R&D talent is the lifeblood of any innovative organization. But how do you find and attract the best researchers and developers for your projects? In this article, you will learn some practical tips and strategies to identify valuable R&D talent in the context of {skill=Research and Development (R&D)} with {topic=R&D skills development}.
The first step to identify valuable R&D talent is to define your R&D needs clearly and realistically. What are the goals, challenges, and opportunities of your current and future projects? What are the skills, knowledge, and experience required to achieve them? How do you measure and evaluate the impact and quality of your R&D outputs? By answering these questions, you can create a clear and specific R&D profile that matches your organizational vision and strategy.
R&D needs perseverance, it's not sales or marketing that give you instant output. Research is slow and gradual process, it takes the time it takes. But be assured, if done properly research will lay strong foundations for future development. Apart from subjective knowledge, the basic skills of problem solving, creativity, troubleshooting, broad skill base and intellectual pursuance are equally vital. The R&D outputs are currently measured in terms of research publications, patents etc, the more appropriate measure, for me at least, would be the impact & spectrum of research carried out. Development is subject to market or timing and shall be evaluated by the market itself. The goal of R&D should be to create a ladder for higher reach.
Good researchers have a different perspective about work and life. Their personalities are multi dimensional. They do not want to please people unnecessarily. Their list of publications shows a pattern. They are also good at convincing others about their work and are open to suggestions.
I think a good R&D person needs to be inherently curious, always seeking to "get to the bottom of things", and someone who will be bugged by something that doesn't quite add-up, rather than looking to jump to conclusions and ignore anomalies. The curiosity part will frustrate bosses who want quick answers, but is important for both longer term self-learning, as well as providing the opportunity for greater insights on the task at hand. The more you've trawled through detail in the past, the more quickly you'll spot 'interesting' anomalies and significant details in future. Being totally honest with yourself (and often other people) about the exact limits of your knowledge - and being able to work with (and defer to) other specialists.
Defining R&D needs is a crucial process that involves outlining the objectives, challenges, and opportunities associated with your current and future projects. Clearly outline the goals and objectives of R&D projects. What are you aiming to achieve? Is it to delivery safe, sustainable, performing product on time, and to help the company to achieve the ultimate goal? Identify the challenges your organisation is facing and the opportunities that R&D can exploit. The challenge could be budget, resource, highly skilled experienced employees. Opportunity could be identify the gap in product portfolio, developing fast to market, consumer-centric affordable products. Understanding these factors helps in targeting the right areas for innovation.
Part of setting R&D Goals that are "realistic" is knowing that it is a subjective term. Many worthy goals are things that have never been done before: "Unrealistic" to many people. Check-in with potential team members about how they feel: Does the goal excite or terrify them? The team will end up defining whether it is realistic (achievable) or not. Shoot for the moon (mars?) and you will probably hit a bunch of other targets (yet to be defined) along the way. Find a team of people with the creativity and ability to learn fast enough to draw that map of targets. Expect them to redraw it on the fly as they go. Progress is measured by questions answered, knowledge gained, and the ability to generate increasingly firm plans.
The next step is to source your R&D talent from various channels and platforms. Depending on your R&D needs, you can look for internal or external candidates, or a combination of both. For internal candidates, you can leverage your existing talent pool, employee referrals, and internal mobility programs. For external candidates, you can use online platforms, social media, professional networks, academic institutions, industry events, and recruitment agencies. The key is to diversify your sourcing methods and reach out to potential R&D talent proactively and creatively.
As a leader, it's important not only to recognize talents or headhunt for experts, but also to foster the growth of your own talent pool. While this approach may require more time and effort, it offers significant long-term benefits for any company. By nurturing the development of our own talents, we establish a solid foundation rooted in the organization's values. This not only instills trust and motivation, but also ensures a deep alignment with the company's core principles. Although it might seem like a lengthier route, careful planning and investment in internal talent development yield lasting advantages, ultimately resulting in a team of dedicated individuals who embody the essence of the company.
As a leader foremost thing which is needed is will to develop more leaders... To create more leaders along with reaching the time lines. we should develop open culture to have leverage for your team members to make mistake and leverage to absorb them. Creativity demands trying new ways and thinking out of the box and a pragmatic approach for solution search.
Sourcing R&D talent is not an easy process. It requires personal investment from the leadership and close follow-up all the way to on-boarding the employee. But first, it all starts with setting up the organization for success by creating environment that fosters independent thinking, freedom to execute and appreciating accomplishments. DEI is an important factor as well when looking at growing team culture and setting up for long term success.
Employer branding plays a pivotal role in attracting top talent. Highlighting an engaging workplace culture along with exciting, innovative research can greatly appeal to scientists and professionals in the field. And your sourcing strategy should depend on several factors like is it remote/on-site/job location if not remote, your employer brand, etc. If it's a hard-to-fill position, try targeting passive candidates through several sourcing channels like ResearchGate and LinkedIn.
- If you are looking for talent internally, try not to go unintentionally to hunt the stars of other teams. At the end of the day, we need to increase the talent in the whole R&D not for a single team. - For external candidates, it is better to hire a person who knows the basics of the job with a "grow" mindset. I always prefer to hire those candidates, and then train them on the job. My team and I do get the best results from those who are ambitious, and are willing to learn.
The third step is to assess your R&D talent using relevant and reliable methods and criteria. You want to evaluate not only the technical skills and qualifications of your R&D candidates, but also their soft skills, personality, and fit with your organizational culture and values. You can use various tools and techniques to assess your R&D talent, such as resumes, portfolios, interviews, tests, simulations, case studies, references, and feedback. The key is to design and implement a fair and consistent assessment process that reflects your R&D needs and expectations.
Sometimes the person who has the least amount of experience can have the most amount of potential. As a leader, it is your duty to recognize if a person who is just starting to learn these skills has the ability to grow within your organization or is more of a hindrance.
Talented individuals seek trust and recognition. By involving our talents and cultivating an environment that fosters growth and results, we establish trust and respect on both sides. Initially, as an expert, I prioritize the choice of manager (if I can work with them) over the company itself. To me, the essence of leadership lies in comprehending how to effectively engage with people, maintaining their motivation and involvement.
In my experience, some key indicators of aptitude in R&D include past evidence of creating something new, such as simple hacks to make a personal task easier, improving something in a community or organization, a constructive dissatisfaction with the status quo, and curiosity about people and how things and systems work.
- Regular 1:1 meetings are a key to assess and understand the soft skills of the team members. - If the team is larger than you can handle, make sure to have leaders who will do the meetings with their sub-team. - To be able to do this, try to split your team into units of 6-10 members. Other than that, you and the leaders will be always busy and have no time to assess the R&D talents.
Valuable R&D talent comprises creative individuals passionate about their fields. Their success hinges on alignment with organizations open to new ideas and unafraid of change. Hiring the right candidates is paramount for project success. New team members bring fresh perspectives and ideas crucial for innovation and achievement. Identifying R&D talent may demand HR to look beyond digital screening tools. Personal interviews (one-on-one) meetings, often outperform online tools in identifying ideal candidates, ensuring organizations don't overlook exceptional R&D talent.
The fourth step is to engage your R&D talent throughout the hiring and onboarding process. You want to communicate clearly and frequently with your R&D candidates, provide them with relevant information and feedback, and address their questions and concerns. You also want to showcase your organizational brand, vision, and values, and highlight the benefits and opportunities of working with you. You can use various channels and strategies to engage your R&D talent, such as emails, phone calls, video calls, webinars, newsletters, blogs, podcasts, and social media. The key is to build and maintain a positive and trusting relationship with your R&D talent.
The biggest mistake R&D organizations make is to seek to fill a specific role, then sending the spec to a search firm, who gets you a perfect match. But as you move on, they can’t. The long view is to find exceptional talent by doing years of legwork with your network, hiring brilliant people with intellect, work ethic, energy and enthusiasm, leadership and vision. Let them loose on your problems; they will learn fast and leaprog your ‘perfect fit’ in no time.
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It all boils off to the strategic objectives of the organisation. The leadership mentality. If there is a true belief in R&D then the identification process should follow. Setting up your organisation mission and value drivers as well as embracing a meaningful development in the R&D. Furthermore, evaluate the competitive advantages of the organisation and being adaptive and agile to creat a resilient organisation from all perspectives.
The other big mistake is to hire only superstars and not team players. You need members of the R&D team who are not only smart but who can work with others, communicate well and share their knowledge. If you have a group of brilliant visionaries, some with big ego, will they work together? Will the team be successful ? You need leaders and visionaries but you also need smart members of the team who could do research by contributing and following the leader.
Effective, frequent and prompt communication is the key to positive and fruitful engagement throughout the onboarding / hiring process or any process thereof.
The biggest mistake R&D organizations make is to seek to fill a specific role, then sending the spec to a search firm, who gets you a perfect match. But as you move on, they can’t. The long view is to find exceptional talent by doing years of legwork with your network, hiring brilliant people with intellect, work ethic, energy and enthusiasm, leadership and vision. Let them loose on your problems; they will learn fast and leaprog your ‘perfect fit’ in no time.
The fifth step is to develop your R&D talent once they join your organization. You want to provide them with adequate training, mentoring, and coaching, and help them integrate into your team and culture. You also want to offer them continuous learning, feedback, and recognition, and support their career growth and development. You can use various programs and initiatives to develop your R&D talent, such as orientation, induction, on-the-job training, e-learning, workshops, seminars, conferences, peer learning, performance appraisal, rewards, and incentives. The key is to foster and retain your R&D talent and enhance their motivation and satisfaction.
To achieve the “next big thing”, R&D teams need the freedom to think outside the box, realistic deadlines and budgets, and a well-defined talent development strategy. Assigning a mentor to new R&D talent is crucial. An experienced researcher is not only familiar with the organization’s goals and culture but also is perhaps the most suited person to understand the value of the research done (or to be done) and to transmit this to the mentee. This can help the mentee to develop their skills and knowledge and to become a valuable asset to the organization.
- To be honest, developing the R&D talent always have a lower priority than delivering a customer project. It is a big mistake, and we should avoid it. But it is really easier said than done, we must find ways to give the right priority for trainings. - Given the first point, try to assign the team members to different and interesting tasks so that they can stretch their knowledge if even they don't get and official training.
It's a dialogue. Many talented individuals are clear about their aspirations. They harbor ideas not just for R&D projects, but also about their career paths and work-life balance. Grasping the needs of these talented individuals is pivotal for their growth and well-being within a company.
Junior R&D talent should be mentored by Senior R&D talent. Senior R&D people should not be waiting for management to tell them what to do. Senior R&D people should be telling management what to do. Meet the R&D person where they are. All are different and can react to different stimuli. It is a mistake to try and shoehorn R&D people into a corporate culture. Big breakthroughs normally happen in spite of corporate culture.
You do not "develop your R&D talent" other than trying to assist them. They develop themselves! The best R&D team are self-motivated to develop themselves - they are not "coasting". So you should really be providing them the opportunities along with whatever you learned...
The sixth step is to innovate with your R&D talent and leverage their full potential. You want to involve them in your R&D projects, challenges, and opportunities, and encourage them to contribute their ideas, insights, and solutions. You also want to create a collaborative and supportive environment, where your R&D talent can work together, share knowledge, and learn from each other. You can use various methods and practices to innovate with your R&D talent, such as brainstorming, prototyping, testing, feedback, iteration, agile, scrum, and lean. The key is to empower and inspire your R&D talent and achieve your R&D goals and outcomes.
The mistake of confining R&D development within structured programs with rigid deadlines and excessive pressure is all too common and can indeed lead to the death of innovation, demotivation, and even the disbandment of teams in the long term. Learning through hands-on experience, even if it involves failing forward, is an incredibly powerful approach. Embracing flexibility in R&D processes is not only crucial for nurturing creativity and innovation but also for sustaining the motivation and passion of the teams involved. While deadlines and end results are important markers, they should never be so inflexible that they stifle the very experimentation and creativity that drive R&D success.
Yes ! Innovation and disruptive models are the way of doing R&D. Do not make strong plannings when engaging an R&D project. Instead of that, try many things, loose your time in prototyping things that maybe wont work, but in the middle of that, you will find the right answer for your solution.
For recruiting R roles, attract the Ph.D. who did work in the same field. This person has already been selected and is interested in an R process. For D roles, these are typically not R people, with more empathy toward the product's final user.
It’s vital to attract your R&D scientists through having a scientific credibility and presence in the scientific community. This can be achieved through publications and presentations at conferences to inspire potential candidates to want work for your company because of the quality of the science.
Here are some other key considerations to identify valuable R&D talent: 1. Technical Expertise: Look for individuals with a strong foundation in the specific field of research. 2. Innovation and Creativity: Valuable R&D talent often generate new ideas, and propose innovative solutions to complex problems. 3. Problem-Solving Skills: They should be able to navigate uncertainty and devise systematic approaches to troubleshoot and resolve issues. 4. Adaptability and Learning Agility: Valuable R&D talent is adaptable, embraces change, and demonstrates a willingness to continuously learn and acquire new skills. 5. Track Record and References: Assess a candidate's past projects, publications, patents, or any other relevant achievements.
Talent should be inspired to look for patient and consumer benefit and not for short-term financial profit, or just pushing a project over the line. This is what we have been seeing in drug discovery over the past decades. Drugs have been pushed into market with an ever increasing financial investment, but data in real world patients show that 2/3 of all new drug have no benefit over existing ones. So, don’t think profit, think patient benefit. Think Apple, not Microsoft.
Let's not overlook another important aspect here: recycling existent talents! It sounds awkward but from my experience working for start up companies, sometimes shifting resources across the border away from their comfort zone can be rewarding, especially with teams that have good working dynamics. Not only it gives people new perspective and purpose, but it also utilizes their accumulated experience in a way that could be totally unthinkable. Look into your team first with open mind and sense of adventure, if you truly can see their potential rationally, and you are smart enough to create the needed environment, you will be rewarded beyond your expectation.