"My advice would be for businesses to quit singling out the pandemic as the disruption."
Angela Roberts is the co-founder and Managing Partner at craresources. Prior to joining craresources, Angela spent 16 years as a Hiring Manager for high-performing teams, including ten years with IBM, rounding out her IBM career as one of four Senior Transformation Executives managing global programs.
Angela is a PMP-certified professional with significant Operations and Account Management experience. By invitation, Angela co-founded craresources in 2008 as the company with the mission to build a better Recruitment Agency – one which focuses on Doing the Right Thing and consistently provides High-Quality Clinical Research Associate candidates to the Clinical Research Industry.
Angela has been involved with many industry organizations, such as the Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP) and the International Academy of Clinical Research (IAOCR), to drive a stronger definition of competency within the CRA space. She has been published several times with these organizations and with Life Science Connect, Applied Clinical Trials, Centerwatch, and the Drug Information Association (DIA). She has also been invited to speak at many events regarding staffing issues and trends in this industry.
Angela personally oversees all of the operations within craresources. In addition, she has established an extremely robust recruiting process, with a goal that every candidate craresources represents not only meets requirements but exceeds expectations.
Check out more interviews with entrepreneurs here.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO GET FEATURED?
All interviews are 100% FREE OF CHARGE
Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Angela Roberts: I truly appreciate the opportunity to speak with ValiantCEO and your audience. My name is Angela Roberts, and I am the co-founder and managing partner of craresources.
My firm supports the Clinical Research industry by providing Clinical Research Associates (CRAs) to monitor ongoing clinical trials to ensure these studies adhere to local, Federal, and International regulations.
Our CRAs are tasked to travel to the research sites conducting these studies to verify the patient data for these studies. The goal of this type of monitoring program is to keep the study participants safe while at the same time ensuring the sites involved in the clinical trials are compliant with regulations.
2020 and 2021 threw a lot of curve balls into business on a global scale. Based on the experience gleaned in the past couple years, how can businesses thrive in 2022? What lessons have you learned?
Angela Roberts: I have learned to adapt and encourage our clients to adapt. The CRA role is a heavy travel one, so when the pandemic struck the globe, unfortunately, the impact on our industry was significant.
At the onset of the pandemic, the research sites shut down. Then, as shelter-in-place restrictions started relaxing and research sites began reopening, it was chaos to track. Every state had different restrictions, and sending CRAs across state borders was challenging.
What we found was that our clients were waiting. Looking back on it, I suspect the whole world was waiting to see how the pandemic would play out and what the new normal would be. We encouraged our clients to embrace alternate solutions such as onboarding CRAs to monitor their study from within the states where their sites were located. As we worked with our clients to implement changes, we saw forward movement again.
Businesses can thrive in 2022 and beyond if they are consistently evaluating their environment, able and willing to adapt, and have partners who will work with them to develop creative solutions to their roadblocks.
The pandemic seems to keep on disrupting the economy, what should businesses focus on in 2022? What advice would you share?
Angela Roberts: My advice would be for businesses to quit singling out the pandemic as the disruption. I don’t want to leave your audience with the impression that I am understating the impact the pandemic has had on all, but as business owners, we have had ample time to adapt.
In 2022, we must stop blaming the pandemic for subpar customer service and work to overcome these challenges as best we can.
The reality is that there will always be something that forces change or disruption. In 2020 and 2021, the culprit was the pandemic; but in 2022, there will be something else that will need our attention. Perhaps the impact will not be as substantial, but someone is always ‘moving our cheese’ and the responsibility that we have to our team members and clients is not only to expect change but be willing to embrace and adapt when the change inevitably comes.
How has the pandemic changed your industry and how have you adapted?
Angela Roberts: COVID caused the entire clinical research industry to pause, but now sponsors have not only ramped up, but they are also working diligently to make up for the lost time. To adapt to the high demand for CRAs, we’ve worked hard to continue connecting with clinical research associates in order to meet our sponsors;’ urgent needs. As a result, while our services have been in high demand with this spike, not only are we working hard to satisfy our customers and strengthen our partnerships in terms of achieving speed to market, we are also continuing to be stringent in maintaining the quality of our clients have learned to expect from us.
What advice do you wish you received when the pandemic started and what do you intend on improving in 2022?
Angela Roberts: Someone should have advised me to navigate the travel restrictions during the pandemic. Once shelter-in-place restrictions were lifted and research sites reopened, it became tough to coordinate. Logistics were a nightmare, and we made it through. Now we’re even better at navigating complicated COVID guidelines and pandemic restrictions. In 2022, we plan to use those skills during this demand spike, getting our CRAs wherever they need to be.
Online business surged higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for 2022?
Angela Roberts: As restrictions are lifted, and research sites begin to open up again, the demand for CRAs will continue to increase. However, CRAs shouldn’t get distracted by the high pay and should instead focus on building strong relationships with firms that will outlast the post-pandemic spike.
How many hours a day do you spend in front of a screen?
Angela Roberts: At craresources, my staff and I are available by email or phone across all North American time zones. As high volume recruiters, opening up communications via email correspondence is best as we are typically able to respond to an email within one or two business hours while it takes longer to respond to a voicemail. So unless I am meeting with a client, I or one of my team members are in front of the computer typically between 7:00 AM ET to 8:00 PM ET.
The majority of executives use stories to persuade and communicate in the workplace. Can you share with our readers examples of how you implement that in your business to communicate effectively with your team?
Angela Roberts: One of the largest issues we are addressing in our industry is that of fraudulent candidates representing themselves as experienced CRAs. Many sponsors are unaware of the significance of this fraudulence; therefore we share real examples with the industry in order to arm hiring managers with information that may help protect their organizations and studies.
At craresources, we believe that speaking openly and honestly about issues within our industry not only enables us to offer the best service possible, but also provides critical information even non-clients can use.
We care about this industry and feel building relationships is the most crucial part of our business. Whether we’re getting to know our CRAs in order to match them up with sponsor environments that will enable them to excel, or meeting with sponsors to discuss their trial needs, strong, open communication is our best tool. We extend that ethos to the craresources team, empowering each team member to drive continual improvement into our operations.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as the real challenge right now?
Angela Roberts: For CRAs, navigating the post-pandemic boom is challenging. Their hourly rate has increased significantly because their services are in such high demand. Unfortunately, this can also mean that CRAs may become distracted by the dollar signs and forget to prioritize genuine connection and company culture when seeking a new assignment. That’s where we come in, helping CRAs navigate the market and connect with sponsors and sites who do meaningful work.
This means that for clients, we can provide a sanity check as it relates to the current market rates for high-quality CRAs. When Sponsors understand the current compensation demands, they are better able to compete for the talent needed to effectively monitor their studies without overpaying.
In 2022, what are you most interested in learning about? Crypto, NFTs, online marketing, or any other skill sets? Please share your motivations.
Angela Roberts: In 2022, I’m most interested in learning more about online marketing. We’re working on fine-tuning our website and published content to reach more people, and I’m excited to see how it affects our business.
A record 4.4 million Americans left their jobs in September in 2021, accelerating a trend that has become known as the Great Resignation. 47% of people plan to leave their job during 2022. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued and misunderstood in the workplace. Do you think leaders see the data and think “that’s not me – I’m not that boss they don’t want to work for? What changes do you think need to happen?
Angela Roberts: Absolutely – I think many employers think that high pay is enough to sustain a business and retain your team members, but it’s about so much more than that. If business owners want their team members to stick around, they need to invest in them and create a strong company culture.
I believe companies vary in their maturity with the most mature companies not only having structure, proper training, and measurements established, but also a feedback loop offered to the team members in order to drive continual improvement within the day-to-day operations.
Getting to know your team members not only makes them feel valued, but setting the expectation that you, as a business owner, rely on their ideas to improve the company can also help you make the best use of their skillset when giving them assignments.
As it relates to the CRAs we represent, getting to know our CRAs well beyond their job skills has helped so much when placing them, that we have been able to lower our attrition rate to single digits by matching our CRAs up with Sponsors and assignments they are genuinely interested in.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Angela Roberts: If I could pick any business superpower, it would be the ability to never sleep. I love this industry and truly feel our firm is making a difference in it. .
Because of the fraud in the world of clinical research, I would love to spend my extra ‘sleeping’ hours sharing more stories related to the tricks these fraudsters are using as well as creating more checklists in order to arm hiring managers with details that will protect them and their organizations.
An additional superpower would be to share the ability to quickly identify these fraudulent candidates with the hiring managers in the industry. We have a fair number of phony CRAs attempting to apply for placements through craresources.,and while I am extremely confident in our firm’s ability to detect fraudulence by spotting fake resumes and thoroughly vetting all applicants, knowing the hiring managers in our industry also have the ability to judge people’s character would help us to put a stop to the fraudulence once and for all.
What does “success” in 2022 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Angela Roberts: In 2022, success means helping CRAs look beyond the pay rate and connect with sites aligned with their goals and skillsets. We want to continue building those strong relationships with CRAs and hiring managers, ensuring that the CRAs we supply are reliable and capable.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Angela Roberts for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Angela Roberts or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
Disclaimer: The ValiantCEO Community welcomes voices from many spheres on our open platform. We publish pieces as written by outside contributors with a wide range of opinions, which don’t necessarily reflect our own. Community stories are not commissioned by our editorial team and must meet our guidelines prior to being published.
