UpTrials' Approach to Site Workforce Challenges

Renuka Agarwal, CEO and co-founder of UpTrials, is revolutionizing site workforce challenges. Renuka shares the inspiration behind founding UpTrials, and how the platform is making a significant impact by matching research sites with skilled candidates. Learn how UpTrials is streamlining the hiring process, improving time-to-fill rates, and bringing much-needed innovation to clinical research hiring processes.

UpTrials is AI-driven software designed to help clinical research employers hire top talent quickly. The platform algorithmically matches employers with prescreened candidates who have clinical research experience, training, or transferable skills, covering roles from coordinators to site leadership. Employers can contact UpTrials at info@uptrials.com, and job seekers can sign up at app.uptrials.com.

Transcript

Jimmy Bechtel: 0:00

Greetings and thank you for being part of the Society for Clinical Research Sites for SCRS Talks. I'm your host, Jimmy Bechtel, the Vice President of Site Engagement with the Society. Get ready to dive into pressing clinical research industry topics, celebrate noteworthy achievements, and create a deeper connection within the research community. This is a space to amplify voices and perspectives that shape the landscape of clinical research. Today, we have Renuka Agarwal, the CEO and co founder of UpTrials here with us to share a little bit about her organization, what they do and how they impact ultimately the clinical research enterprise. Renuka, it's great to have you with us today. Really excited to talk a little bit about and learn more about UpTrials and what you guys are doing in this space. And before we get into that though I'd love to learn a little bit about you and a little bit again about UpTrials.

Renuka Agarwal: 0:53

Thanks so much for having me on this podcast, Jimmy. I am such a fan of SCRS, the meaningful work that you do for our sites and how you really bring the ecosystem together. We're really looking forward to exhibiting at the Global Summit in September and connecting with a lot of our friends in the industry there. I ended up in clinical research by accident, which I know is the case for most of us. I started my career in investment banking and media strategy actually working at LinkedIn. I then moved into healthcare post getting my MBA at the University of Chicago. working in life sciences, consulting at ZS Associates for a few years, and then joining Tempest, a precision medicine company, where I was assigned to the clinical trials group by chance. That's where I really was exposed to the problem that Uptrials is working to address, which are the workforce challenges that I know are familiar for most listeners. My job at Tempest was to bring trials from life sciences companies to sites that we had partnerships with, and very often I encountered sites that didn't have enough staff or didn't have staff with the right skill sets. The more I researched, the more I realized how pervasive this issue was. And that's why I was motivated to found UpTrials in this industry. Our workforce is our greatest asset. They are the mission critical piece of the puzzle. And so that's why we believe that it's so important that clinical trial innovation involves innovation in the workforce.

Jimmy Bechtel: 2:15

That's excellent, Renuka. Really excited to talk about this because again, as you so astutely brought up workforce is a huge issue. We're seeing so much turmoil and turnover turn this and turn that with workforce in our space. So it's great to hear from an organization that's taking a proactive approach in solving some of these challenges. So you talked a little bit about the company and its background. So maybe next share why it was created a little bit of the background and where it came from and, how, maybe, then it works. What is the impetus for what you're doing with UpTrials?

Renuka Agarwal: 2:53

So, from my own experience, experiencing or witnessing the site understaffing issue, that's really what prompted me to found UpTrials as I recognize that this issue wasn't just specific to one or two sites, but really seemed to be pretty endemic to the industry. And what I was also seeing was I was hearing a lot of sites telling me that they were understaffed, and I was hearing a lot of job seekers telling me that they couldn't find jobs in the industry. And that's really where the idea for Uptrials came is a talent marketplace to address this fundamental matching problem in our labor market. And so that's exactly what Uptrials is, is it's a clinical research specific talent marketplace. So what that means is that we aggregate disaggregated supply. And enable research, skill and experience based hiring. So if you're a site, you log into UpTrials and you post jobs that include the clinical research profiles you're looking for. UpTrials and matches you with relevant candidates from our database using our AI. And you can also do filtered searches for candidates. All candidates in our database have prior clinical research experience training or transferable skills. We support all roles from entry level clinical trial assistants and coordinators, all the way up to PIs, sub Is, and site leadership. For job seekers, we've often heard how frustrating the application process can be. They often get ghosted by employers and struggle to discover roles beyond the brand names that they may have heard of. Uptrials really enables them to better highlight why they are relevant for clinical research roles. Discover jobs and thus supply with greater success.

Jimmy Bechtel: 4:29

That's really cool, Renuka. It's great that it's both ends of it. It's not just a service for job seekers that we see are really prevalent out there you know, Glassdoor, Indeed, et cetera, et cetera. But, It's a specific to an industry and to what we're trying to do here, but also a service like you had mentioned for the research sites to kind of do that targeted recruitment, that targeted outreach to the community and find really qualified individuals. So I think that's a really cool highlight that I heard that really sets UpTrials apart from some of the other, we'll say, job seeking position filling solutions that are out there.

Renuka Agarwal: 5:09

Thank you.

Jimmy Bechtel: 5:10

What has UpTrials is impact been so far? What, really have you seen as being powerful in what you've been able to do, I guess, is another way to put that.

Renuka Agarwal: 5:21

Yeah. So we are a pretty new company and we're excited to be coming up on our one year anniversary. So we launched our platform in January of this year and formerly launched a company in the summer of last year. We now have over a thousand job seekers in our database and we're working with multiple sites. We've had over 50 candidates interviewed and for hires on UpTrials, we've seen a time to fill rate of two weeks and a time to interview of less than one week, which I think we all know are much tighter than industry standard time. So we're really, really excited about that momentum. Fundamentally, I'm just really excited by how our sites are enjoying the quality of candidates that they're finding on our platform. I think the excitement with which both sites and job seekers are saying. Thank you for launching something like this. I think that, that many people in our industry feel overlooked by the fact that there hasn't been a solution like this for them when there have been similar solutions in so many other verticals. So that's what we're seeing in terms of momentum.

Jimmy Bechtel: 6:19

That's really neat. And I would imagine that a solution like this. That is, again, like you had mentioned, specific to what we're trying to do here in clinical research probably does have some incredible uptake. So I am excited to see how things continue to progress for UpTrials in the near future as you all continue to add candidates and fill positions for those that are needed in clinical research. Why, thinking conceptually, is it important to address industry workforce challenges through a cross ecosystem approach like we had mentioned. We're looking at not only job seekers, but positions that need to be filled rather than in isolation.

Renuka Agarwal: 6:59

That's a great question. So a cross ecosystem approach is really at the heart of what we do. And so. We have multiple partnerships with other organizations in the research space. I think that's what I love most about this industry among many things is that lines are not clear cut. Someone who might be perceived as a competitor is just as likely to be a customer or a partner. You know, I think we're all very much working to solve this big challenge that we know impacts all of us. A cross ecosystem approach is critical because like I said, Workforce challenges affect us all. Today, UpTrials main customers are sites, but we know that there's application for UpTrials with CROs and with sponsors as well, since staffing challenges at the site level, by definition, also impact the CRO and sponsor level. Given the professional trajectory of staff in the industry, It's also important that we support their professional development without cannibalizing each other's efforts, and that's why, we're constantly focused on how we can complement the great work that's already being done. For example, we know how important increasing our supply of talent in the industry is, in addition to the supply demand matching challenge that Uptrials is addressing. And for that, we have partnerships and multiple research training organizations in the field. Partnering with these organizations helps us reach a broader range of research professionals and collectively increases the scope of our offerings for the workforce. So 100 percent I think through SCRS through other wonderful organizations and partnerships that we've been able to have in the industry across ecosystem approach is critical and helps us all.

Jimmy Bechtel: 8:30

It's a really important approach to take. I couldn't agree with you more helping those a, not only understand what's out there, what's available, that there's services like this, that are part of that, but you all are doing something that's relatively unique in this space. And that is working with these organizations, other organizations that are out there that are training and bringing clinical research professionals up, right. Universities and different, organizations that are out there that are specifically focused on growth development and upskilling. And I think that's a really, really important aspect of what you guys do. And so it's great to hear. So we're beginning to wrap things up here, but I did want to make sure that everyone was aware that UpTrials will be exhibiting at the global site solutions summit in September down in Hollywood, Florida. So, if anyone is interested in connecting with the UpTrials team, of course. Check them out, check out their website. But if you want to meet some of them in person, head on down to Hollywood, Florida, and a chance to shake their hands and meet them. I know I will be doing that as well. Renuka, I'm excited to see you guys down there. But I thank you for being with us. Thank you for sharing a little bit more about UpTrials. I think it's a really incredible service that you're bringing and unique in a lot of ways to the industry. So thank you for your efforts. And again, thanks for the conversation today.

Renuka Agarwal: 9:47

Thank you so much.

Jimmy Bechtel: 9:48

As we wrap up for those listening, don't forget to explore other site focused resources that are made available for you. Like the various publications and webinars on our website, myscrs. org, you'll find a wealth of content and information about placing an opportunity for the upcoming SCRS site solutions summit. Thank you for tuning in and until next time.