Hiring in the life sciences sector is always competitive, but for startups and scale-ups, it can feel like an uphill battle. You're often up against companies with more visibility, bigger budgets, and better-known names.

Through our work with high-growth life sciences businesses, we regularly hear the same thing: it’s not just about finding good candidates, it’s about competing for them effectively. Timing, messaging, and approach all matter. A lot.

This blog isn’t about building long-term hiring frameworks (we’ve covered that here). Instead, we’re sharing the real-world tactics that growing companies are using right now to level the playing field and win candidates over, based on conversations we have every day with leaders and the candidates they’re trying to hire.

1. Get to know your competitors

First things first, you need to know who you’re up against. If you’re aiming to attract talent from competitors, it’s crucial to understand what’s going on inside those companies.

• Identify who you're up against: Think about where you’ve hired from before, or where you’d like to hire from in future. It doesn’t have to be companies that are exactly like yours, just ones that have the kind of candidates you know you’d hire. A useful starting point is to identify 5–10 critical skills that matter most for the roles you’re hiring. From there, consider which companies or sectors those skills typically come from. In biotech and pharma hotbeds, that skill set, and the sources of it, is often even broader.
• Keep tabs on them: Set up Google Alerts for these companies. You want to know if they’re going through big changes, new leadership, mergers, product failures, or if their share price is taking a hit. These are all potential signals that candidates might be receptive to move.

2. Act on the signs that candidates might be ready to move

Timing is everything. You want to catch people when they’re most likely to consider making a move, here are some potential signs:

• Leadership changes: When a new CEO or exec team comes in, it can shake things up. We recently had a senior scientist approach us after her company brought in a new CEO with a completely different vision. She felt out of place and wanted to hear about what else was out there.
• Financial shifts: This is especially true for senior leadership. With so many firms offering stock as part of their EVP, if a company’s share price drops, those within the company might consider their stock options not a strong enough reason to stay put.
• Project setbacks: If a competitor’s key project hits a roadblock, people might start worrying about their own company's product viability, or even the company’s future. It’s a signal that candidates might be more eager to understand what other opportunities are available to them.

3. Approach candidates like a human, and avoid the immediate sales pitch

What we often hear from candidates, especially those not actively looking, is that they’re put off when the first message they get is all about a job. A softer, more exploratory approach tends to lead to better conversations.

Offer to talk about their career goals instead of diving into what you’re offering. The vast majority of people aren’t 100% satisfied with their current job, and they’ll appreciate someone taking the time to understand what they’re really looking for.

We want to put the candidate at the centre of the process, too often it’s the role we’re working on that’s considered first. By shifting the goal from getting the role info in front of them to just getting your foot in the door of an introductory conversation, you’ll likely find candidates to be far more open to a chat.

4. Understand your EVP as a startup / scale-up

There are risks in joining a startup, but there are also some great perks. You’ll need to be able to address both, especially if you’re targeting talent that is used to working within more established firms.

Understand why people would want to join your company specifically, and if you don’t know, speak to some of your recent hires or applicants. Uncover why they joined, why they stay, and what made them consider you in the first place.

As a starting block, here are some of the main reasons we see candidates leave large corporates for smaller firms:

5. Use LinkedIn to build your network and brand

If you’re not actively using LinkedIn, you’re missing a huge opportunity to stay visible and engage with your potential next hire.

Most people just scroll through LinkedIn without really engaging, and 99% of users never actually communicate with the networks they’re building. Don’t be one of them!

You'll see a huge difference just by posting regularly and commenting on industry news. When you get engagement or profile views from those within your sector, it effectively becomes an inbound lead list for potential new candidates, and depending on what they engaged with, you might already have a conversation starter.

We’ve spoken to a number of talent leaders who’ve built strong candidate networks but weren’t seeing much return. After just a few weeks of sharing regular content, they noticed a significant uptick in inbound interest, just goes to show how far visibility can go.

6. Final thoughts: play to your strengths

Recruiting for a startup or scale-up isn’t easy, but it’s incredibly rewarding when you find the right people. The trick is to play to your strengths and make sure you’re approaching candidates at the right time with the right message.

It’s all about finding people who are capable, but who also really get what your company is trying to do and the nature of life as a startup. When you focus on that, you’ll build the team that’s really going to help drive your company forward.

Recruiting as a startup or scale-up isn’t about trying to copy what big pharma or established players are doing, it’s about playing to your own strengths. The companies we see winning top talent are the ones who act with intent: they read the signs, understand what candidates care about, and show up in ways that feel genuine and timely.

These aren’t silver bullets, but they are proven tactics we’ve seen work again and again for growing life sciences companies.

If you want a sounding board for your current hiring approach, or just want to explore how others in your shoes are doing it, get in touch with our team here.