On Q Recruitment, a specialist Life Sciences recruitment agency, has released their annual Job Satisfaction & Salary Report for the Life Sciences sector in Australia with a number of interesting observations.
The 2022 report has been collated with data from over 1,800 life sciences professionals. In spite of the global inflation and market conditions, Australian life sciences employers plan to grow and retain their teams in the next 12 months.
The recent survey conducted by On Q Recruitment found that 39% of employers are planning to increase their permanent headcount, up from 36% in 2021.
Catherine O’Mahony, Managing Director of On Q Recruitment said that ‘this year’s data suggests that the life sciences job market is rebounding sooner than expected and that businesses are confident in their growth prospects.
The survey also found that similar to many other sectors, skills shortages are the main challenge facing employers in this sector, which highlights the importance of using innovative strategies and new approaches to attracting and retaining top talent.’
53% of managers said that attracting new talent was more difficult than in previous years and 45% of managers said that retaining talent has also become more difficult.
This year’s report also shows that more and more job seekers are receiving multiple job offers, which indicates the level of competition for top talent in today’s market.
Many employers have started adopting new or different strategies to address the ongoing skills shortage. Some of the strategies adopted include recruiting more entry-level trainees, recruiting and sponsoring more overseas employees, engaging more independent contractors, and reallocating work outside of Australia.
Many employers are also offering loyalty or retention bonuses to their employees and sign-on bonuses to top candidates.
In addition to current salaries and cash benefits for life sciences jobs, 2022 On Q Job Satisfaction & Salary Report includes talent acquisition trends, non-cash benefits, insights from managers and candidates, and more job satisfaction-related information and data.
“With the global inflation and skills shortages, we are hoping that the data and insights from this year’s report will inspire solutions for some of the challenges relating to recruitment, retention and employee engagement faced by employers in this sector”, said Ms O’Mahony.
While reading this year’s report she also encourages hiring managers and key decision-makers in organisations to reflect on “whether they have kept their employees – their best brand and talent agents up-to-date on all employee incentives and benefits.”
Other points of consideration include whether they have “ensured that their diversity & inclusion recruitment process makes it easy for applicants from diverse backgrounds or those with disabilities to apply; explored all avenues to retain or re-engage the highly experienced and skilled older workforce; ensured their recruitment strategy attracts primary caregivers who may soon be able to afford to return to the workforce, and finally, whether the key job roles and skills required can be redesigned where appropriate to focus more on transferable skills.”
