The COVID Comeback: Retaining + Recruiting Top Talent in a Post-COVID World

Missed it? Watch the recording of this program on our YouTube Channel.

Please join us for a Virtual Lunch & Learn presentation on retaining and recruiting top talent in a Post-COVID work environment.

Do you have the best hybrid work model for your company? The Pandemic has forced many companies to look at their remote work structure more extensively, permanently altering the landscape of retaining and recruiting their top talent. In the Life Sciences space, this becomes even more complex given some employee populations, like ones that do work in a lab, need to be on-site to do their work. While other populations, under the same proverbial roof, have roles more conducive to remote-based work.

How do we create the right set-up that maximizes your workforce potential while maintaining equity across an organization? Also, since this changes your talent pool and creates an even more complex landscape for winning latent, what things should be considered to position yourself for success? In this Lunch and Learn we look at the complexities involved for both employers and employees to curate an optimal balance in this new work environment.

About the Speakers:
Ruba Asmussen, Owner and Managing Director of RTA Consulting along with Steve Waterman, Senior Recruiting Consultant and Helen Sustarich, Recruiting Programs Specialist from RTA Consulting. Headquartered in Portland, OR, RTA Consulting helps start-up companies kick their hiring into gear. Focusing on mission-driven companies with emerging technologies touching many industries including materials innovation, biotech/pharma, food/beverage, agriculture, personal care, sustainability and more, we offer strategic HR/Talent Consulting and RPO solutions to flexibly scale your recruiting capabilities, attract top tier talent and fill your open positions.

Ruba Asmussen started RTA Consulting to solve an unmet need out there for synthetic biology and biomanufacturing start-ups looking to grow. As an experienced Recruiting and Business Leader for the Life Sciences and Technology industries, some accolades include achieving the Top Producing Recruiter in Aerotek’s Northwest Region for 4 consecutive years and growing Zymergen from 100 to 850 employees as the Head of Recruiting. Ruba holds a BA in Molecular and Cellular Biology from UC Berkeley, is a mom of two, a tribute-band rock guitarist and a total hiring-nerd.

Steve Waterman has 17 years of technical and non-technical recruiting experience across a variety of industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, natural resources and aerospace. His favorite part of being in recruiting is helping to advance the careers of the candidates he helps hire and seeing the positive impact they have on the companies they join. In his free time, you’ll find Steve enjoying the Pacific Northwest outdoors (especially Cape Kiwanda on the Oregon Coast, Mt. Hood, and the waterfalls of the Columbia River Gorge), the Portland/Vancouver restaurant and microbrewery scene, and going to Portland Timbers games.

Helen Sustarich’s passion for relationship building has led her to a career of 10+ years in Customer Service and Human Resources. Gaining a variety of HR programs experience with Genentech’s contingent workforce, Helen comes to RTA fueled by the satisfaction of helping others; whether a new hire wanting to know next steps, a manager needing guidance on dealing with a sticky situation, or collaborating with colleagues on a project to improve the employee experience. Driven by her ambition to grow and being an even more valuable resource, Helen went back to school and graduated with her MBA with a concentration in HR. Her outgoing personality and passion for people was nurtured in Jacksonville, Florida before returning to her birthplace in San Francisco, California in 2015. If it isn’t a work day, you can find Helen hanging out with her loved ones and making creative Instagram Reels encouraging others to be their own curator of positive experiences!

Missed it? Watch the recording of this program on our YouTube Channel.

This program is organized by OBI/OTRADI and the Portland State Business Accelerator.