Does flexibility in the workplace have a big part to play in whether you take a job or not?

Giving employees the freedom to choose where and when they work, can keep them from looking elsewhere and save companies the considerable long-term costs of employee turnover.

 According to the sage journal survey conducted in America last year:

• 79% of candidates would pick the job with flexibility over one without

• 74% believe flexible working improves employee retention

• 71% think it makes employees more loyal

• 73% said flexible working lowers stress levels amongst staff

• 59% would turn down a job completely if it didn't offer flexible working

Flexible work options can reduce employee absences and turnover, both of which typically cost employers a hefty sum in lost productivity and extensive replacement costs. In fact, The Bureau of National Affairs estimates that over $11 billion is lost annually due to employee turnover.

 Would you turn down a promotion in favor of more flexible working?

Being offered a promotion is of course very flattering, but sometimes the lure of a shiny new title and more money just isn’t enough for some people. The thought of longer working hours, business travel and more stress means they would rather take a lower paid role if it means getting their work-life balance sorted.

Flexible working is more than just working from home, not only is it not an option for some job roles, but sometimes being flexible on working hours or using skype to have a meeting instead of traveling to the office can make you feel appreciated and much more willing to go that extra bit further for your employer because you know you are valued.  So its win, win. The employee is happier because they can be there for their child’s parents evening and the employer is happy because they are getting a dedicated employee who is giving 110%.

What are your thoughts? Is flexibility important to you?

check out our website for all the latest job offers www.kuborecruitment.com

January Opportunities in Life Sciences

So you have been back at work 2 weeks and like most of us, you are probably sitting at your desk thinking, "where did Christmas and New Years go? I'm back at work already!?!", but are you also at work thinking "I need more!?"

Whether it's more money or more job satisfaction you want, now is the time to do something about it! Kubo Recruitment has many new roles that we are looking to fill!

Deputy Clinical Safety Officer - Permanent - UK
The ideal candidate will provide support to the Clinical Safety & Information Governance Officer (CS & IGO) in order to meet the requirements of GPSoC and other clinical safety deliverables by:

• Ensuring Clinical Safety Documentation is reviewed regularly and kept up to date
• Collating Clinical Safety Information and documentation at the request of external parties
• Providing support to the CS&IGO in the production of Clinical Safety paperwork associated with development projects
• Updating the Clinical Incident Register within the customer database
• Managing and maintaining the Clinical Safety Mailbox

Statistician Required Onsite in Denmark

Two statisticians are required to work onsite in Denmark on a 3-month contract and be open to 50% home-based work thereafter. The ideal candidate will have 3+ years of experience in the industry. 

Associate Director - Statistical Science (Pre-clinical) - Switzerland

Our Client is looking to hire a talented Associate Director, Statistical Science. In this challenging and dynamic role, you will be a global lead for providing the statistical strategy and support of multiple areas within the biomedical research departments. 

Contract CRA - Germany

• Experienced freelance CRA required for a project in Germany covering 6 sites, the majority of the sites are in or around the Munich area. 
• 2-3 days a month over a 5 year period
• Experience with applications BfarM or the EC territory would be an advantage
• Excellent rates

CDISC Consultant/Freelance - Italy

Opportunity for an experienced CDISC consultant/freelance for a short project in Italy:

• To provide operational support to build datasets supporting our client's current eCRD system (designed and built in-house) in a format compatible with CDISC
• Micro-analysis of data structure in order to enable in the future the building of automated datasets compatible with CDISC format

If you would like further information on any of the jobs featured, please contact Rachel Keay at rachel.keay@kuborecruitment.com or visit www.kuborecruitment.com 

New Year new job? Get ahead of the crowd now!

In a survey by jobsite.co.uk it showed that 42% of people will look for a new job in January, with half of all people surveyed saying they used the Christmas break to think about their career. It also showed that 13% of people will start their new job search after receiving their January pay cheque.

While wanting more money is the biggest reason for January job hunting, 51% of people looking for a new position crave more job satisfaction, and more than 1 in 10 are simply unhappy in their current job.

Top 5 reasons for looking for a new job in the New Year

1. More money

2. Job satisfaction
3. To further my career
4. I’m unhappy in my current job
5. I want a less stressful job

 According to new research from Job Bounties (www.jobbounties.com ) history shows the first Monday back to work after the Christmas break is when 2 in 5 people currently in work will search the words "jobs" or "Vacancies" on Google!

The Holidays are fast approaching and before you know you know it, we’ll be in January. You may feel that you can take a break from your job search as you think companies are not hiring at the end of the year. While that may be the case for some companies, other companies may still have budget set aside and positions they want to fill for the start of the New Year. Either way, this is not the time for you to stop looking for a job. In January, there will be even more people competing for the jobs and you want to get ahead of the crowd now. The health care industry consumes over 10 percent of gross domestic product of most developed nations making it very competitive as it’s one of the world's largest and fastest-growing industries.　

Tips to get you started!

• make a list of jobs that interest you and research job openings -check out Kubo’s website www.kuborecruitment.com
• Get your CV/resume up-to-date!
• Get your social media profiles in line – have a look at our previous  blog “The good, the bad and the ugly side of social media for your job search” for Kubo’s advice on how to make the best of yours!

 

So get ahead of the crowd and get in touch with Kubo Recruitment to start your search today!

European Statistical Forum : Amsterdam, Netherlands

 

The 4th Annual European Statistical Forum (ESF) is taking place on Monday, 18th of November in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Kubo Recruitment is sponsoring this event which discusses the pressing issues of biostatistics in the pharmaceutical, biotech and clinical trials environment. 

 

The topic of this year's forum is "Missing Data in Clinical Trials".
 

The handling of missing data in clinical trials has become a crucial topic for clinical drug development, in particularly with respect to the regulatory process. New methodologies and techniques have emerged such as mixed-model repeated measures, multiple imputations, pattern-mixture models for longitudinal data as well as specific censoring rules and models for time to event data. 

The ESF 2013 is dedicated to the investigation, exploration as well as handling and analysis of missing data in clinical trials by presenting:

- State-of-the-art statistical methodology
- Case studies from clinical trials showing how missing data can be handled and how they can impact trial results
- Regulatory viewpoints on this topic

 

The ESF Scientific Board includes: Jens-Otto Andreas, Director Global Biostatistics EU Group for UCB Biosciences GmbH, Lisa Comarella, Director, Biostatistics and Senior Project Manager for CROS NT, Frank Fleischer, Global BCA at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KB, and Giacomo Mordenti, Senior Director Compound Development & Branding-Head Biostatistics at Grünenthal. 

The conference agenda promises a list of prominent speakers from some of Europe's top pharma and biotech companies.

 

Details:

European Statistical Forum
Monday, 18th of November 2013; 09:00 - 17.30
NH Amsterdam Centre
Stadhouderskade 7, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

The Challenges of Pharmacovigilance: Database and Reporting Solutions

In recent years, regulatory agencies - including the EMA/European Union and the FDA - have taken steps to improve patient safety in clinical trials. The EU estimates that approximately 200,000 patients die each year from Adverse Drug Reactions. Companies are often faced with the challenge of finding solutions that can improve quality and analysis of safety data while managing the increase in data and the need to satisfy regulatory requirements.

In Europe, the latest pharmacovigilance regulations, known as Good Pharmacovigilance Practice (GVP), went into effect in 2012 in order to better analyze and understand data from clinical studies, especially post-market studies, to identify risks to patients. More recently, the EMA has released guidelines for complying with ICH E2B (R3) which regulates electronic transmission of individual case safety reports.

 

Safety Database

 

Companies conducting pharmacovigilance activities will need a safety database that can optimize safety reporting. Many pharmaceutical and biotech companies may opt for Oracle AERS or Argus, while some store safety data in SAS. Oracle AERS is a comprehensive solution for product safety monitoring and compliance. The graphical user interface allows users to visualize the case elements and understand the holistic case picture. Oracle Argus, on the other hand, is a fully integrated platform of end-to-end pharmacovigilance solutions to ensure regulatory compliance from clinical development to post-market surveillance. 

 

Combining statistical analysis, programming and IT support under a commonly used platform like SAS is an ideal solution for automating data collection and analysis from multiple sources. This approach is even appropriate for smaller companies, because automation can be done without a complex or expensive Business Intelligence platform.

 

Customized Reporting Solutions

 

1. Automating signal detection in SAS is one ideal solution for customized reporting. In order to automate the process, a system needs to be in place to pull and analyze data from the safety database. The key aspect is the data integration between safety database, regulatory databases, and patient data from external database resources. The identification of signal criteria and the implementation of standardized programs automates the signal detection process and produces structured data which speeds up the task of finalizing Eudravigilance submissions.

 

2. Integrating an Oracle database with Business Intelligence produces real time data and results. With the support of our technology partner, we can integrate Oracle 9i database with Oracle Business Intelligence Standard One edition to create interactive dashboards for readily accessible data and results.

 

The good, the bad and the ugly side of using social media for your job search. Part 2

Facebook

In the last blog, Kubo looked at LinkedIn and how it can help your job search, but what about when something you have said or done online comes back to bite you! This week Kubo are looking at Facebook, and like many people, you probably think that LinkedIn is for professional use and Facebook is for personal use, but unfortunately social media doesn’t work like that. What you say and do on your personal profile has a habit of catching up with you when you least expect it.

Most employers will Google their prospective employees before their interview, so your chosen profile picture and past pictures are the first thing an employer can see in search results. This is probably a good time to check your privacy settings and make sure your profile is set as private and be sure to select an appropriate profile picture, because these are viewable to everyone!

Whatever is viewable on your Facebook timeline tells an employer about you. If you don’t want future or current employers looking at your recent posts then lock it down via your privacy settings, because what you post may well hinder your chances of getting that job! Below are examples of how Facebook has cost a few people their job!

• In 2009 a female employee had a bit of a moan on Facebook about her new job “first day at work. omg So dull!! Unfortunately for her this post found its way to her manager and 3 weeks later she was fired! 

 

• In March 2009 a Swiss women was fired after phoning her boss and telling him she couldn’t come in because she had a migraine and the lights and glare from her computer would make it worse. She was later seen on Facebook and it was presumed if she was well enough to be on Facebook she was well enough to be in work! She was subsequently let go!
• It’s never advisable to criticise your boss on social media, especially when you have them as a friend on Facebook! Below is the actual response that this young lady got from her boss! 

 

• A male employee in the UK wrote this on his Facebook page, ‘I work at [insert company here] and can't wait to leave because it's s***"." He quickly got his wish and was sacked!!

 In many cases, potential employers can find their way onto your Facebook page even if you have enabled privacy settings by going through other employees or friends. So be careful what you post on Facebook and who can view your profile.! The first thing most potential employers do is Google or Facebook their candidates. Start by doing a Google search of yourself and see if you are happy with results. Don’t stop yourself getting that perfect job by having incriminating evidence on your Facebook. Once you do have that job think carefully what you write as you may well find yourself without one!

Let us know if you have ever got into trouble over a post you have wrote?

 

Kubo Recruitment meets MK Lightning’s new team!

By Lara Gill, Recruitment Consultant

Last week I went to represent Kubo and meet the new addition to the Milton Keynes Lightning squad, Tom Carlon. Kubo are sponsoring Tom this season and thought we should pop along and introduce ourselves to him. The team were being introduced for the first time to all their supporters and were all raring and ready to go for the new season!

Tom has recently transferred to MK Lightning after leaving the Peterborough Phantoms and has had a long and successful ice hockey career and was even captain of the U18 Great Britain Team!

Carlon saw his name and stick go into the Hall of Fame in Canada when he scored the game-winning goal in the world championships to win the gold medal for Great Britain!

Kubo wish MK Lightning good luck as they start their new season- hopefully we will be able to get to a game soon to show our continued support for the boys!

Kubo also sponsor the U16 Milton Keynes Storm hockey team.