Attracting Top Talent
In our ongoing endeavor to communicate to potential candidates how we strive to be an employer of choice, we launched a new recruiting campaign in 2009. We continue to embrace diversity in our recruiting efforts worldwide.
Life Even Better
At Life Technologies, we believe in the power of science to transform life and the power of people to make it happen. In 2009, we expanded our recruitment efforts to include the following key events and activities:
- An open house for Information Technology candidates
- Participation in a Career Showcase at the University of California, San Diego
- A community networking event at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in La Jolla, California
- Sponsoring the San Diego Science Festival 2009, supporting the 2009 Nifty Fifty lecture series, and enabling scientists to teach in classrooms. The program was so popular that it has grown into the Nifty One-Fifty for 2010.
- Sponsoring the Hood College Summer Science Research Institute, in support of research across a range of technologies, including bacterial expression of recombinant proteins and applications of liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry
- Expanding our global events and diversity outreach efforts
Talent Referral Program
In 2009, we launched a new talent referral campaign to encourage employees to introduce great people they know to opportunities at Life Technologies.
The program was launched to reward employees for referring a successful candidate and included the option of donating an award to charity. This program continues to be a top priority for the Talent Acquisition function, as approximately 15 percent of new hires come from employee referrals.
Onboarding Into Our Culture
Acclimating new employees to the culture at Life Technologies is a major initiative for 2010. Onboarding is an important foundation for ensuring success; in 2009 we identified aspects of the onboarding processes from Invitrogen and Applied Biosystems that will be reengineered this year.
We’re looking at the success of the company’s Sales Development Program as a benchmark. This fast-paced program immerses new entry-level sales representatives in a four-month training and development program and then deploys them with a defined product portfolio to support sales representatives at one of our key accounts.
Benefits
Life Technologies revamped its U.S. benefits offerings in 2009 to better meet the needs of our employees, and offered a new benefits package that includes comprehensive healthcare benefits, an employee assistance program, an employee stock purchase plan, and a 401(k) matching retirement plan. Unique to Life Technologies’ benefits program is the Navigenics Genetics Health Program. This program provides access to personal genetic testing that analyzes a participant’s DNA for risk markers that may genetically predispose him or her to various health conditions, including breast cancer, type 2 diabetes, colon cancer, and heart disease.
Additionally, we offer a number of supplemental benefits to help employees balance their work and life priorities, including a transportation subsidy to promote carpooling and the use of public and alternative transportation.
Rewards
As Life Technologies continues to evolve, it is important that we have a common and clear way to describe career paths, jobs, and rewards on a global basis. To support this, we introduced a consistent and transparent foundation for discussing and managing jobs, roles, skills, careers, and pay across the company. Every employee understands how his or her personal contribution relates to the overall success of the organization. Additionally, the new reward program promotes peer recognition by celebrating people whose work reflects their determination not only to go above and beyond in their work, but to embody our company’s values.
