Temporary Staff Cover
Any business expects a degree of staff turnover and workloads are
never evenly distributed. However the stresses managers of technology
transfer or valorisation offices are exposed to in this area are
exacerbated by the complexity of the multi-disciplinary technologies
and the breadth of industries they must deal with. Key employees
at TTO’s have both specialist scientific knowledge and more
importantly they have built up ‘on-the-job’ experience
and competencies that only mature through the passage of time. When
they leave an office can be thrown in to disarray and too much pressure
on remaining over-stretched staff can lead to dissatisfaction, lower
quality work output and worse still, catalyse more leavers. The
problem does not normally stop when new replacement recruits are
appointed since far from being up and running they routinely require
a year of training before they can contribute and be independent
in their work. Simon Youlton at P2F has 15 years commercial experience
followed by 10 years in the technology transfer industry working
for an organisation that became Europe’s largest technology
transfer outfit, Cancer Research Technology (part of CRUK).
Aside from absences and maternity cover, project turnover in an
average TTO is hard to predict and hiring additional human resources
who can hit the ground running and are retained on a temporary basis
to take on selected Life Science projects can be a cost effective
way of smoothing over the peaks in office workload without submitting
new budgets for increased personnel. It is also a low cost access
to experience and expertise, without the full ‘on-costs’
of employing such individuals.
P2F already contracts its services on a temporary basis to the
University of Bath. If you would like to be added to the list please
refer to our Guidelines on engaging
our service |
