RPO Case Study for STEM Diagnostics Business

Overview

Founded in 2002, our client is a world-leading CDMO that develops highly effective drug delivery mechanisms for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

The client is experienced in providing a comprehensive outsourcing service for formulation and analytical development, with subsequent clinical trials manufacturing for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies worldwide.

The challenge

The client recognised the urgent need to review and change its hiring strategy as its current recruitment processes were proving ineffective.

Instead of hiring strategically to address the long-term competency gaps within the business, hiring was done on an ad-hoc, reactive basis. 

Further challenges stemmed from a lone human resources coordinator being tasked with managing the company’s entire recruitment process alongside several other aspects of their role.

Ultimately, the client did not have adequate recruitment capacity to manage its ever-growing list of vacancies. With the headcount gap being widened by new projects and recently awarded contracts, the client approached SRG for recruitment assistance.

The roles that the client required support with were:

• Project manager
• Formulation scientist
• Production operator
• Quality manager                         
• Project coordinator
• QC analyst

SRG proposed an interim recruitment solution, whereby we ‘seconded’ a senior SRG recruiter to be an onsite recruitment business partner (RBP) for the client. This RBP would manage the entire recruitment process – from brief through to offer – by using SRG as the first-line recruitment resource and managing third-party agencies where external support was required.

Based onsite two days a week, the RBP acted as the central point of contact for all recruitment and resourcing on behalf of the client – both internally and externally. Their work was also supplemented by SRG’s specialist consultants, who aided the process by sourcing the best candidates for each role.

To identify the most suitable candidates for the client, our consultants called upon our ecosystem of candidate attraction channels including our internal databases, networking, job boards, the SRG website, recruitment advertising, and LinkedIn.

This temporary solution initially ran for a period of thirteen weeks. However, the project has subsequently been extended due to the positive impact that SRG has had in reducing the client’s headcount shortfall.

Results

All vacancies were filled by SRG, excluding one which was filled following an internal promotion.

All roles offered to candidates were subsequently accepted. This process was accelerated by final decisions being made quickly.

Our RBP also supported the client with an interview assessment document that improved the candidate experience and gave the interview process more structure and purpose.

Since SRG has been supporting the client in implementing new workflows, the latter’s recruitment processes have become increasingly streamlined and effective – as demonstrated by the results of our partnership.