Posting date:
20/05/2024
Multi hire project for an advanced mRNA Biotech
Case study
The overview
We partnered with a pioneering biotech who had developed a platform that would enable the next generation of mRNA medicines. They had recently received funding which resulted in needing to open a new laboratory to transfer their operations from Slovenia to Oxford, UK. They needed to find additional scientists to complement their existing team and who had experience in the development of mRNA platforms with a mixture of specific cell and molecular biology skills. In addition to this, they needed to find a senior leader to drive the development of computational capabilities
The challenge
Our partner lacked knowledge of the UK market in terms of what skills were available. They also had a limited presence in the life sciences community, which meant that attracting the right candidates to the roles was not easy as people were reluctant to move to a newly established company. To add further to the challenge, the role required a niche skillset for their technology. Expertise in mRNA is hard to find, especially analytical skills in mRNA, DNA, sequencing, cell biology and molecular biology. For the computational role they needed a person with experience with sequencing, analysis, bioinformatics and machine learning - which is a rare mix. The candidate also needed to have the capabilities to build a function from the very beginning.
The solution
To attract the right calibre of candidates, we first needed to put in place a clear interview process that provided all the information to ensure the company stood out from their competitors. The process was designed to give candidates clear information about the company's technology, why it is unique, its potential, their ambitions and how they were going to achieve them. We worked with the company to establish interview timelines and to design the job descriptions for each role to make sure these reflected the scale of the opportunity. In addition to this, we also provided information for the benchmarking of the salaries and advised on attractive employee benefits. To identify suitable candidates, we were specific in those we were targeting. We began with searching through our active networks of potential candidates. We then added to this shortlist by promotion on LinkedIn and active searching of job boards. This search needed a very proactive approach to ensure we spoke to as many potential candidates as possible who were from both academia and industry
The outcome
The whole programme was completed on time with all positions filled with a 100% offer acceptance rate, which reflects the accuracy of the search Now that the laboratory staff are in place they can now proceed with the next phase of development and secure the funding they need to make the next leap in their development As a result of this programme, we are now a longer-term agreement as exclusive partners for all their future recruitment
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