Biotechnology, Engineering, Life Sciences, Monthly BLS Report, US News

Don’t Let The Perfect Be The Enemy Of The Good

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As the 1st Quarter of 2016 begins to draw to a close, the life science market continues to remain exceedingly tight. Today, the overall economy added 242,000 jobs surpassing economists’ most optimistic forecasts. The overall unemployment rate has dropped to 4.9% which is the textbook definition of full employment. Furthermore, venture capital investment –the mother’s milk of the life science industry – surged to all time highs in 2015 according to The Wall Street Journal. What does all this mean? Despite the ever present talk of merger mania, with unemployment reaching lows not seen since before the The Great Recession and record levels of investment, there are more jobs available now than candidates to fill them.

 

In this pernicious war for talent, don’t discard candidates that don’t have the all the set criteria for a particular role. Expanding the criteria is important especially if your are looking in niche markets where the available candidate pool in small to being with, or where the salary range of the position is at or below the salaries of your competitors. This article explore ways that your can expand the candidate pool without sacrificing quality.  Let’s face it: in this marketplace if companies continue to do thing the old fashioned way when it comes to hiring, their openings may remain unfilled longer than anyone would have imagined.

US News

Innovation, agility top consumer products trends for 2016

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AgilityA new report identified the top areas consumer products manufacturers should focus on this year.

The 2016 Consumer Products Outlook report, published by Clarkston Consulting, explored the themes that are most relevant to manufactures, consumers and retailers in 2016. The report identified three top areas to watch out for this year: Consistency, Authenticity and Value, and Innovation.

Top three themes
Consumers will be prioritizing products that are available whenever and wherever they want them, and will prefer clear brand messaging that are consistent across multiple platforms and channels.

The report noted that the rise in online commerce is drastically changing how consumers interact with brands and presents a diverse range of promotional opportunities. The report found that online commerce sales were up 15.2 percent since the third quarter of 2015, and that total retail sales grew by 1.6 percent. Clarkston advised that to stay relevant, companies must craft personalized offline and online promotional experiences.

Consumers are also prioritizing enjoying products from brands that are transparent and that put forward authentic value propositions. The report recommended that companies create value propositions that show why they are in business instead of simply what they sell, and that they prioritize forming connections with consumers.

Finally, brands will consumer products companies will have to be innovative in 2016. Areas that have great potential for new approaches include product innovation, acquisitions, add-on services and repurposing of successful brands. The report also recommended that companies take advantage of crowdsourcing to promote collaboration and creativity within a community setting.

Agility in the ‘Age of the Consumer’
The report asserted that companies are currently in the “Age of the Consumer,” and would be well served by remaining agile and innovative.

“The consumer products industry has always been marked by change, but it is even more pronounced now in the ‘age of the consumer’,” said Steve Rosenstock of Clarkston. “With consumers more connected, educated and engaged, consumer products companies need to ensure that they listen, quickly adapt to evolving needs, and engage across all appropriate channels.”

There are a variety of ways that companies can adopt more agile business practices. In an article for MediaPost, Till Dudler and Oliver Grange recommended that the operations and commercial aspects of business are managed in-sync, that the levels of decision-making and approval are reduced and that they look beyond geographic proximity to consider global relevance.

Healthcare Services, US News

Millennials changing the future of healthcare

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Millennials and HealthcareMillennials are bringing new attitudes and perspectives to healthcare that have the potential to significantly change the industry.

Unlike the generations before them, millennials are valuing convenience and time-saving technologies over personal, face-to-face visits with doctors, according to USA Today.

Almost half of people age 18 to 34 do not have a personal relationship with their doctors, a 2015 Salesforce report found. More than 70 percent of millennials are interested in using mobile apps to access their medical records and manage their healthcare, too.

“If you look at the demands of millennials on our society as consumers, they are a group that uses services such as Amazon and the Internet who aren’t really used to person-to-person service per se,” said Dr. Ron Rowes, chief medical officer of Prominence Health Plan, in an interview with the newspaper. “They’re used to reaching out when they need something, getting instant gratification, moving on and only coming back when they have the need again.”

This desire for convenience has contributed to the recent rise of urgent care centers and express clinics in stores like CVS, Walgreens and Target, USA Today noted. The number of retail clinics in the U.S. jumped by almost 900 percent between 2006 and 2014, and millennials use the clinics more than other generations, with 34 percent of those age 18-34 preferring retail clinics compared to 17 percent of baby boomers.

These changes are also likely to affect healthcare hiring practices and employee skill sets. According to Hospitals & Health Networks Magazine, hospitals will need to hire more community healthcare workers and will need employees who are experts in data collection and analysis as well as well as skilled in technology applications such as telemedicine.

And while millennials are a cost-conscious generation, experts fear that their heavy usage of express clinics and rejection of traditional doctor-patient relationship could drive up healthcare costs overall, according to the International Business Times. Healthcare spending is to increase an average of 4.9 percent annually between 2014 to 2024, the source noted.

Alternative Energy, US News

Solar power boosted employment in California last year, a new report shows

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Solar PowerSolar power boosted employment in California last year, a new report shows.

Employment in the sector rose 38 percent from 2014, according to data from the Solar Jobs Census, released by the Solar Foundation, a nonprofit.

The growth represented more than half of all solar jobs created across the country, reported the Sacramento Business Journal.

The source attributed the employment increase to falling installation costs and a state energy requirement that by 2030, all utility companies must get half of their total power from renewable sources.

In November 2015, some 75,598 were employed by the solar energy industry in California, which was an increase of 21,000 from the year prior, KQED News reported. Nationally, 208,859 people worked in solar power in November of last year.

Experts predict that an additional 14,000 people will work in solar energy in California in 2016.

The source reported that last year, solar power became the primary source of renewable energy in the state for the first time ever. In November 2015, California generated nearly half the total solar power created nationally, with the state producing nearly 12,000 megawatts of power.

US News

IT salaries reaching record highs

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IT SalariesInformation technology salaries are rising.

A report by Dice.com showed that the average salary for IT jobs rose nearly 8 percent in 2015 to reach $96,370. The report noted that this is “the biggest year-over-year leap ever,” according to Forbes.

The survey determined that the highest-earning skills are those related to the cloud and gathering and analyzing big data, which led the list for the past few years.

The number of IT employees satisfied with their pay increased to 53 percent from 52 percent in 2014, reported Fortune. Some 40 percent of employees plan to move to another company this year.

IT professionals are paid the most in Silicon Valley. The average salary increased by 5 percent to reach $118,243 in 2015.

The source reported that base salaries grew to six figures for the first time ever in six additional metro areas. Salaries in New York City increased 11 percent to an average $106,263, salaries in Los Angeles rose 10 percent to $105,091 and those in Boston grew 7 percent to $103,675. Salaries also exceeded $100,000 in Seattle, Baltimore/Washington, D.C., Minneapolis and Portland.

According to CompTIA, the U.S. tech industry employed 6.5 million people in 2014 and accounted for 5.7 percent of the entire private sector workforce.

International News, Internet & E-commerce, US News

GE opens access to Industrial Internet

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PredixGE announced that it opened Predix, a massive software platform for industrial use, to all developers and companies worldwide.

The announcement was made at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Vanguard reported. Predix was developed through $1 billion of investment by GE and was created to support the Industrial Internet, a new phase of the Web that connects large- and small-scale machines, power plants and devices worldwide

Predix is a cloud-based software that enabled GE to gather and analyze data from gas turbines, jet engines and MRI scanners, explained the source. GE had previously allowed access to the system to several companies, including Pitney Bowes.

Vanguard reported that GE also announced a “digital alliance” at the conference with companies including Capgemini, Infosys and Intel.

The Industrial Internet of Things will hugely impact the way companies, manufacturers and even individual users interact with machines and has the potential to improve production efficiencies, according to Formtek.

“The IIoT, through the use of sensors, advanced analytics and intelligent decisioning, will profoundly transform the way field assets connect and communicate with the enterprise,” stated a report by McRock Capital.