Tips for Hiring Orthopedic Engineers – BoneZone Winter Edition

Taken from BoneZone Magazine - Winter 2009 edition

Why is it that during a recession, it is so difficult to attract and hire qualified orthopedic engineers?  One would think that with unemployment at a quarter century high, there would be qualified engineers beating down the doors of the OEMs looking for jobs.  Then why is it that all we seem to see are unqualified people cluttering up email and telephone inboxes wasting valuable time and energy.  The fact is that even though there have been moderate layoffs within some “Big Ortho,” the demand for orthopedic engineers has outpaced supply, showing no sign of relief.  Our economic woes have brought hoards of unemployed or fearful people who believe that medical devices are the last “safe haven” for employment.  We’ve all seen this phenomenon occur with each recession.  However, an increase in available candidates does not translate into more talented hires.  Often times it creates more problems than it solves.

The challenge of recruiting engineers is as difficult as it has even been.  Demographics plays a role in driving the demand for more innovative orthopedic products, however the counter pressures of pricing and the looming fears of a healthcare take over by the government has the industry fighting to mitigate their risk. This means you must do more with less translating into more responsibilities on your plate and less time to do them.   Compound that challenge with a seemingly endless onslaught of new start-ups within the industry competing with the once invincible OEMs.  These small companies still can offer more excitement, autonomy and potential rewards if they can manage to either get acquired or go public.  While the industry is still growing, due to all this new competition and pricing pressure, companies are stretching resources further than ever before.  The growth of the supplier market has also proven that while it may benefit the OEM’s, they essentially compete for the same engineering talent with the very customers that they serve.

None of these challenges are going away.   Your only option is to compete for talent by using creative means and strategies to start sourcing, attracting and screening the right candidates. The companies and hiring managers who will succeed are those who will adapt to the market and devise new ways of attracting quality people to their companies and building their benches.  There are several ways this can be done, but what is clear is that the more of these strategies that you employ, the greater likelihood of success.

If there was one way of recruiting that trumps all the rest, it’s networking.  Everyone must be concerned about exploiting his or her network to broaden their competitive reach. This can be achieved several ways. First, you must actively network with strong college engineering programs and recruit on all of your local campuses.  This can be done by attending job fairs and advertising your company in engineering newsletters and college job boards. Secondly, you must promote your company’s Employee Referral Program.  Most companies have them, but few promote them and truly benefit from them.  You must convey to your team that the company is “always looking for talented and experienced engineers.”  Create a culture of seeking the best people to join ranks.  One of the most effective ways to incentivize your current team is with cold, hard cash.  Alternatively, you can offer extended vacation time or other benefits. If you decide to stick with cash, pay half of the sum upon the new hire’s start date and the balance upon the new hire’s one year anniversary to incentivize your team to protect their company from “job hoppers” and under-performers.  A culture of referrals and team building must be as prominent as a culture of innovation and engineering excellence for you to effectively leverage your employee’s connections.

Another effective method of networking is tapping into your own network of former colleagues.  Since we know that “birds of a feather flock together,” your former colleagues are likely to know your needs and the kinds of people that would fit your team.  If they are not an ideal candidate for your position, they may know someone who is.  Additionally, these people should give an honest assessment of the person’s talent in an effort to keep the trust in your relationship.  This is especially true if you are the one to initiate the conversation since their loyalty is generally to you first and the potential candidate second.  The best place to do this is at one of the many trade shows such as OMTEC or AAOS.  If you are not seizing upon these as opportunities to broaden your reach, work your network and meet new people in the industry, you are missing out on tremendous opportunities.  The best hiring managers are using these shows not only to connect with old friends, but step outside of their comfort zones and network with friends of colleagues and introduce themselves and their company to as many engineers as possible.

The next strategy is to use the internet and job boards in search for candidates. By making good use of the internet, you should attempt to cut out the “middle man,” especially in the early stages of your search.  Most contingency recruiters, i.e. middle men, rely heavily upon job boards such as meddevicejobs.com or orthoworld.com, to find active job seekers.  While these recruiters are happy to charge a full fee for sourcing your next hire from one of these websites, it seems pointless to me to pay a fee for candidates who are available online.  That is, unless of course, you have no time and bunches of money. It is undeniable that recruiters typically have a better yield from the internet.  There are two main reasons for this, they have the time and they have the knowhow.  They tend to write a more compelling job posting that entices the right people to apply online.  Engineering managers tend to focus too much on screening people out when they should be drawing them in.  The highly technical side of your brain wants to only post the positions’ “requirements” and “must haves,” on the web, hoping to attract someone with the right talent and experience.  The reality is that anyone with the type of experience you are seeking is sifting through dozens of similar jobs and it is now that you must “set the hook.”   What will improve the likelihood of convincing them to respond to your posting?  You must make the Job Posting Sizzle!  It must be compelling to the reader.  It should read more about what they will become, the things that they will be able to do and the impact that they will be able to have upon the company, industry and patients.  This is the type of posting that gets people to apply, not a dry list of duties and responsibilities.  Whether you are talking to a prospective candidate or posting an online job, always remember to sell first, and then screen.  Especially in the interview process, it is very typical for managers to “cut to the quick” in the interest of time and look for the Achilles heel of the candidate.  This may be a huge turn off to the candidate, so try to be more creative in getting to the answers you seek.  Build rapport first and sell your company.  After they have begun to show interest, then screen them to the specifications of your position.

Another common mistake in posting a job is to only post a job when you have an immediate need to hire.  In this market, you must keep your “line in the water” and maintain a constant presence on the web.  If you are concerned about any consequences of leaving a job posting up, most of the sites allow you to post jobs “confidentially.” Recruiters also have knack for finding the places where people “park” their resumes.  These are generally the same job posting sites and they have robust databases of “passive candidates” who may be currently seeking new opportunities. These sites are far less expensive than paying a recruiter, and everyone who hires in orthopedics should maintain a formidable web presence aside from their own company’s website.  By investing some time and effort online, you will save money on fees paid to recruiters.  Of course, finding a candidate is only the beginning of the process.  Keep in mind that if these candidates are online, there is a very good chance that other companies are pursuing them as well, so you’d better have multiple candidates to process simultaneously.  Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

To remain competitive in the war for talent, these techniques are an essential part of any engineering manager’s job.  However, if time is critical and you must get results within a short timeframe, it is appropriate to partner with a search professional.  Vetting the recruiting firm is every bit as important as the engineer that you hire.  Be careful not to hire a recruiter who will merely repeat what you’ve already done on the internet.  Find a recruiting partner who can guarantee the results of their search work.  Don’t fall for a good sales pitch.  I’ve found that almost any recruiter who is in business can sell themselves and close a search deal.  You are not looking for a good sales pitch, but a professional who can deliver experienced talent on time.  In order to accomplish this, you need someone who has a proven track record and truly knows your specific needs.  It is not uncommon for a recruiter to make audacious claims of expertise with little if anything to support those claims.  I’ve found it entertaining that while claiming to be expert in the field of orthopedics, upon further inspection on the web, they usually also “specialize” in other fields that are completely unrelated to orthopedics.  Just be judicious in conducting your “due diligence” or else you may find yourself stuck with regrettable consequences.  You will do well to find a respected, orthopedic industry specialist whom you can trust, and whom you can build a long term relationship.  In doing so, you will eliminate the learning curve for assessing soft skills and chemistry fit.   It is critical that you find a recruiter who cares more about your success than making a placement and earning a fee. I cannot over-emphasize this point.  Your success is in the hands of someone else.  Make sure you’ve done extensive references and feel very comfortable entrusting so critical a responsibility to your search partner.  You need someone you can count on to deliver every time.

The difficulty of finding experienced orthopedic engineering talent is here to stay.   To be effective in recruiting talent, your company must be committed to this effort as an ongoing endeavor and not simply an event.  Make every effort to cut out the middle man before the need becomes critical.  You can save thousands of dollars by using the same niche job boards and medical device candidate databases as the contingency recruiters do, so why pay more?  When all else fails, do your homework and find a recruiting partner who you know will deliver in the clutch.  The time spent in advance will help you sleep well at night knowing that they are on the job and have your best interests at heart.