March 19, 2015
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Sr. Editor
Mary E. Corbett is the senior vice president of human resources at Relypsa, Inc. , that has been on a booming trajectory ever since it went public last year. She chatted with BioSpace about what it means to take a small company into the big time—and what kind of hiring is needed to make sure your firm is playing in the Big Leagues.
1. What hiring trends are you seeing right now in your sector, and how have those been affected by such a boom year for biotech stocks?
While stock market activity doesn’t affect us directly, the fact that the job market is very active right now does have an impact on us. In this environment, candidates often have multiple offers to choose from. This means that we have to always “put our best foot forward” to show candidates that Relypsa is a company they’d especially enjoy working for, and we need to move quickly when we identify a candidate we want to hire. We manage our recruiting process so that the candidate gets to meet with enough people so that everyone gets the information they need, without overwhelming the candidate and slowing the process down with lots of interviews.
2. How many candidates would you say you see in an average year? Was that different in 2014?
I’m not sure we’ve had many “average” years at Relypsa! At the end of 2013, we were a small development-stage company that had just gone public, and we had about 75 employees. During 2014, as we submitted our New Drug Application to the FDA, we hired over 50 employees, and probably interviewed close to 300 candidates. In 2015, as we anticipate approval of our first drug and commercialization, we’ll hire many, many more. [View 20 new jobs at Relypsa.]
3. Where are you focusing on adding staff? Any particular area or department?
Our big focus in 2015 will be on adding the staff needed to become a full commercial enterprise. This means not only building the sales and marketing teams, but also building out those other functions that an externally-facing organization needs: medical affairs, clinical, operations, regulatory and compliance. Of course, that level of growth also requires a deeper level of infrastructure to support it, so we’ll also be building up finance, IT, legal and HR.
4. What does your company look for most in a job candidate, that’s specific to your corporate culture?
We’re very proud of our corporate culture at Relypsa, with core values of placing patients first, focusing on achievement through excellence, integrity, innovation, collaboration, a can-do attitude and fun. Since our employees typify these values so well, all of us on the interview team pay close attention to choosing candidates who will thrive in and perpetuate the great culture we’ve all built.
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