Everything you need to know about hiring in the Medical Device industry

Content Team

While the medical device industry traditionally focused on preventative and urgent care and diagnostics, the pandemic has accelerated its adaptation of other categories like wearable devices and remote monitoring and diagnostics. Functions that monitor temperature and other vitals, fitness, activity and irregularities that could precede health risks are evolving rapidly, bringing about changes in the hiring needs within the industry. We spoke to our talent experts about the market and the trends they are seeing in the hiring landscape.

What are the trends in the medical device industry and how do they impact hiring?

  • Wearable and point-of-care devices

    With connected medical devices becoming the increasing norm, we are seeing the need for technology and IT experts grow. The adaptation of microelectronics, wearable devices, display capabilities and long-distance and remote communication between devices and users, introduces risks and challenges in the areas of security, privacy, malware, and hacking.

    However, the acceleration of these products is not only asking for technology experts. The pandemic has put enormous pressure on manufacturers to increase production, but also to accelerate the entire product development process, especially for point-of-care testing devices. Medical device manufacturers will need product experts who can accelerate the entire product development and market processes to position themselves to handle the ongoing global health crisis, and the next.

  • Minimally Invasive Surgery

    Particularly in the Asian market, minimally invasive surgery (MIS) is on the rise. Continual innovations in this area make MIS useful for an expanding list of procedures, while allowing surgeons more precision and patients a faster recovery time. Despite its growth potential, MIS is restricted in its development by a lack of skilled healthcare professionals in this area, which will see key players in the industry compete for a small pool of available talent.

  • Chipocalypse

    The global chip shortage is affecting nearly every industry, with experts believing that catching up with the current backlog will last through 2022 and into 2023. For the medical device supply chain, the shortage also includes raw materials and part shortages, that will see proactive supply chain solutions become a top priority for medical device manufacturers.

    This makes room for a range of experts that healthcare and life science managers will have to make decisions about. Who have the skills to predict and analyze the next shortages, who is able to redesign our products to leverage the materials we can access, and who can act as a reliable global supply chain partner?

  • AI, AR and Robotics

    The market size for AI in health care is expected to grow from $10.4 billion to $120.2 billion by 2028. Medical technologies like robotic-assisted surgery are a significant driver in the projected growth, as well as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).

    The combination of technologies like AR and VR have benefits for the training of much needed health care professionals, whereas robotics can alleviate human staff with automated tasks, surgical assistance, and general monitoring of patience statistics.

How to find talent in the medical device industry?

Back in 2017, we already found the demand for talent outstripped the supply in the industry. The pool of candidates with highly specialized skills that meet the industry’s demands have always been slim. Now, hiring managers are faced with the challenge of bringing in expertise from outside their industry like engineers, quality assurance, IT experts and product developers, to keep up with everchanging trends and developments in a competitive market.

A common challenge in the process of attracting new candidates is the issue of location. Medical device companies tend to be concentrated in large metropolitan areas. For example, the US medical device market is primarily based in San Francisco, Boston, Minneapolis and St Paul – also known as Medical Alley. The small candidate pool often means having to convince talent to relocate. Relocation packages and other financial incentives like sign on bonuses and stock option arrangements are common ways to compete for talent.

More unique to the medical device industry are dual technical and managerial career paths, and job fulfilment. The highly skilled medical device industry can offer candidates benefits like working on innovative technologies alongside renowned scientists and engineers. Being part of a change for good, patient wellbeing and improving healthcare outcomes are usually common drivers for those working in healthcare and medical device industries, presenting a competitive opportunity for employers to compete with industries that focus on commercial and monetary outcomes.

More and more companies in the medical device industry have started to recruit talent from other industries that demand relating skillsets, and as such spending more on training, developing, and onboarding these newcomers, rather than recruitment and unfilled vacancies.

How can an RPO partner help?

Hudson RPO has partnered with industry leaders in medical device, health care and life science industries. Together, we have reduced time to fill by more than 40%, and saved millions of dollars in agency spend.

An RPO partner can help you predict needs and focus your efforts on the right pool of talent at the right time via predictive analysis and market expertise. The partnership will help you focus your hiring efforts on the right pool of talent, at the right time. As your hiring needs scale up and down, your RPO partner scales with you. Find more information on our expertise in medical device here, or get in touch for a chat with a talent expert.

Sources

Plexus, Roundtable: Medical Device Industry Trends 2022, accessed May 2022

DKSH Group, Top Three Emerging Medical Device Trends in Asia in 2022, accessed May 2022

Medical Device & Diagnostic Industry Online, Successful Recruiting in the Medical Device Industry, accessed May 2022

Hudson RPO

Content Team

The Hudson RPO Content Team is made up of experts within the Talent Acquisition industry across the Americas, EMEA and APAC regions. They provide educational and critical business insights in the form of research reports, articles, news, videos, podcasts, and more. The team ensures high-quality content that helps all readers make talent decisions with confidence.

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