If you’re hiring for a pharmaceutical or biotech company, or you work in human resources at a business in one of these niches, you’re likely aware that many employees from marginalized backgrounds struggle to find their footing in STEM professions. You can go the extra mile to promote diversity at your own company and welcome people from all backgrounds into the pharmaceutical and biotech fields by sharing jobs on PharmaDiversity. Plus, here’s how to incorporate diversity into your marketing materials, implement a mentorship program, and more.
Create Diverse Marketing Materials
Women, people of color, and other groups who are underrepresented in fields like pharmaceuticals and biotech might hesitate to apply for roles at companies in these industries, out of fear that they will feel like the “odd one out” in the workforce. Make sure to emphasize diversity in your marketing materials. You can go here to create PDFs for brochures, website content, or social media.
Form Employee Resource Groups
Employee resource groups (ERGs) allow team members from similar backgrounds to get together and learn from one another. Lots of companies have ERGs for female employees or team members from the same culture. If employees are interested in starting an ERG, BuiltIn recommends ensuring that they establish a charter and governance guidelines.
Establish a Mentorship Program
With a structured mentorship program, you can connect veteran employees with newer employees from the same background. Try soliciting interested employees to serve as your first mentors and providing them with training so that they can effectively guide younger team members.
Fund Scholarships
Today, lots of businesses offer scholarships to students who are pursuing higher education. You might be interested in funding a scholarship for this purpose, or providing tuition reimbursement to employees in exchange for working at your company for a certain number of years after graduation. Many people from marginalized backgrounds struggle to afford higher education, so this can be a welcome benefit.
Prioritize Diversity in Recruitment
Encouraging diversity within your company starts with recruitment. You can work closely with your HR department to develop a recruitment strategy that includes outreach to diverse candidates. To accomplish this, Recruitee recommends tweaking your job ads to include more inclusive language, connecting with online groups for women and people of color in pharmaceutical and biotech fields, promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in all of your branding materials, and considering how you screen for candidates. Take a close look at your testing and screening policies, and assess how you could adjust them to make sure you’re not dismissing marginalized candidates before they even have a chance to interview.
You can also recruit offline for diverse candidates. For example, you might want to reach out to local universities or community colleges, professional organizations with chapters in your area, or even nonprofits based in your city. They can refer qualified candidates to you. Organizations and institutions like this often host career fairs that you could participate in.
Educate Your HR Department
Finally, make sure that your HR department is thoroughly educated on DEI principles, addressing discrimination in the workplace, and other relevant topics. You may want to invest in further DEI trainings or even hire DEI leaders. Check in with your HR team to find out what questions they have about DEI so that you can address these issues.
Supporting diversity at your pharmaceutical or biotech company is a continuous effort. It can take time to build up a truly diverse team. By promoting diversity in your marketing strategy and focusing on diversity in your recruitment efforts, you can bring a wide variety of experiences and perspectives to your team.
Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.
