Catalyst Issue 8 | Page 20

Within weeks of COVID-19 hitting , our AMS team in China converted its assessment process from in-person to online . Initially there was some reluctance from the business ( and from candidates themselves ) but they started to get really good results .
We ’ ve found that candidate quality has remained high and time to hire is better . Candidate and hiring manager experience has also improved . What we might have anticipated taking three or four years to implement literally changed overnight , and the impact has been really positive .
From a global perspective , we want to become the biotech company of choice . Achieving that ambition ultimately means ensuring we are positioned as an attractive employer to candidates .
The pandemic has afforded us an opportunity to speak to a broader range of candidates around the globe , as individuals are interested in our vision “ to create a better , healthier world for all people ”.
In 2020 , we made more than 3,000 hires across our business , but it ’ s important for us to treat our candidates in the right way ; we need to be thoughtful about what people actually want and how we encourage them to join us . As we are hoping to secure them for a long and mutually productive tenure , giving candidates an authentic insight into the business is paramount .
To help with this , we have invested in building capability in our TA team . We ’ re really focusing on trying to upskill our recruitment team ’ s knowledge of the business so that members are better equipped and talk confidently with candidates about what our organisation does . We work in some exciting therapy areas , including HIV / AIDS , liver diseases , haematology and oncology , and respiratory diseases .
We need to transition from reactive hiring for open roles to strategic hiring that is aligned with the direction of the business and the new therapy areas we want to work in . Within TA , that means looking at where we need to build networks and having the right technology in place to support that . As such , there ’ s a big focus on systems to try to support our talent generation .
We continue to invest in improving our applicant-tracking system ( Workday ) to be much more customised , user-friendly and efficient . We have also looked at our customer relationship management database ; we knew that we needed to start to map candidate pipelines proactively . We ’ re in the process of implementing a new candidate database tool ( called Yello ), which means we can keep in contact with candidates and share information with them . When a suitable role comes up , we have ready-made pools of candidates to reach out to , so it speeds up the time to hire , and also increases our profile .
Yello also allows us to participate in candidate events and target-marketing campaigns , which will give us greater audience sourcing capability . This will help us streamline our processes and focus on a more diverse candidate population , as well as enabling us to increase the diversity of our shortlist , which feeds into our broader corporate goals .
Our focus on building an inclusive and diverse talent pool continues to be important . For example , we have a US-based initiative for both early talent and experienced workers which involves proactively creating roles to try to drive the diversity of our population at every stage – from attraction to development and retention .
More widely , we have also accelerated hiring manager training and now have a full curriculum around interviewing , onboarding and inclusive hiring . We recognise that beating biases is even more important when you ’ re operating in a virtual environment .
We also view global mobility in a different way ; while previously we were very driven by where candidates were based , we are increasingly seeing global mobility as an enabler to develop , upskill and retain internal talent and attract a broader range of external talent . This mindset has had a strong impact on diverse hiring ; we have numerous examples of people taking on roles that will eventually be based in a different location .
One of our leadership commitments is to be bold in aspiration , and we ’ ve certainly tried to model that within talent acquisition .
During this uncertain period , many team members have challenged themselves to do things differently – whether using new technology , trying different ways of working or encouraging the business to do different things . We are becoming a more exciting organisation because of the underlying ambition to be bold , and it ’ s making it a more stimulating environment in which to operate .
Over the past year , our partnership with AMS has been key to helping us develop the tools , tactics and strategies to tackle the situation but also the agility to move to new ways of working , in order to provide real value to the business .
Jules Anderson is Senior Director , Global Talent Acquisition and Mobility , while Giovanna Dinale is Senior Director , Talent Acquisition EMEA-Canada-ASIA , for Gilead Sciences .

Catalyst Client Insight

C

Bold in aspiration

and agile

in execution

© Gilead Sciences

Jules Anderson

Giovanna Dinale

Companies in the biotech and pharmaceutical sector have been thrown into the public spotlight during the COVID pandemic . This has given global biopharma company Gilead Sciences an opportunity to connect with a broader range of candidates . But ensuring the right processes , tools and technology are in place to support its hiring strategy is key , explain Jules Anderson and Giovanna Dinale .

Being a global organisation means that

we could leverage knowledge from different geographies when it came to navigating the COVID pandemic . We took a lot of learnings from Asia . As the first region to experience it , our teams there had to be really agile in adapting to a completely new way of working .

Within weeks of COVID-19 hitting , our AMS team in China converted its assessment process from in-person to online . Initially there was some reluctance from the business ( and from candidates themselves ) but they started to get really good results .
We ’ ve found that candidate quality has remained high and time to hire is better . Candidate and hiring manager experience has also improved . What we might have anticipated taking three or four years to implement literally changed overnight , and the impact has been really positive .

Broadening the talent pool

From a global perspective , we want to become the biotech company of choice . Achieving that ambition ultimately means ensuring we are positioned as an attractive employer to candidates .
The pandemic has afforded us an opportunity to speak to a broader range of candidates around the globe , as individuals are interested in our vision “ to create a better , healthier world for all people ”.
In 2020 , we made more than 3,000 hires across our business , but it ’ s important for us to treat our candidates in the right way ; we need to be thoughtful about what people actually want and how we encourage them to join us . As we are hoping to secure them for a long and mutually productive tenure , giving candidates an authentic insight into the business is paramount .
To help with this , we have invested in building capability in our TA team . We ’ re really focusing on trying to upskill our recruitment team ’ s knowledge of the business so that members are better equipped and talk confidently with candidates about what our organisation does . We work in some exciting therapy areas , including HIV / AIDS , liver diseases , haematology and oncology , and respiratory diseases .

We need to transition from reactive hiring for open roles to strategic hiring that is aligned with the direction of the business

Building the talent pipeline

We need to transition from reactive hiring for open roles to strategic hiring that is aligned with the direction of the business and the new therapy areas we want to work in . Within TA , that means looking at where we need to build networks and having the right technology in place to support that . As such , there ’ s a big focus on systems to try to support our talent generation .
We continue to invest in improving our applicant-tracking system ( Workday ) to be much more customised , user-friendly and efficient . We have also looked at our customer relationship management database ; we knew that we needed to start to map candidate pipelines proactively . We ’ re in the process of implementing a new candidate database tool ( called Yello ), which means we can keep in contact with candidates and share information with them . When a suitable role comes up , we have ready-made pools of candidates to reach out to , so it speeds up the time to hire , and also increases our profile .
Yello also allows us to participate in candidate events and target-marketing campaigns , which will give us greater audience sourcing capability . This will help us streamline our processes and focus on a more diverse candidate population , as well as enabling us to increase the diversity of our shortlist , which feeds into our broader corporate goals .

We do not see location as a barrier to hiring as long as the person has the right skill set for the role we are recruiting for

Focusing on inclusion

Our focus on building an inclusive and diverse talent pool continues to be important . For example , we have a US-based initiative for both early talent and experienced workers which involves proactively creating roles to try to drive the diversity of our population at every stage – from attraction to development and retention .
More widely , we have also accelerated hiring manager training and now have a full curriculum around interviewing , onboarding and inclusive hiring . We recognise that beating biases is even more important when you ’ re operating in a virtual environment .
We also view global mobility in a different way ; while previously we were very driven by where candidates were based , we are increasingly seeing global mobility as an enabler to develop , upskill and retain internal talent and attract a broader range of external talent . This mindset has had a strong impact on diverse hiring ; we have numerous examples of people taking on roles that will eventually be based in a different location .

True value from RPO

We ’ ve worked with AMS since March 2019 , hiring for all roles up to director level . At the outset , we were thoughtful about how we designed the structure and team , as we wanted this to be much more than a transactional model . We are quite a niche business , so some of the roles for which we recruit are rare and specialised . Coupled with the fact that it ’ s quite a competitive market , we have to make sure that our recruitment team really understands the nature of our business and the candidate landscape for the capabilities and skills we seek , so a lot of time was invested in identifying the skills , background and experience of the team that we needed .

When we were thrown into the COVID pandemic , our recruiters had to switch to being fully remote , so investing time in getting the right capability level and implementing effective processes and training for the team really paid off . They didn ’ t need as much day-to-day support as perhaps a less-experienced team would have done .

Being bold

One of our leadership commitments is to be bold in aspiration , and we ’ ve certainly tried to model that within talent acquisition .
During this uncertain period , many team members have challenged themselves to do things differently – whether using new technology , trying different ways of working or encouraging the business to do different things . We are becoming a more exciting organisation because of the underlying ambition to be bold , and it ’ s making it a more stimulating environment in which to operate .
Over the past year , our partnership with AMS has been key to helping us develop the tools , tactics and strategies to tackle the situation but also the agility to move to new ways of working , in order to provide real value to the business .
Jules Anderson is Senior Director , Global Talent Acquisition and Mobility , while Giovanna Dinale is Senior Director , Talent Acquisition EMEA-Canada-ASIA , for Gilead Sciences .