Surgical Devices: The candidates have the power!

The surgical devices space is thriving post-pandemic – how is this impacting the recruitment and those who work in the market?

As like pretty much everything else, surgical devices was one of the markets to grind to a halt when the pandemic first hit in 2020. When it was recommended to postpone all nonessential surgeries in March that year, the total surgical procedure volume immediately fell by 48%, which followed with Medtech companies warning the pandemic would hit medical sales hard.

However, now the world has returned back to normality, many healthcare markets, including surgical devices, are experiencing a post-COVID boom. Many MedTech companies have in fact come back stronger than they were pre-pandemic, due to the health system is “much better positioned than when the virus first appeared”. But what does this mean for recruitment in the space?

A candidate led market

As a result of this increased demand, candidates in the surgical devices space are finding themselves in a much stronger position than before. With less concern about job stability, people are happier to move than they were during the last couple of years due to the in-and-out of lockdown worries.

With the boom in the volume of medical procedures and subsequently the number of sales, comes an increase in jobs needing to be filled. This opens the market up for candidates, giving them more jobs to choose from and putting the power in their hands of what they can ask for – in terms of salaries, packages and now even flexibility in when and where they work as remote working has skyrocketed.

The high volume of jobs available also means it’s unlikely for candidates who are actively looking for a new position to only engage in one process at a time – making the recruitment landscape even more competitive for companies looking to hire the best talent.

Whilst this is great news for those looking for new roles, it opens up a whole host of challenges for companies looking at growing their teams to meet new demands…

How exactly is this affecting the recruitment market?

Whilst this means there are more candidates available, it does also mean that securing a first-place candidate is tougher. As there are more roles needing to be filled, the market has been opened up for candidates to be picky, allowing them to discard companies not meeting their requirements.

And as mentioned before, candidates aren’t scared to have their fingers in more than one pie. With candidates typically in two, three or even more processes at the same time, they have the ability to pick and choose which companies to move forward – dropping those not offering the best package.

On a similar note, the current nature of the market allows for candidates to be more demanding if they feel they’re being low balled and could get better elsewhere. Having the safety blanket of other processes to fall back onto means it’s not the end of the world if a candidate asks for a better deal but gets turned down, as it’s likely they can get what they’re looking for elsewhere.

So, what can companies do to get candidates over the line?

Ultimately, companies need to sell themselves now more than ever – by keeping processes moving quickly and coming in at salary expectations, if not above, to secure an offer accept.

Fast, efficient processes are vital right now – companies are moving fast to secure the best candidates so those dragging out multiple interview stages are getting left behind. Providing speedy feedback, availability for interviews and a short turnaround is crucial.

With most candidates being in multiple processes, companies need to be competitive in comparison to the market with salary packages, offering candidates their best and final offer from the get-go.

Sticking to the salary theme, companies should be doing their best to match the salary expectations presented to them at the beginning or throughout the process. Low balling candidates once they’ve progressed through multiple stages is likely to have them accept an offer elsewhere.

­­­­How do you think the post-covid boom has impacted the surgical devices market?

If you’re in the space and are looking to grow your team in response to the post-COVID boom, get in touch to see how FMC Meditech could help calling 01522 81 2448 or by emailing hannah.cannon@fmctalent.com.