SEPTEMBER 30, 2000
HIRING LINE
Recruiting Q&A: Biogen's Craig Greaves | The biotech's staffing manager talks about ramping up hiring in preparation for its new drug launch
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Craig Greaves, Biogen's employment manager
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Biogen is one of the old-timers in the young world of biotechnology companies. It was founded in 1978 by five scientists, including two eventual Nobel laureates. Today the company has about 1,500 employees, most housed in a five-building complex at corporate headquarters in Cambridge, Mass. In Research Triangle Park, N.C., meanwhile, Biogen is replacing its current manufacturing facility with a new 250,000-sq.-ft. plant.
Biogen's chief product is leading multiple scerlosis treatment Avonex, used by 82,000 patients around the world in 1999. If the company receives the go-ahead from the Food & Drug Administration, it hopes to soon introduce Amevive, a drug to combat psoriasis. Last year, Biogen recorded net income of $220 million on $794 million in revenue. Recently, Business Week Online's Pamela Mendels interviewed Craig M. Greaves, Biogen's employment manager, about who, and how, his companies hires. Here are edited excerpts of that conversation:
Q: Can you tell us about job openings at Biogen?
A: We have positions open pretty much across the company, not only in research but in development as well as in staff functions, such as sales, marketing and finance, and customer service.
Q: Apart from research, is there one area more than others where you need
people?
A: Right now, there's a push for biostatistics, clinical programming, clinical-data management. What's driving this is that Amevive -- hopefully our next product to market -- is in phase three trials [the late stages of clinical study]. The company is gearing up to file necessary applications
with the Food & Drug Administration, assuming we meet the end points that it's effective and safe in humans.
Q: Do you have any idea when Amevive might get to market?
A: We're hopeful we can file with the FDA in mid-2001, with a launch in mid-2002. Right now, the real meat in recruiting is to make sure we have enough people so that as the data begin to roll in from the clinics, we'll be able to do what we need to to assess the data and to present it to the
FDA in the format that it has requested.
Q: What about sales, marketing, and customer service? Is it necessary to have a health-care background to enter those fields?
A: When we look for more experienced people, virtually all the time we're looking for health-care experience. There can be exceptions. For example, in some of our customer-service positions, it's not necessary to have health-care experience. But an understanding of health care is helpful. As we grow,
more and more we're looking for people who have been there and done that, meaning they have experience in either pharmaceuticals or biotech.
[In] sales and marketing, a life-sciences degree is preferable as well as an advanced degree, such as an MBA, and a record of accomplishment. One of the things we look for, for example, is product-launch experience. It's very, very important to us. Another, as we go higher up in marketing or sales,
[is] that someone have a breadth of experience beyond just direct sales. Perhaps they've been in sales training, perhaps they have been a unit manager within a sales organization, perhaps they've done something in product marketing.
Q: What management positions [does Biogen offer]?
A: In product marketing, I can give the example of a director we recently hired. It was somebody to help us put together the launch plans for Amevive, and it was important that we get somebody with product-launch experience as well as with an understanding of the dermatological marketplace. That's
what we went into the marketplace to find.
Q: How do you go about recruiting?
A: [In] a variety of ways. We have developed a heavy presence on the Web, both at our Web site and at about 30 or 40 other places where we post jobs. We do some selective advertising in trade publications targeted at health-care professionals. We attend job fairs at colleges and universities
as well as open-house job fairs run, say, at hotels. [We use] employee-referral programs, we work with employment agencies, with search firms. Really, in this marketplace -- I'm sure you've heard the phrase: the war for talent -- it's however and wherever we can source people.
Q: Can you describe Biogen's corporate culture?
A: We're a lean organization. And even though we're fairly large as a biotech company, we're still a pretty small company at roughly 1,500 employees. So we look for somebody who's flexible, who has a great degree of initiative, who is assertive, and is willing to take a position and debate that position. Because of our size, we need people who can potentially do more than one job and be willing to be moved into a new job with short notice.
Q: What do you do to determine whether a candidate is going to fit in, is going to be successful?
A: A couple of things. I do competency-based interviewing to determine whether or not I believe this person can adapt to the culture here, and [whether] they enhance the culture. Are we improving the quality of the organization based upon this individual? I ask a number of behavioral-based
questions [to] get at things such as self-confidence, initiative, achievement, motivation. Those attributes give the person a greater likelihood of being successful here.
Q: Who wouldn't work out?
A: Somebody who's looking to take a lot of credit and hog the limelight, if you will. An element of our culture is that it's very team-based. People need to understand that. I try to [explain to job candidates] as much as I can about the company, the department, the hiring manager, the job, so that
if it's not the right situation for the individual, that person has the opportunity to say: "You know, this is not right for me at this point." And that's fine.
Q: Can you discuss salaries and perks?
A: We offer a competitive compensation package consisting of salary as well as stock options. That's a real attraction. [It's] something Biogen has had in place since the early '90s.
Q: Have stock options been particularly important in this job market?
A: It almost feels like a price to enter the game. If we didn't have [options], it would be a serious disadvantage for us.
Q: Where [do] you do the hiring for nondomestic jobs? [Do] you look for candidates who speak languages other than English?
A: We handle recruiting for international assignments primarily out of our Paris office. A facility with languages is important. With some jobs, it would be a prerequisite.
Q: What is the biggest mistake that job applicants make?
A: With the market being as hot as it is, some candidates have an inflated understanding of their value in the marketplace. They're expecting a very, very significant increase on the cash side. I'm not saying somebody shouldn't try and get as much as they can, but sometimes it's just so unrealistic
that I wonder where they're getting their information.
Q: How many job openings would you have at any moment?
A: Our average is around 100 jobs. This time next year, if our plans for Amevive go as we're anticipating, we'll be at the front end of another pretty significant hiring spurt. We will need to recruit a sales organization to sell Amevive. We'll be heading into a pretty good growth spurt.
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