Every employer dreads receiving a resignation letter.

And in the age of talent shortages, it can seem logical to turn to a counteroffer as a way to retain talent.

But a rapidly scrambled counteroffer is not the way to go. In fact, in the vast majority of cases, counteroffers are poorly put together panicked responses to a misunderstood situation.

This is because legacy management strategy will have you working to formulas that simply don’t work anymore.

The annual review.

Distant and aloof leadership.

Generic feedback and performance management strategies.

These have been proven, again and again, to not work.

Staff retention means putting aside management hubris and adjusting your performance management and reward and recognition scheme to make sure you never get to the point of counteroffering.

The trick is in ignoring all your protective, responsive instincts and leaning on patient, pandemic-proof performance management techniques.

The key to successful staff retention lies in its sustainability.

Sustainability in this regard means packaging performance reviews and staff management strategies that meet the contemporary needs of your people. It doesn’t mean simply offering what other companies are offering, or getting to the point of having to counteroffer to meet a competitive new job package.

Effective talent retention relies on business owners and HR managers reaching beyond the scope of immediate job demands and take-home pay to drill into the soul of why your staff member works, and what they work for.

• This takes analysis of pay, performance reviews, appreciation of workplace mental health, career happiness, personal growth and more.
• Retention of talent requires targeted contract and workflow management. Most important to this is personalising feedback and operational support.
• Taking a one-size-fits-all approach to staff management won’t work. Context, and specificity, is key.

So here are our thoughts on why counteroffers are never the recruitment and retention fix you think they are…and how to manage your staff better to retain the best-in-class talent.

Money isn’t everything.

• “Only 12% of employees resign due to money”

This alone should tell you that throwing more money at a dissatisfied employee will rarely work. Money is important in retention strategies, but it is significantly less important than connection to company purpose, ESG or career growth, for example.

Get some context, and lead with empathy.

Undoubtedly you’ve been where your employee has been - perhaps eager to start a new role and less than satisfied with their current role. So, staff retention strategy should lead with empathy.

If you try and retro-fit a “solution” onto the “problem” of your employee wanting to leave without understanding the reasons behind it, you come across as callous and impersonal, as if you think any action is worthwhile when what your staff member wants is highly specific, nuanced solutions to their unhappiness.

Above all else, your people want to be heard.

So, engage with them, let them speak, and seek context for their career. What do they work for? Why do they like or not like working for you? These aren’t questions to be asked at an annual review or after someone’s handed in their notice. You should be asking it every week, every day if possible.

Don’t knee-jerk a response to someone quitting.

No right-thinking employee is going to take a hastily written email offering more money or a better job title without a formal meeting and a proper discussion.

So do not reply to a resignation letter with a quickfire counteroffer.

Accept the letter, express your dismay if you really want to, but make sure you formalise a proper meeting to discuss how you can improve their experience at your company.

Allow your employee the chance to prepare, and make them aware you’re eager to sit them down to clearly, and professionally, try and retain them for the right reasons.

Focus on employee positives and how they relate to career and company success.

When it comes to career management and support, focus on what you can realistically achieve for your people. Make development plans personal, and make sure any improvement of position, pay and experience focuses on how your employee’s career is valued in the context of your company.

You should not break salary rules to hold onto talent (see Money isn’t everything above) - this is neither sustainable nor fair. You cannot say things like “we were planning on doing X anyway…” after someone shows a willingness to quit because even if you were, it sounds like an excuse.

Summary

Staff retention requires patience and hyper-personal forms of performance management and recognition.

You want to make sure every member of staff feels connected to company purpose, and tangible company context.

Managers are respected more if they are candid, honest and don’t hide. Use performance feedback and continual feedback strategies as a springboard to engage more staff about their happiness and future at your workplace.

If you follow the above advice, you’ll never get to the point of counteroffering. Which is exactly where you want to be.

Evolve are employer branding pioneers within the MedTech, Pharmaceutical, Life Sciences and Healthcare industries.

To read more about our employer branding service, and how it can help your company develop a market-leading employer value proposition to attract, hire and retain the best talent for your business, visit our employer branding page.

A lesson to jobseekers everywhere - beware the counteroffer!

In today’s recruitment market the counteroffer has become a go-to staff retention tool.

As talent shortages persist in key industries, counteroffers are a last-ditch attempt to keep hold of staff. Critically, we believe they don’t offer long-term solutions to the question of why you want to leave a job in the first place unless the offer is tangible, meaningful and personal.

The reality of counter offers.

Most people will get a counteroffer at some point in their career.

Up to 50% of candidates who resign will receive a counteroffer from job to job, so strategising a response to one is wise.

Naturally, this strategy should go hand in hand with the reasons why you want to leave in the first place. It could be that you don’t feel rewarded, either financially or promotionally. It could be that you feel disassociated from the direction of the company, or simply that you need a change.

Counteroffers are, in our view, broad-stroke “solutions”. They are often not specific or personal enough to warrant acceptance.

Here’s why.

The Fix.

It can seem like a counteroffer does offer a fix - bosses will wrap up a counteroffer in a sweet package of more money, perhaps a new job title, an acknowledgement they “haven’t been fast enough at picking up on things”, or “we really want to give you the position you deserve now” and so on and so forth.

In reality, the vast majority of counteroffers are a poor HR sticking plaster.

They are mostly reactionary offers: short-term fixes to long-term problems. Throwing money at those sorts of issues never works. Only a small proportion of people leave jobs because of a lack of money. It's much more holistic than that.

Sadly, the stats back this up. Candidates should be aware that for all the attractiveness of a counteroffer, accepting a counteroffer is productivity and job happiness suicide unless the offer is truly personalised and it addresses the root causes of why you want to leave a job.

New job, old issues, and short-termism.

For candidates with one foot out of the door and into a new job, a counteroffer can seem like a sweet victory - finally, the job you worked for is offering you everything you wanted! They are offering everything your new company is offering, but you don’t need to faff around with onboarding because you already know the systems!

Counteroffers are not, in the main, long-term solutions to job dissatisfaction.

Your immediate response to a counteroffer.

So when faced with a counteroffer, our advice, and the advice we give jobseekers, goes like this:

1. Never forget why you’re leaving in the first place. Constantly refer to the emotions and professional reasons you decided to hand in your notice in the first place. Analyse them, and hold them close.
2. Take a breath. Agree to nothing straight away. Ask your boss to put any offer, or any discussion around a counteroffer, in writing.
3. Allow yourself time to take the offer in. If you are utilising an external recruiter, speak to them and ask them for their advice. Unless the offer is exceptional, they will say what I say - it’s too little, too late, they’re panicking, and it’s not your responsibility to cover for them while they look for a replacement, because they will be looking for one.

But in an effort to be fair here are some examples of when to take, and when to decline a counteroffer.

When to accept, or not accept, a counteroffer.

Did the boss sit down with you?

• By this, we mean did the boss see your letter of notice and simply ping off a knee-jerk response saying “I’ll see what your new job is offering”, or did they offer to sit down and discuss your position in full?
• In short, if a counteroffer is going to be offered you want it to be tangible, realistic to your position, and packaged to answer every reason why you wanted to leave in the first place. If it isn’t, don’t accept it.

Is the counteroffer an actual “package”?

• By this, we mean is the counteroffer simply an offer of more money, or does it take a full-spectrum approach to every point of contention in why you want to leave, and aim to answer them all? Does it give you timescales, realistic KPIs to hit to improve performance or a roadmap for advancement? Does it make you happy?
• Our advice is never to accept a counteroffer that doesn’t take a total, personal, positive approach to your job, career, happiness and skills development.

The one question a counteroffer needs to answer.

After the above two criteria have been answered, ask yourself this one question: would I have gotten all the above if I didn’t quit in the first place?

If the answer is no, don’t accept the counteroffer. You should never have to twist an employer’s arm into recognising good work and rewarding it appropriately.

Summary.

In our view, the majority of counteroffers are never worth the stress and effort. In very rare circumstances are they worthwhile.

They are generally offered when the worst of the workplace damage has been done, and are done as a knee-jerk reaction to someone quitting.

As highlighted above, they are not long-term fixes for job satisfaction and we always urge any candidate facing a counteroffer to never forget why they handed in their notice in the first place!

Evolve are employer branding pioneers within the MedTech, Pharmaceutical, Life Sciences and Healthcare industries.

To read more about our employer branding service, and how it can help your company develop a market-leading employer value proposition to attract, hire and retain the best talent for your business, visit our employer branding page.

It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it - is this the hidden cardinal rule of interviews?

Mastery of body language - and understanding what you should and shouldn’t say through it - has long been touted as the secret weapon of job interviews.

Everyone’s heard the claim that “90% of all communication is non-verbal.” While that statistic isn’t entirely accurate, the underlying truth remains: in moments of high emotion, your body language often speaks louder than your words.

What is “body language”?
“Body language is the use of physical behaviour, expressions, and mannerisms to communicate non-verbally, often done instinctively rather than consciously.”
Think about everything you do when you’re not talking:
How you sit. How you stand. Your posture, eye contact, when and why you smile, how you use your hands, the speed and volume of your speech, your facial expressions, tone of voice, sense of personal space, and even fidgeting or fiddling with your collar.

The list goes on - and all of it communicates something.

According to HelpGuide, there are seven types of non-verbal communication. Verywell Mind says there are nine. Regardless of the number, one thing is clear: you’re saying far more than just the words that come out of your mouth.

Your body tells a story.

Body language acts like a compass, pointing toward what you really mean. From the second you step into a room — or onto a video call — your gestures, eye contact, and overall presence begin communicating your attitude and intent.

Awareness of these cues gives essential context to spoken words and provides a deeper understanding of emotion and engagement during an interview.

For the interviewee: your helping hand
By consciously applying body language techniques - some subtle, some overt - you can elevate your interview performance and project confidence, engagement, and composure.

For instance, posture matters. Research shows that sitting with folded arms can make you appear defensive, while facing toward a door or window may signal you’d rather escape.
Awareness is power: simply avoiding these negative cues can make a noticeable difference in how you’re perceived.

For the interviewer: your helping hand
Body language isn’t just for candidates - interviewers also benefit from using it consciously.

Consider tone of voice. What a leader sees as authoritative and commanding may come across as domineering or unapproachable to candidates.
Neither side wants to seem aloof, disinterested, nervous, or rude. Awareness of positive, open, and context-driven non-verbal communication helps ensure the experience is rewarding for both parties.

The dos and don’ts of interview body language
DO – Practice.
Without practice, you risk being a “leaking ship” of nerves, undoing all your verbal preparation. Do mock interviews, record yourself, and ask honestly: Would I hire me?

DON’T – Go overboard.
Too much gesturing can distract, and maintaining eye contact for more than four seconds can feel uncomfortable or even intimidating.

DO – Develop emotional awareness.
Non-verbal cues are emotionally driven. Cultivate self-awareness to better understand your triggers and to read the emotions of others more accurately.

DON’T – Zone out during virtual interviews.
Online interviews still allow for strong body language. Avoid looking away from the screen too often or appearing disengaged.

The bottom line
Mastering body language requires self-awareness and deliberate practice. It’s central to telling the right story about who you are, why you’re good at what you do, and the confidence you bring to your craft.

Don’t overthink it - instead, treat these principles as flexible guidelines. Learn them, adapt them, and use them naturally to suit the flow of every interview.

The Remote Interview Revolution:

Like almost everything in the world of HR, the humble job interview has undergone a quiet revolution in recent years.

We now live in the age of remote interviews - and it’s been a long time coming. Beyond the obvious convenience of interviewing from the comfort of home, remote interviewing has fundamentally changed how employers and candidates connect.

It opens the door to a much wider and more diverse talent pool - people who were once out of reach due to geography or circumstance. Employers now have the power to connect with talent faster, reduce time-to-hire, and scale their hiring efforts digitally.

But while the technology has evolved, behaviour and attitude sometimes lag behind. That’s where companies like Evolve add real value - helping both candidates and employers get up to speed with best practice in this new recruitment landscape.

The Challenge: Communicating Through a Screen

Remote interviews bring their own unique challenges - especially when it comes to communication.

With body language constrained, nuance reduced, and the natural flow of in-person conversation flattened into a two-dimensional exchange, candidates often wonder:
How can I make an impact through a screen?

Fortunately, there are a few simple, tried-and-true rules that can help you stand out for all the right reasons.

1. Still Dress to Impress

First impressions matter - even on camera.

Yes, the cliché of someone interviewing in shorts and a suit jacket is probably more common than we’d like to admit, but professionalism still counts. Dressing appropriately shows respect for both yourself and your interviewer.

While lighting, camera angle, and internet connection are all important, attire remains the simplest way to communicate confidence and readiness.

2. Check Your Lighting

This one’s easy but often overlooked: don’t sit with a bright light or window behind you.

A strong backlight will throw off your camera’s balance and turn you into a silhouette - not a great look.
Instead, light your face from the front with soft, even lighting. If possible, position yourself near a window facing the light source or use a front-facing lamp.

3. Create a Neutral Space

Your interview background tells its own story. Aim for a space that’s clean, calm, and distraction-free.

Background: Avoid anything risqué, personal, or overly busy. A tidy shelf or neutral wall works best. If using a virtual background, go for something subtle and professional.

Pets: As much as we love them, keep furry friends out of earshot.

Housemates or family: Give everyone a heads-up about your interview time to prevent interruptions.

Devices: Silence your phone and mute all notifications. Unless you need another screen for reference, close everything else and keep your attention focused.

4. Be Punctual (No Excuses)

You can’t blame traffic for being late to a remote interview.

Join the meeting early, sit in the waiting room, and be ready to start on time. It’s a small act that leaves a big impression.

5. Check Your Tech

Finally - and crucially - test everything.

Confirm your internet connection, meeting link, webcam, and microphone beforehand. Do a quick trial run to avoid last-minute glitches.

If something’s unclear - say, the interview platform or link - don’t hesitate to ask ahead of time. It’s far better than being caught troubleshooting live.

Remember, even though you’re not hosting the interview, you do share responsibility for making sure it runs smoothly. Treat it as a partnership - you and your interviewer working toward the same goal: connection.

The Takeaway

Remote interviews are here to stay - and that’s a great thing. They make hiring more accessible, more efficient, and more inclusive.

But success in this new format requires more than just showing up on camera. It’s about preparation, awareness, and presentation - the same fundamentals that have always mattered, just adapted to a digital stage.

If you’d like to learn more about mastering remote interviews - as a candidate or an employer - contact Evolve for expert guidance and tailored advice.

This is the second of two blogs focussing on some of the basics of interviewing - this one is aimed at employers on the search for their next star hire.

Creating a positive, inclusive and effective interview is a lesson in balance.

Any employer who’s ever hosted an interview understands this and tries to work with the unique dynamics of an interview to the benefit of both the candidate and the employer.

But the modern hiring market is far from balanced. Within the wider Pharma and Healthcare market, candidates are in short supply employers are clamouring for the same talent from small talent pools, and despite the best efforts of specialists across the HR landscape, the industry remains firmly in candidate-led territory.

A lot of companies are compromising on long-held rules to get talent in the door. Traditional salary bandings are being crushed under the weight of recruitment necessity; counter-offers and counter-counter-offers are completely normalised; candidates for maybe the only time in history truly know their worth, and want to maximise return on placement in a new job.

The power is, seemingly, all in the hands of the candidate. However, the interview is a place for equal power dynamics, and good interviewers use this to their advantage - not by leveraging their brand, power, pay or reward, but by engaging the candidate on what they really want from a job.

When company purpose and company mission are more important than ever to an employee, it's theoretically easier than ever to host a successful interview.

Here’s how!

Do.

Prioritise achievements.

• In specialist industries like MedTech or life science QC it’s not enough to find a candidate with the right skills - you need to know whether a candidate can apply those skills to the immediate benefit of your firm, customer base and business network.
• So, make sure you build an interview strategy around getting the most information possible from a candidate on what they've achieved in the scope of their employment, and how they can apply those material achievements to your enterprise. Try not to focus too much on skills (good candidates will have a lot of them!) but try and find out how they use those skills in work, and which skills are most appropriate for your company.

Offer, and contextualise, flexible work where appropriate.

• Remote work is one of, if not the, most important work “perk” that, post-COVID, has become a make-or-break deal for many candidates.
• While we understand not every job in the medical, technical or wider life sciences field can be remote, this is where contextualising the role comes into play. You need to be able to communicate how, and why, certain roles are based where they are, and how your expectations of employee workflows have changed as a result.
• This provides clarity of role for your potential staffing base and sets the right expectation for the candidate.

Personalise, and contextualise a relevant benefits package.

• As a continuation of the point on contextualised remote work, full remuneration packages need to be relevant and personalised to every candidate where possible.
• Long gone are the days of centralised work perks focused on office-based benefits. Consider the context of work and where work is.
• Would your teams benefit more from perks such as localised childcare benefits to help staff handle the rising cost of childcare or a free gym membership in a location they commute to only twice a week?

Meet the Great Resignation head-on.

• Don’t hide behind the great resignation as the cause of your hiring struggles, or your inability to retain staff. The best employers in the medical faculty have pivoted to meet the effects of the great resignation head-on. Those same employers realise that an interview represents the perfect time to communicate and contextualise everything - the entire brand, recruitment and workforce journey - with candour.
• Your candidates will appreciate an employer who is honest about their purpose in a disrupted working world, and who is clear about their solutions to it.

Don’t.

Forget the basics or the power of empathy.

• Be polite. Be timely. Be welcoming. The basics of hosting a good interview still matter and in our post-pandemic new normal, showing empathy for a candidate's position and journey is vital if you want to secure the trust and respect of the talent in front of you.

Take too long to communicate.

• The most common complaint of employers who fail to hire or lose advocacy from their candidate network is that their recruitment process takes far too long. Don’t wait a month to decide on a candidate. Don’t even wait a week. Pull the trigger within at least 2 to 3 days.

Hold multi-stage interviews beyond two or three stages.

• On the topic of interview time scales, if you are set on putting a candidate through a multi-stage interview, make it very obvious from the first step of your candidate journey (the job advert!) how many stages there are, and reduce the time between each stage.
• Good candidates will not wait for good employment - they are in too much demand and will get a better offer from someone else.

Ignore feedback.

• Lastly, seeking feedback from your candidate is vital in improving your overall interview technique and strategy. This is especially important if you’re consistently bringing candidates to interview and not hiring.

The bottom line.

The candidate journey from referral or job advert should be fast, done with candour, and with empathy.

The companies that forget the basics of good interviewing - timekeeping, good preparation, working quickly to snare the best of the best - will always suffer from poor hiring numbers and, over the long term, poor retention of staff.

This is the first of two blogs on some of the basics of interviewing, so we thought we’d start this mini-series highlighting some of the most important candidate interview do’s and don’ts.

In our experience, no matter the industry or level of seniority, navigating an interview is not a simple tried and tested formula.

Every aspect of recruitment, from pre-interviewing and vetting through to onboarding and retention, has changed. Industry shifts caused by market conditions and the increase in remote interviewing all mean interviews must adapt to meet the needs of the modern workplace.

Interviews, interview strategy and interview planning are as subject to changing trends and industry movements as anything else in recruitment and HR. Consider this a bit of new recruitment market myth-busting, courtesy of Evolve!

So, without further ado, here is the Evolve Interview Do's and Don’ts guide for Candidates…

Do.

Ask Questions.

● We cannot implore this enough of candidates. Be curious. Ask questions. Ask about the role, the last person in the role, why the role is vacant, and what you should expect from the role. Ask your interviewer what they should expect from you. There are never enough questions you can ask.

● An interview represents one of the only open forum opportunities to mine your interviewer for information on the role, the company, their plans, and your place within it all. So don’t leave any stone unturned.

Dress to impress, even online.

● Although we don’t completely believe in dressing for the job you want, not the job you have, there is nothing wrong with making sure you turn up in appropriate attire.

● Never forget the basics of interviewing - showing up in your Sunday best might be a touch overkill, but smart clothing shows respect for the occasion and that you’re approaching the interview process from a place of professionalism.

● We may all be doing everything on Zoom and spending less time in office, but compromising on this, at the interview stage, is fatal for a job application.

● The basics still count, respect is still important, and displaying professionalism is vital.

Remember the basics of positive body language.

● From looking at windows or facing doors during an interview, to crossed arms and eyes dropped to the floor, body language matters - remember, it’s what you're saying when you’re not saying anything.

● This is where a bit of practice makes all the difference. Positive body language comes from control, awareness and continuous adjustment to posture, facial expression and tone of voice. So practise answering questions. Film yourself practising questions and review how you engage.

● Confidence is bred from knowing how you approach every question and every answer, and this will feed down into everything from your posture to the way you gesticulate during answers.

Remember to relate anecdotes and experience to achievements.

● Relate as much working evidence and experience back to tangible moments on your CV, and always elevate achievements over skills when talking about yourself.

● This will mean your interviewer can see where, when and how you achieved something in past roles, better visualising how you will fit into their company.

Don't.

Be late!

● If you’re holding an interview online, there is no excuse. But similarly, turning up late to an in-person interview shows a critical lack of forethought and planning.

● If you are going to be late due to traffic, or you’re experiencing digital issues and cannot access a remote interview, do not hesitate to let your employer know as soon as possible. Be open, honest and receptive to feedback on future interview planning: hiccups happen and it’s not fatal to a job interview unless you refuse to communicate.

Forget the follow-up email.

● A follow-up email is one of the easiest things to forget. If an interview goes badly, it may be something you don’t want to do. But I find even sending a simple thank you shows courtesy and respect.

● A follow-up is also an opportunity to double up on points raised in the interview. Perhaps you mentioned a project you worked on you think your interviewer may want to read more about - that’s your chance to show them!

Be aloof!

● Lastly, attitude to interviews is everything, because it reflects your attitude in how you work.

● Every point raised above speaks volumes about how you’d approach teamwork, meeting deadlines, how you work with management and more. So if you approach an interview from a place of aloofness you’re not displaying confidence - you’re displaying arrogance.

The bottom line.

The ball is very much in your court when it comes to recruitment - the low supply/high demand of specialist talent in the pharmaceutical and healthcare market has created a perfect storm of candidate supremacy.

But an interview is neutral ground. It should be treated with professionalism, grace and thanks.

For more helpful advice and tips, contact Evolve!

The job advert game has changed.

Long gone are the old school hit-and-hope recruitment advert strategies, typified by sending as many adverts to as many people as possible, and spreading your advert across as many job boards as possible, all in the hope of engaging the right person.

In some sectors, this attitude still exists. But the candidate return is sketchy and the quality of candidates unstable - the return on job advert investment simply isn’t there anymore.

In the post-pandemic era, job adverts have to be hyper-targeted. When the cost of hiring the wrong person is astronomically high, and the recruitment market is decidedly candidate-led, you want to make sure your advert is finding the right people.

You want the focus to be on quality, not quantity.

To find the right talent, you need to make sure your company is being advocated for in the right networks, and that your job adverts are finding their way into the inbox, job board or direct message of your perfect candidate.

This requires some written word magic - you want to inspire candidates to apply, you want to talk their language, and you want to highlight opportunity, to grab future stars, developing talent, and next-gen leaders.

Within the Pharma, MedTech and Life Sciences industries, job adverts are typically rich in industry detail, specific in requirements and highly niche in the use of language. However, writing jargon-heavy job ads and sticking them on medical jobs boards does not guarantee quality CVs in your inbox.

There are many aspects of a job advert to consider before you put pen to paper, such as:

● Where you’re posting the advert - what sites, which networks and for what particular candidate?

● How does each platform dictate what does and doesn’t work for job adverts? E.g. should you be wording an advert on LinkedIn the same way you are for other jobsites, or Twitter?

● Are you leveraging your employer brand enough? As employer brand specialists, we know that your entire job advert needs to be written under the brand umbrella of your EB.

● Will your job advert attract both passive and active candidates? What candidates are looking for a new job? Which ones are looking only passively? Do you know the difference between the two, and how to speak to both parties?

● Does your referral network know you're accepting CVs, and are they, too, advocating for your live jobs?

The modern job seeker.

Consider the modern job seeker - mostly digital natives who are facing a disrupted future, having made it out of the pandemic, who are aware of the cost of living rising for months if not years to come, and desperately seeking job security even as they launch “side hustles” to both explore their career paths…and make ends meet.

What type of job advert is going to attract those people? What style of language speaks their language?

The perfect job advert.

While further below we pick apart the main pitfalls of job advert writing, you want to have the following basic information in a job advert:

● Introduction - a brand-focused intro paragraph where you announce the role, the company, the time scale for hiring, and a breakdown of the opportunity on offer.

● Main Section - this needs to be a detailed description of the company and its values; the reason or reasons for hiring for the role; the history of the role and its place in the matrix of the company; the leadership team and their needs; the company plans for the future, and the primary responsibilities of the role.

● Compensation and benefits - the real meat of the role: what you’re paying your new hire and details on their full remuneration package.

● Call to action - clear information on how to apply; clarification on the recruitment flow (whom the application is going to, how long the process could take etc), and links to further reading, such as a company career page, social media pages or recruiters’ LinkedIn pages.

Things to watch out for when it comes to writing a job advert.

Job seekers want three things:

● They want to know how they’ll be remunerated - is the salary in keeping with my expectations?

● They want to know where they’re working - does the role have remote work options (the no.1 candidate demand)?

● They want to know your brand purpose - does the company's purpose match my expectations, views, and vision for what my labour means. Does each candidate understand and feel a sense of value in their work?

These three aspects of a job ad answer the most pressing post-pandemic candidate questions around building a viable, sustainable career.

Details matter - remove all vagaries in job role, responsibility, pay or benefits. Be specific and be honest about it.

Make your call to action clear - the trick to effective recruitment in the age of the great resignation is you want to make sure by the time your perfect candidate has read the job advert, they do one of two things - dive further into your brand (either via links to your website, career page or social media pages), or be so inspired they simply have to apply straight away.

Both points of contact need easy to access, clear hyperlinks, web addresses, email addresses or phone numbers. Make it easy for your candidate to get in touch with you and explore your brand!

Evolve

Sectors within the Medical Sales industry

• Pharmaceuticals
• Medical Devices / Medical Technology
• Healthcare
• Life Sciences

What does the role of a Medical Sales Representative involve?

• Medical Sales roles are predominantly field based and you will be responsible for a specific territory. This means that there is usually lots of travel involved
• Arrange appointments with customers both face to face and virtually
• Promote and sell your company’s products to key customers in the NHS or private sector
• Educate and train customers on the products you are selling by doing presentations and demonstrations
• Build strong relationships with customers and key stakeholders
• Provide after-sales services
• Meet and exceed sales targets
• Organise and attend medical conferences when required

How to get into Medical Sales

Graduate training programmes – Evolve has a dedicated Graduate Recruitment programme to help recent graduates start their career in medical sales industry

Apprenticeships / Internships

University courses

• Scientific: Biomedical Science, Biological Science, Pharmacology & Pharmaceutical Science, Biology, Medical Engineering, Biochemistry, Sports Science, and any other science related subjects
• Non-Scientific: Business Studies, Marketing

Skills and Knowledge required

• Full driving licence is essential, as the majority of medical sales positions are field based which involves travelling to visit customers face to face
• In-depth research into the Medical Sales industry, learning about key customers and the structure of the NHS
• Shadowing experience of a Medical Sales Representative is highly advantageous
• Excellent communication skills – verbal, written and listening
• Experience in a customer-facing environment
• Good customer service skills
• Ability to work well in a team and on your own
• Commitment, persistence, and determination
• Ability to accept criticism and overcome rejection
• Ambition and a desire to succeed

Progression opportunities

With experience and a good track record in sales, you could progress into a senior sales role or management, or even move into a marketing position.

Here at Evolve, we have a dedicated Graduate recruitment team that works closely alongside recent graduates with a keen ambition to step into medical sales, providing excellent tips into research, CV writing and interview techniques.

Contact the Graduate recruitment team to discuss!

So, you’re building a salary and benefits package - where do you start?

There has never been a better time to take a microscope to your compensation package strategy, and even though money and job perks have always been incredibly important to workers - and a vital element of attracting best-in-class talent to a company - a full remuneration package has to be more than attractive.

It has to be sustainable, meaningful and personal.

What do we mean by that? Well, ask yourself the following questions:

● Sustainable - is your compensation package well thought out and commensurate with the rest of the company and the wider industry?

● Meaningful - is your compensation package serving a purpose eg. Do your benefits and perks reflect your company vision and mission, and do they involve your staff beyond getting a pay packet at the end of the month?

● Personal - do you tweak your compensation package (reasonably) for each staff member, department on hierarchy?

To illuminate all three points, let’s elaborate:

If you refuse to offer a sustainable compensation package that meets the expectations of the wider industry, you will neither attract nor retain good staff. If that package is at odds with your internal pay bandings, or you pay the same level of staff inconsistently, you'll create resentment and anger, not to mention run into some legal trouble.

If your compensation packages simply don’t match your company vision - for example, if you operate a community healthcare business, but your work perks simply don’t match the culture of your company (such as offering restaurant discounts, which isn’t a bad thing, but what about mileage on the gallon for fuel? Or reduced nursery costs for working mums?) - you won’t hire the right people and you’ll be seen as not wanting the best for your staff.

And if you’re not making an effort to make sure every staff member feels wanted at work - and in the age of hyper-personalisation you cannot afford not to - then you’ll find your staff don’t feel looked after. I’m not suggesting you bend over backwards to accommodate every staff member’s whims, but if you’re finding your entry-level Gen Z talent want to take volunteer days to help in the local community rather than a gym membership, why can’t you accommodate that?

Let's get back to basics - what do candidates want from a job in 2022?

Perhaps rather than lean on "what do they want from work?", the best way to look at this question is "what do your people want from their work life?"

The driving rationale behind the Great Resignation wasn’t rank unhappiness with work - it was a lack of a safety net in work and life; a lack of cohesion between labour and outcome; and unhappiness in the face of inflexibility of in-office work in the digital age.

In fact, this is the very question asked by the World Economic Forum in their piece titled, unambiguously, What do employees want most from their work life in 2022?

They broke it down into two constitute parts - the rise of the home office, and a sense of wellbeing and shared culture, and the stats support this:

Remote and Hybrid Work.

● “67% of UK technology candidates are now looking to work entirely remotely”.

● “The term “remote jobs” is now searched for over 18,000 times per month in the UK on Google – a 410% increase over the last 5 years”.

● “57% of British workers want to be able to work from home”.

Wellbeing and company purpose.

● “Employees want a more human employment value proposition: They want employers to recognise their value and provide value to them on a human level. Monetary compensation is important for surviving, but deeper relationships, a strong sense of community and purpose-driven work are essential to thriving”.

● “89% of workers at companies that support well-being initiatives are more likely to recommend their company as a good place to work”.

What do candidates want from a remuneration package?

There is no quick fix to offering the perfect remuneration package - it takes time to craft the perfect balance of attractive, competitive salary bandings (and in public service organisations this is more rigid than in private), and personalisation of benefit and perk.

But our advice is simply to follow the above as a guideline and create a positive remuneration culture, and then craft something affordable and relevant to your industry.

Here are some great examples beyond the standard fare of commission bonuses and vague promises of “training” that could pique your interest:

● Unlimited time off - from Netflix to Kickstarter, many companies offer unlimited time off for their teams.

● Paid parental leave - a huge perk for working parents and enormously attractive to older workers.

● Remote and flexible working - a now-standard offer, and one that more and more workers want.

● Child Care assistance - a fantastic benefit to working parents especially when childcare costs are rising.

● Career development training - one of the more sought-after perks, this can be offered in a variety of ways, from in-work mentoring to apprenticeships, training courses, or certifications paid for by the employer.

● Personal development training - more personal than career development training, it’s no less important for people to feel like they can develop both their career and mentality within work.

● Private health insurance - especially offers like free dental or private healthcare, both of which are attractive perks for workers in the UK.

● Employee appreciation benefits - this is a widely used, sometimes vague term that incorporates a lot of great things like gifts, away days, bonuses, team dinners and more.

● Bucket List awards - although more extreme in outlay, being able to help staff do some bucket list events is a huge perk, such as bungee jumping, or even a subsidised holiday!

● Care packages - smaller on scale to a bucket list gift, but more affordable - companies like Perkbox, Thanks Ben and Reward Gateway are examples of companies that help package these sorts of offers.

● Wellness programmes - companies such as Headspace, Libratum and Mercer offer customisable wellness programmes for employers across the UK.

● Home office budget - set aside money to help your home-working employees benefit from an up-to-date, ergonomic workspace at home.

● Company equity - more relevant for startups and senior hires, offering equity aside from salary and bonuses creates advocacy and determination to help the company thrive.

● Flexible gym membership - rather than book your people into a fixed space, offer something closer to home or family.

● Commuting assistance - the price of commuting is skyrocketing. So help your people get to your office in a way that’s sustainable and you’ll see a marked improvement in in-office working and new hires wanting to work for you.

For further reading, there are some great references from the CIPD on workplace benefits which you can read here.

The bottom line.

Fair remuneration means more than simply paying talent what they’re worth. It’s about creating a positive compensation culture that meets the demands of a modern workforce.

For more information, contact Evolve

There are plenty of guidelines about how to write a good CV online, but we want to focus on what Evolve does best – to provide actionable advice for talent looking to build a career in Life Sciences, MedTech, Medical Sales and the wider Pharmaceutical sector.

The recent proliferation of digital tools, portfolios and online resumes has threatened to push the humble CV into the dustbin of recruitment history. But CVs are timeless pieces of professional documentation because they serve one key purpose - to inspire your prospective employer.

CVs offer a concise, clearly communicated window into your career, your passions, your drives and your experience, and their relative simplicity (in form, layout, order, and design) creates a level playing field for every applicant to be judged equally.

As of yet, no one has created a fairer or simpler way to summarise a career.

Let’s get some of the basics right.

In our industry, as in any other industry, a CV needs to have order, but that order serves a purpose - to tell your story.

When considering the scale of recent UK Life Science investment, and the predicted rise in wearable tech, digital transformation, biotech, data science and privacy and drug creation, there has never been a better time to hone in on this amazing industry - and your CV offers a unique, personal way of communicating your interest in this growing industry.

Further to that, remember that every interaction you have with a potential employer will either increase or decrease their desire to take you further up the recruitment ladder - and your CV is one of the most effective ways of turning an employer’s head.

Here are our key guidelines for writing the perfect Life Sciences, MedTech and Pharma CV:

● Your CV ideally needs to be no longer than 2 pages, and should only be 3 pages or more if there are requirements to attach particular proof of certifications or longer personal statements as per application requirements.

The order of your CV should be the following:

● Your name.

● Your contact information.

● A key summary - 5 or 6 key points that summarise your career to date. For example: * Passionate MedTech Sales Manager * 5 Years’ Experience * Multinational Account Manager * YoY X% Sales Uplift * Specialist in Clinician Business Development * or something of that ilk.

● Personal statement - the why in your application: what drew you to the job, and why you think you’d be the best hire.

● Career to Date - in chronological order, from most recent to oldest. Note: if you are a seasoned careerist with over 10 years of experience, we suggest limiting your career details to only the last decade, to stop your CV sprawling into pages and pages of text.

● Qualifications and Certifications (highlighting the most relevant for the role).

● Reference details (2 or 3 ideally).

And remember the basics really do matter.

● Your CV cannot be a jumble of information - your career, experience, certifications, education, and even your personal contact information needs to be represented in clear order.

● It shouldn’t be loud, bright, or full of graphics - keep your font choice standard (Times New Roman, Arial or similar), remove any multicoloured text and steer away from “enriching” your CV with graphics - keep it clean, and let your future employer’s focus be entirely on the story you’re telling.

● Keep it up to date - for obvious reasons, your CV needs to have all the right up-to-date information relevant for the application, including information about you, your career to date, your certifications, your experience, your references, and a small but detailed personal statement about your desire for a job.

● Finally, triple-check it! - you cannot afford to send a CV to a prospective employer with spelling errors, the wrong email address, or references with incorrect contact information. Triple check every detail, every line, every full stop. A lack of diligence shows a lack of detail or respect for the application or employer, and in the Life Sciences and Pharma sector that’s fatal for a job application.

For more information, contact Evolve