Searching for talented professionals can be a stressful task for life sciences regulatory affairs recruiters and hiring managers. This is also the case for professionals in these fields looking for positions in a competitive job market. Ultimately, managing stress and anxiety remains an important part of both finding work and sourcing high-quality candidates.
Finding a way to reduce mental strain during a job search – no matter your role – requires a proactive approach. Maintaining a healthy diet combined with regular exercise and daily meditation sessions helps you keep an even keel. It also plays a key role in maintaining a healthy balance between your personal and professional lives.
As May is Mental Health Awareness Month, let’s examine the effects of mental stress within the job search process. We cover the topic from the angle of the regulatory affairs job-seeker and life sciences recruiters searching for talent. Understanding both sides of this equation ultimately provides a deeper understanding and a stronger sense of empathy.
Mental Strain & Anxiety in Hiring & Job Searching
It comes as no surprise that many job seekers in the regulatory affairs suffer anxiety when searching for work. The reasons for this are numerous, with most related to the uncertainty involved in the process. Being without meaningful employment during a job search only adds to this mental strain. Financial worries combine with feelings of professional inadequacy and fear of rejection to exacerbate these problems.
At the same time, HR managers sometimes encounter significant hiring stress when searching for talented life sciences professionals. For example, a large number of applicants for an open position might overburden HR professionals tasked with vetting resumes. The additional pressure of closing skills gaps and filling critical positions only adds to their anxiety levels. In short, job seekers are not the only ones suffering from hiring stress!
Both job seekers and hiring managers need to be proactive in recognizing the symptoms of mental anxiety and stress. Understanding the underlying causes of these problems ultimately helps in preventing any adverse effects from becoming too stressed out. Maintaining a healthy and positive attitude throughout these efforts must be the goal of both job seekers and recruiters.
Here’s a deeper exploration of mental anxiety and stress for life sciences candidates and the recruiters searching for talent. Whether you are a regulatory affairs professional or someone searching for them, understanding the other side helps reduce anxiety. So be sure to read both sections because the insights within offer meaningful food for thought.
Job Search Anxiety
Simply looking for new life sciences and regulatory affairs positions naturally causes a measure of stress and anxiety. This is typically normal, as most job seekers feel a measure of professional uncertainty when looking for new opportunities. As highlighted above, trying to find work while currently unemployed only adds to the stress.
In this situation, it remains important to stay focused while keeping a positive attitude. Quickly recognize the symptoms of stress and burnout to handle these issues before they hamper your job search. Once again, maintaining a healthy diet combined with regular exercise and meditation ultimately helps keep stress to a minimum.
As noted earlier, a positive outlook remains crucial in any job search in the life sciences and regulatory affairs. It especially becomes critical during an interview or even when interacting with recruiters and hiring managers online. Resist the temptation to constantly worry about your situation while always focusing on the negative. Now, let’s examine the adverse impacts of stress on candidates while also exploring a few strategies for reducing anxiety.
The Impact of Stress on Candidates
Unmanaged stress causes a host of mental and physical problems even when not looking for work. You must be proactive in recognizing any symptoms while making the effort to quickly handle them if they arise. The risks to your health and overall well-being remain too numerous to simply ignore the signs of mental anxiety.
Let’s analyze a few of the common signs of mental anxiety related to searching for a new regulatory affairs position. For example, if you consistently worry about your current job search no matter the time of day, perform some breathing exercises. This simple task lowers your blood pressure while reducing your short-term stress levels. Take advantage of any small ways like this to reduce stress while boosting your job search focus.
Also pay close attention to any changes to your sleep patterns and eating habits. Again, a lack of sleep with a poor diet might cause significant health problems. Take care to always get at least seven hours of sleep each night. Again, regular exercise and meditation ensures you get a proper amount of rest each day. This approach improves your energy levels, making any life sciences job search an easier process.
Strategies to Alleviate Mental Strain for Job Seekers
In the end, you want to keep your motivation level as high as possible during any job search. Make sure to develop a detailed plan for finding work, including prioritizing the most important items on your task list. This strategy lets you concentrate on finding intriguing regulatory affairs opportunities. Improving your focus also makes it easier to forget about anything causing you significant stress.
Find time during your job search to take regular “mental health” breaks. This is when a quick meditation session makes perfect sense. Use these breaks to sharpen your focus, while keeping a positive attitude about finding a great new position. Additionally, having boundaries between your current position, job search, and personal life ensures you keep stress to a minimum.
Simply visualizing a new job offer for a promising life science regulatory affairs role helps. It highlights the importance of maintaining a positive outlook no matter how many difficulties you experience when looking for work.
Partnering with a recruiter focused on the life sciences and regulatory affairs also helps alleviate your job search anxiety. The best recruiters effectively serve as a partner, keeping your spirits up throughout, especially before a critical interview. They understand your situation and have the empathy to guide you through any difficult job search.
The Stress of Hiring New Team Members
As highlighted earlier, hiring managers for regulatory affairs organizations also struggle with stress when sourcing candidates. In this situation, they might become overburdened when faced with hundreds of resumes for their latest open position. Trying to find a few exceptional candidates out of a mass of applicants requires focus and a deft hand. Simply dealing with this one hiring task causes inordinate stress levels, especially with companies with a small HR team.
Additionally, their management might add pressure to quickly close a skills gap or add talent for an important project. This additional strain might result in making the wrong choice between candidates simply to make any hire. As a result, the organization is forced to repeat a failed staffing process while increasing the overall expenses.
In short, the stress of recruiting also affects hiring managers in the regulatory affairs and life sciences. Let’s now examine a few of the most critical hiring challenges for organizations in the sector.
Recognizing Hiring Challenges for Companies
One obvious hiring challenge for organizations in the regulatory affairs and life sciences involves finding enough qualified candidates. This industry sector tends to be smaller and recruiting professionals with relevant skills and experience demands a discerning approach. At the same time, successful recruiting requires detailed resume analysis while potentially conducting multiple interview rounds. This remains a costly, risk-prone, and time-consuming process.
Additionally, life sciences organizations also must focus on retaining their current employees. This requires finding candidates with the right cultural fit, as it boosts their chances of long-term retention. Providing flexible schedules, hybrid work, and a strong professional development program also helps. HR staff and hiring managers at regulatory affairs organizations with low retention rates obviously suffer from more anxiety.
How to Ease the Strain of Finding New Candidates
In addition to a healthy diet, regular exercise, and timely meditation, hiring managers enjoy other useful stress reduction options. Simply using a modern applicant tracking system (ATS) powered by AI optimizes any staffing effort. These tools automate the process of resume analysis, quickly finding great candidates with applicable skills and work history. They also leverage generative AI to handle initial communication with applicants, allowing more focus on the best candidates.
Additionally, partnering with a staffing agency specializing in the life sciences and regulatory affairs helps source great candidates. The best agencies even use the modern ATS tools described above, making any staffing process faster and more effective. It remains a wise approach for any organization hoping to reduce the stress of a difficult hiring effort.
Contact Us to See the Positive Impact of a Professional Recruiter for Yourself!
When searching for a top-shelf, regulatory and life sciences staffing agency, look no further than the team at Shepherd Regulatory Search. We boast significant industry connections, matching organizations needing talent with the candidates looking for work. Connect with us to learn how we can make hiring stress yesterday’s news!