I was pleased to attend the Inaugural HR in Pharma Networking Event at the Royal College of Physicians, London on 25^th June 2010 http://tinyurl.com/39oh8eh .This was kindly hosted by CK Clinical and provided a useful insight into current topics that affect recruitment in the Pharmaceutical Industry.

The first speaker was Fiona Coombe who is the Director of professional Services from the REC . Fiona  gave us a useful insight into the role that the largest trade association in the private recruitment industry has to play in upholding quality.  It was an interesting overview of how they maintain a code of professional practice and code of ethics in the £33Bn recruitment industry.

The second presentation was by Mike Taylor an expert in social Media recruitment. He offered insight into the growing use of web 2.0 . Arguably the biggest change in recruitment advertising since the introduction of job boards such as our very own www.emedcareeers.com.

It was interesting to learn about the success’s of some of the early adopters embracing this technology. It is an opportunity for the recruitment business to gain access to another demographic of candidate. As supermarkets learn more about our shopping habits and tempt us with targeted offers that match our personal tastes, the same is happening online .Search engines and social media sites are literally picking up on every word you type  and targeting you with relevant advertising. This is evolving in sophistication every day and undoubtedly will become ever more viable medium for reaching potential candidates as they upload the global information highway with personal details about themselves.

There is no doubt that this does stretch media budgets ever more thinly and will affect the way our clients proportion their media budgets. It will also affect those businesses that are slow to become accustomed to web 2.0.In a finite market of jobs, every differentiator must surely help?

At emedcareers we are embracing the opportunities offered by social media to increase our candidate base and communicate with the market.  You can follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/gregholt

I would like to extend a big thank you to Jonathan, Ben, Cat and all at CK Clinical for what looks to become a very useful industry forum.