priorities that will emerge for companies in 2023 are improving candidate experience, employer branding as a competitive differentiator, Diversity and Inclusion and recruitment marketing. This demonstrates that it’s now more important than ever for organisations to work hard to accentuate what it is that makes them attractive as an employer.

Interestingly, less than half of the businesses we surveyed are not planning to embrace a digital first recruitment strategy in 2023. This raises questions about how they plan to establish themselves digitally and compete with competitors in a modern marketplace.

Just less than half of our survey respondents said that Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace is a business priority for 2023. This opens up further questions; 1) Are life science companies ahead of the curve and confident of their D&I processes? Or 2) Could this indicate that organisations are lacking awareness of the correlation between D&I and the ability to attract and retain talented employees? Anecdotally, in our experience, in the early parts of a recruitment process, candidates are much more proactive about questioning an organisation’s stance and record regarding equality and fairness. This is an area we are investigating and will be providing follow-up analysis and findings.

With 72% of those surveyed citing wellness packages as the key perk they are planning on offering in the new year, it’s evident that a focus on the health and happiness of their employees is a key priority as businesses build their benefits strategy for 2023.

Finally, with over half of our survey respondents stating that they will continue to offer their employees a flexible schedule next year, it looks like hybrid working is here to stay.

Once again, we would like to extend our sincere gratitude to all those who took part in our 2022 Staffing and Recruitment Survey. We’d also like to express a big congratulations to Jane Klotz, HR Manager at High Force Research Ltd, who was drawn as our prize winner. We are delighted to share that we donated £100 to the Alzheimer’s Society on her behalf.

We hope that these findings will help your organisation to recruit more effectively in 2023. If you’re interested in talking to our team about how we could help you develop a winning recruitment strategy for the new year, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us here.