J&J Women In Sales: Demystifying Healthcare Sales For Female Professionals

When it comes to healthcare products, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is a household name, synonymous with trust and affordability. 

Ever since its inception in 1886, J&J has strived to bring its vision to life - blending heart, science, and ingenuity to profoundly change the trajectory of health for humanity. 70 years ago, J&J took steps to translate this vision for the diverse Indian landscape. Since then, J&J India has continuously innovated to advance the health and well-being of people in India. 

Today, it has a 141,700+ strong workforce, 3,500+ of whom are in India. Collectively, this workforce builds J&J’s four major segments - consumer health, medical devices, vision care, and pharmaceuticals. At the same time, J&J ensures that its DE&I policies don’t just offer lip service to the idea of equality but go above and beyond corporate mandates to ensure all its employees feel like they belong. 

But finding a group of prospective employees dedicated to making the world a healthier place, as well as echoing the company ethos is no mean feat. This is not a solution you can slap a band-aid on. This is where niche hiring comes into play!

In this case study, we'll look at how Johnson & Johnson adjusted its hiring strategy to align with its mission and vision and breach the male-dominated sales domain. It exemplifies how revising their strategy with Unstop helped them find talented women in the field of medical sales. 

Looking For A Cure 

The world’s largest and most broadly based healthcare company, J&J has worked long and hard to bring its mission statement to life, i.e., “working with Johnson & Johnson can change everything. Including YOU.” 

To serve this mission statement, J&J decided to tweak its hiring strategy to challenge the traditional setup of the sales domain. Even today, across industries, the sales domain is largely male-dominated. But, when our armed forces can welcome women and break centuries-old practices then why not the sales domain? 

Thus, J&J led the search for talented and experienced women for the many opportunities it had to offer across three sectors- consumer health, MedTech and Janssen Pharmaceuticals.

J&J was looking to hire experienced, female professionals in healthcare sales for the following eight roles.

However, since men have dominated the sales function for the longest time, finding a talent pool of women who could shatter the glass ceiling by driving sales in healthcare turned out to be a cause for concern for J&J. 

Despite utilizing its own site and other recruiting platforms, J&J needed help finding a good quantity and quality of female candidates. Considering the niche area of diversity hiring, i.e. women in healthcare sales, the problem wasn’t new. But with Unstop, the solution could be.

Prescribing The Right Solution With Unstop

When J&J reached out to Unstop, it sought women that understood the values J&J stood for. At the same time, it was looking for experienced women, who understood the world of sales and how it could be a game-changer.  

The team at Unstop put on its thinking hats to find a way to bridge the gap between this exciting opportunity and the group of accomplished women available across India. Unstop was well aware of the difference that a well-executed hiring challenge could make when it came to hiring the right women. Thus, it helped J&J host its first-ever Women in Sales Hiring Drive & Engagement. 

The goal was simple - have J&J women leaders from across India demystify sales for women talent, while interviewing a shortlisted group of candidates to find the ideal candidate.

The virtual hiring event brought together female leaders from different backgrounds, with varied experiences. They thus offered distinct perspectives that helped talented women better understand what a career in sales could look like. 

After internally shortlisting candidates, J&J conducted interviews for the positions and successfully close the hiring drive.  

The Operation’s A Success

Unstop helped J&J seamlessly connect its current female leaders with the prospective female workforce. Changing the way J&J looked for talented individuals resulted in a massively successful hiring and engagement drive. The numbers speak for themselves: 

• The virtual hiring event designed by Unstop reached 23 lakh working professionals in just 10 days. 
• It also received 1200+ registrations from working professionals who belonged to elite universities, like IIMs, IMI, IMT, DSB, and many more. 
• The nature and timeline of the event enabled the company to get its hand on the right talent in comparatively lesser time and with fewer resources.
• The target audience of experienced female professionals competed with a brilliant talent pool for a full-time role in the leading healthcare company with a salary of INR 5-27 LPA (depending on the role). 

J&J & Unstop’s partnership helped the former gain access to the brilliant minds pan-India, with minimal effort. 

If you too are looking for a tailored solution to your hiring needs, contact coffee@unstop.com.