Health technology is quickly becoming one of the fastest growing areas in the tech job market as companies evolve, innovate and explore new technologies. This market is hot on the trail of top tech talent in every sector.
Philips, a leading health technology company with employees around the globe, has as its focus the goal of improving people’s health, as well as prevention, diagnosis and treatment. From advances in diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring, to allowing people to monitor their own health data on a mobile device, Philips is using advanced technology to lead the way. This technology is creating quite a market for those seeking jobs in the tech field, especially software developers, engineers or innovators interested in healthcare. What do they look for in a new hire? Cynthia Burkhardt is Head of Talent Acquisition for Philips.
How difficult is it to attract top tech talent?
Tech talent is arguably the most difficult talent segment to attract globally. Tech talent is needed by companies all over the world in order to transform. Companies in emerging markets seek top tech talent in order to leapfrog ahead and catch up with or surpass mature market capabilities. Companies in mature markets need top tech talent to stay current and lead in innovation. Wherever you go in the world, there is simply not enough tech talent for the available jobs. The reality is there are four jobs for every 1 software developer in the US. The war on talent is here, and nowhere is it more pronounced than in the technical space.
How Do You Retain the Tech Talent You Have?
The good news for us is that the Philips portfolio is exciting. At Philips we aim to improve the lives of 3 BILLION people per year by 2025. We are doing this by innovating in ways that matter in health and wellness. This is a pretty inspiring goal, and once people join us, they get caught up in the excitement of the vision. These are not just “nice words on paper” for us, it is a goal that we are aligned around and it guides our decisions every day.
We also need to ensure that our day to day meets the needs of our tech talent. Research shows that this talent often prefers small companies because they feel that larger corporations will burden them with bureaucracy. At Philips we are working hard to insulate our tech talent from the things that they might find unattractive. We want to give them room to create and innovate. We are very deliberately focusing on the needs of this talent segment, and making changes every day to be their employer of choice.
How do you spot an innovative thinker?
When we look for innovators we are looking more at characteristics and competencies rather than skills. Innovation at its core is doing or achieving what others can’t or simply won’t do. We integrate with professionals who have that similar mindset – disrupters – individuals who put out a product and make you wonder “Wow, how did this person do that??” – these are the candidates we are after.
How do you find those innovative thinkers – through a job posting or social media?
Innovators in the tech space will not necessarily be on LinkedIn or other social media platforms like they used to be, so we need to be creative in our approach to identify where these individuals are and be sure to leverage our internal and external networks in doing so. The technology world is a close knit community, and we look to understand what matters most to this community when performing our outreach.
What exactly do you look for?
It comes down to connecting and meeting people who can see the end result but with a different perspective. Those who won’t settle for the way something has always been or who seek to better what already is, are the types of people we target in the technology space.
You can do this in both traditional and non-traditional ways. Using a more traditional recruiting approach, we do our homework to know who the more innovative companies are. Once we know this, we work to find out who is behind their innovation and start a dialogue about joining our company.
What areas of the company are growing fastest right now?
1. Software Developers / Software R&D Engineers
2. Quality & Regulatory professionals
3. Digital / eCommerce Marketing
How does Philips address diversity in the workplace?
Philips has resources devoted to fostering diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We truly believe that by having diversity of thought and background we will be better able to understand our customer and therefore build better solutions that improve lives. We need to be attractive to everyone in the labor market, and we need to be able to inspire productivity in all of our employees. To do that we have to educate and help managers to effectively manage and inspire everyone on their teams, whether they are from another generation, country, race or gender.
