Client Overview:
Our client partner offers state-of-the-art genomics services to support the development of Cell & Gene Therapies. Based in Cambridge, UK, they have competition for talent from local organisations in the genomics field. Next Phase were introduced to this client through a mutual connection in October 2022, and at this point they had recently acquired an ISO17025 licence but lost their ISO15189 accreditation following a failed UKAS inspection. Gaining and maintaining both of these licences would be essential to the company’s future growth.
Recruitment Solution:
The client’s existing recruitment suppliers had been unable to fill the QA Manager position, citing the relatively low salary budget as the issue. In reality, the salary was not the main issue. Instead it was about how the opportunity had been presented to potential candidates, leading to some people being put off applying. It became clear that the position had been dismissed by other agencies as unfillable, but it transpired that it needed to be approached from a different perspective. Next Phase therefore worked closely with both the Head of Quality & Regulatory Affairs and the HR Manager, to listen closely to the challenges they were experiencing and to then provide a summary of the candidate market, including a competitor analysis to illustrate an increased need to provide flexibility with working hours and home working.
As standard, Next Phase ask all candidates to complete a personality profile as part of their application. Given that the client was looking to build a cohesive, collaborative QA team, we were able to use the personality profiles of each candidate to compile a series of ‘playbooks’ that predicted how the new hires might work together and how they would collaborate on upcoming projects. In addition to candidates’ CVs, the client was therefore able to consider each candidate’s personality and likely approach to different situations.
Results:
Five candidates were presented to the client for the QA Manager role within 2 weeks of the initial briefing. Three of these candidates were selected for interview, leading to two final interviews and ultimately a job offer which was accepted. This led to further recruitment within the QA department. Within 4 months, Next Phase placed 2 permanent members of staff into the Quality team (QA Manager, followed by a Quality Specialist), as well as introducing a Quality consultant to assist with risk assessments and audit-readiness, and a further consultant (based in Australia) to work on an ad hoc basis as a Clinical Advisor.
Client Testimonial:
We were very grateful for the support you gave us for filling the QA Manager vacancy. Your personality profiling tool helped us to differentiate between the final candidates and gave us confidence that we made the right decision.
Conclusion:
It is key for a recruitment partner to spend time with their client, to really understand the challenges they are facing before going straight into searching for candidates. In a situation such as this one, there was a very real danger of the company gaining a negative reputation within a relatively small local community of Quality professionals. Next Phase were able to advise the client on how they were perceived in the local area, and how other companies approach certain considerations such as remote working and flexible hours, especially within QA which can increasingly be managed remotely. Next Phase are able to personalise our recruitment services and we encourage all potential clients to contact us for a free, no-obligation discussion about their staffing challenges.