Employee Spotlight: Jennifer Law, Sr. Life Sciences Recruiter

As a new member of the SRG team, part of my education process has been getting to know each team member and the different attributes they bring to the table as recruiters. During this process, I realized that there was a great opportunity to share this learning experience with others along the way to provide insight into life as an SRG employee.

Of course, I’ve had my own great experience so far, but hearing directly from people who have worked here longer than I have has just reinforced my decision to make the move to the SRG Team. A great person to start this process with was Jennifer Law, the Senior Life Sciences Recruiter for SRG.

Indeed, the picture she painted of her experience with the organization made me truly proud to be one of the newer members of their ever-growing team.

Jennifer started her career in door-to-door sales for a telecommunication services company in the Greater Boston Area. When her manager left to start her own recruiting firm, Jennifer quickly followed and began the work to build a team with her. The company specialized in recruiting for telecom personnel, an industry where Jen had grown her expertise. And, this is where her staffing and recruiting experience began, as well as her propensity to recognize and appreciate strong leadership.

Over the years, she took different positions in the world of recruitment, trying her hand in account management, and gaining an appreciation of what it was like to work on the corporate side versus the agency side of the business. This gave her a truly holistic understanding of the industry and positioned her as a versatile member of a team who could be a leader and/or an individual contributor.

It was during these years of her portfolio diversification that she met SRG’s current president, Jayne Gill, as a co-worker at an IT recruitment company. When they ran into each other at a job fair years later, Jayne shared the news of her leadership role at SRG and invited Jen to join the team.

When Jen and I discussed what she liked most about working for SRG, she quickly pointed to the autonomy she has in her role and the confidence that the leadership team has in their employees. She feels heard when there is an issue raised and validated by the fact that the resolution is immediately discussed, and a strategy is constructed.

“The leadership is top-notch,” Jen said. “They really do care about process, consistency, and their employees. All opinions are taken and weighed heavily. They’re constantly trying to do better and make processes more efficient and less time-consuming for their teams.”

And it is this type of work behind the scenes by the executive team that makes SRG an extremely unique place to work. “The value in the employees is certainly, by far, the best experience I’ve ever had. It’s not every day you can go to the president of the company and say, this isn’t working, how can we fix it?” she said.

When discussing her past roles, Jen recognized the competitive nature of the recruiting world, and how this could sometimes conjure up some “cut-throat” behavior between co-workers. But she doesn’t see that at SRG. She sees an environment built around a common goal, where when someone is struggling with something, there is an “all-hands” approach to clear the hurdle.

Things are kept fun and interesting with friendly competition, she reminded me. There are contests with prizes for the top-performer, but it’s not the type of environment where one person’s struggle means another’s benefit. Each person’s success is recognized as the team’s success and it is that approach that really makes SRG different from some of the companies she has worked for in the past.

And of course, no discussion about work environment or culture would be complete nowadays without acknowledging how COVID-19 and remote work has affected the team. From Jen’s point of view, it has made the team even more resilient, versatile, and effective than they were before.

Many team members joined during the pandemic as well. So, the culture that has been built is one with the challenges of remote work-life acknowledged from the start, instead of a frantic attempt to adapt when the need arose. The challenges presented by the pandemic, though difficult, really unified the team and fostered a culture of learning together.

In such trying times, it is important to look for the silver linings. And at SRG, there is very little time to ruminate on the negative. There is work to be done and the team has risen to the occasion, exceeding all expectations at each step.

Looking back at her achievements over the past year, Jen was quick to point out that she can’t take all the credit. But, one of her proudest was growing the MSP (Managed Service Provider) division of SRG 108% year-over-year, along with her team-member, Jamison McClam.

Looking at my own brief experience with the SRG Team, I have seen all of the things Jen pointed out to me. I’ve seen an eagerness to contribute to every team effort and a willingness to help that is unmatched by any other team I’ve been a part of.

The lean, efficient manner in which the team operates and how they all achieve it with such an ease is truly impressive. But the way Jennifer summed it up really nailed it in my opinion. She simply said, “It’s just a really good, happy, earnest working environment,” and I could not agree with her more!

For more industry insights into the ever-changing world of the life sciences sector, stay informed with the SRG blog.