At this stage, many founders focus heavily on product development strategy. However, the importance of a well-thought-out people strategy is often overlooked. Time-to-hire estimates and salary budgets are often rough guesses. Yet post-funding, building the right team may be a KPI set by investors—critical for hitting milestones and securing future rounds.

A clear people strategy isn’t just about hiring, it’s about ensuring you have the right talent in place to deliver on your funding goals.

Where to Start?🔗

Preparing your people strategy pre-funding is crucial, particularly in the North of England, where the life sciences and medtech ecosystem is rapidly growing. At Medical Engineers Recruitment, we’ve been supporting founders since 2008, helping them scale and grow their teams in this niche industry. Here’s some things to think about when building a strong people strategy ahead of your funding journey:

1. Understand the Talent Landscape in the North🔗

The North boasts a vibrant life sciences community, but the talent market can be competitive. Mapping the local talent pool early ensures you’re ready to meet growth objectives.

Suggestion: Subscribe to one of the LinkedIn premium products. They can be expensive, but here you can create talent pools / projects that allow you to start thinking about the types of skills and experience you may be looking for as well as how many people within the local area have this skillset.

Key Skills: Identify the expertise needed at each stage, whether in R&D, quality & regulatory, or manufacturing.

Compensation Benchmarks: Research market rates and benefits packages to stay competitive, especially against hubs like Cambridge or London. In a recent survey we asked our database what the most important benefits to them were in 2024.

Some of the top answers were:

• Holidays / Additional holidays: This can take the form of an individual birthday as a day off if it occurs during their working week. Extra days can be awarded as a reward for years of service. Some businesses also allow individuals to buy, sell, or carry over unused holidays. People's work-life balance can be directly affected by the number of holidays a company permits. By being flexible and developing a holiday structure that gives more remarkable options to employees, your business can expect to see highly engaged and motivated employees, so it is well worth giving this old favour a fresh review.
• Training and Professional Development

Importance: Enhances skills and fosters employee growth.

Types: Investing in employees' education and training can benefit both the individual and the company. These opportunities can make employees feel appreciated and motivated to achieve their personal goals while improving their skills and knowledge, ultimately leading to a more competent workforce. Typically, when the company covers the cost of these courses or certifications, there may be an agreement where the employee must work for the company for a minimum period or be responsible for paying back a portion of the course fees.

Flexible Working

Types: Flexitime, compressed hours, job sharing, remote working, unlimited unpaid leave, 4-day week.

Trend Shift: After the COVID-19 pandemic, organisations and employees are adjusting to new working practices. The concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic have largely subsided, but the impact on employment is still felt, from higher absence rates to adjusting to new working practices. Employees have tasted flexible working and are delighted to leave the days of office working 9-5 with its stressful commute behind. The greater the degree of flexibility an employer can offer, the more they can positively differentiate themselves in the market.

Flexible Location: There is no longer the imperative to work from a centralised office for many roles. Technology has enabled the ability to work from home or smaller satellite offices. Giving people an option makes them feel valued and empowered

Remote Work Options: In 2024, offering hybrid or flexible work is essential to attract top candidates.

2. Build for Scalability🔗

Your team structure should reflect both current and future needs. Founders often focus too heavily on technical hires, neglecting strategic roles vital for scaling.

Prioritise Critical Roles: Invest in leadership positions in product development, quality assurance, or regulatory affairs.

Cross-Functional Skills: Look for team members who can take on multiple responsibilities in the early stages.

Cultural Fit: Ensure your hires align with your company’s values and adaptability, as a strong culture is essential for long-term growth. At Medical Engineers, we recommend incorporating behavioural analysis testing into the recruitment process. This approach helps build teams that align with business objectives and thrive on collaboration, particularly in start-up environments.

Behavioural analysis testing can provide insights into candidates’ problem-solving abilities, stress management, and approach to innovation. It also identifies individuals whose values align with your organisation’s culture. For example, candidates transitioning from large corporations to start-ups may face challenges adapting to roles requiring flexibility and multitasking. By identifying candidates with the right attributes, this process improves retention and ensures cultural fit.

We suggest considering gamified behavioural insights programmes. These transform traditional assessments into interactive activities, preventing candidates from second-guessing questions or providing rehearsed answers. This method produces unbiased insights and can be customised to prioritise traits like adaptability and collaboration.

While behavioural testing is a powerful tool, it should be used as a guide, supplemented by deeper discussions during the interview process to explore insights in detail.

3. Leverage Recruitment Expertise🔗

Partnering with a specialised recruitment consultancy can save time, provide access to a broader talent pool, and offer you market insights and data that can be useful within your people strategy. A lot of recruitment partners will already have a lot of infrastructure and software / subscriptions like LinkedIn / job boards in place, but make sure you partner with someone who shares your values, and you trust.

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4. Align Your People Strategy with Funding Goals🔗

Investors value founders who demonstrate a clear plan for building and managing a team to achieve business milestones.

Budget Planning: Allocate resources for salaries, training, and professional development to attract top talent.

Timelines: Show a clear roadmap for scaling your team to meet R&D, manufacturing, or go-to-market objectives. Remember that in the UK, candidates will have a one-to-three-month notice period depending on their roles and specialisms, so this will need to be factored in as well as the overall recruitment process (time to hire) from posting a job advert to the employee’s first day at your company.

Diversity & Inclusion: Highlight initiatives that promote diversity in leadership and align with modern business practices. This might include anonymous applications to rule out unconscious bias. It is not uncommon for junior or new hires to ask about the diversity of the leadership team.

5. Tap into the Northern Ecosystem🔗

The North of England offers a wealth of resources to support life sciences founders.

Networks: Engage with organisations like Praetura Ventures, the Northern Health Science Alliance, Innovate UK, Bruntwood, and local council start up and accelerate initiatives for mentorship and funding.

Events & Incubators: Attend local industry events and join incubators to build your network and find talent pipelines.

University Spinouts: Connect with graduates from leading Northern universities with strong life sciences programs.

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6. Compliance and Legal Considerations🔗

• Employment Laws: Understand and comply with labour laws and regulations in your target hiring regions.
• Compliant Recruitment Processes:

Here's an overview of the key areas and resources to help you stay compliant…

Advertising Standards Authority (ASA): The ASA regulates advertisements across all media in the UK, ensuring that ads are legal, decent, honest, and truthful. If you are running an advertisement, especially for a job, it must comply with these standards.

Ads should not mislead or be deceptive, and they must not unfairly target vulnerable groups.

Equality Act Compliance: Any job advertisements should comply with the Equality Act 2010, which prohibits discrimination based on race, sex, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, pregnancy, maternity, marriage, and civil partnership.

Equality Act 2010: This legislation aims to prevent discrimination in the workplace and in wider society. In advertising, you must ensure that job ads do not indirectly discriminate against any group. For example, wording like "young, dynamic team" could be seen as discriminatory based on age.

Job Advertisements: Make sure job ads are inclusive, stating the essential skills and experience required without focusing on irrelevant personal characteristics. For example, avoid language that suggests a preference for certain ages, genders, or family status.

Employment Interview Questions and Legal Compliance in the UK:

In the UK, there are strict guidelines on what interview questions are allowed to ensure that employers do not discriminate. The rules are mainly laid out under the Equality Act 2010.

• Contracts and IP: Ensure employment agreements address intellectual property and confidentiality concerns.
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI): Develop strategies to foster diversity and inclusion in your hiring practices.

7. Contingency Planning🔗

• Plan for Delays: Anticipate potential delays in hiring or product development and prepare alternatives (e.g. contractors or consultants).
• Flexible Budgeting: Build in flexibility to adjust hiring plans if funding or timelines change.
• Redundancy Avoidance: Avoid over-hiring by focusing on roles that directly contribute to immediate goals.

Conclusion🔗

A pre-funding people strategy is an essential component of your overall business plan. It demonstrates how you’ll build, manage, and optimise your team to deliver on your business objectives.