When Cardiff-headquartered Biocatalysts saw the need to attract and develop the ‘right candidate’ for a key hire, this fast-growing leader in the development and manufacture of speciality enzymes looked to the Venture Graduate Recruitment & Development service, to help them get the best possible result.
As a member of Manufacturing Wales, Biocatalysts had already seen the benefits of partnering with ‘local’ service partners – and reached out to Venture Graduates in December 2022 with the brief to identify and secure an Inside Sales Coordinator with the values and skills to grow and succeed in a fast-growing enterprise posting impressive results as an important part of the global Brain Biocatalysts Group.
Getting it ‘right’ at briefing stage
Getting it ‘right’ at the initial briefing stage is very often the difference between a successful hire – or not. The brief to Venture? To engage the ‘right’ candidates (and draw up a shortlist of talent) with the right culture fit as well as the right skillset: securing a person with the blend of abilities to work in a high-performing multidisciplinary team of experts who use a wide range of technical, commercial and regulatory capabilities to deliver #BiobasedValue for customers.
As the fully-funded Cardiff Capital Region service focused on recruiting and developing talent for the priority sectors of CCR, Venture brought years of expertise and best practice to the brief – working closely with the talent acquisition and hiring manager team at Biocatalysts to create an accurate job description; and establish the core competencies, values and personality characteristics needed for a candidate to make the most of an outstanding opportunity.
With the ‘Job Spec’ and ‘Person Spec’ agreed, Venture was equipped to work quickly and expertly, with a plan of action to attract the agreed target audience – a life science graduate able to use the scientific knowledge gained at university and use it with confidence in a commercial role and setting …
Speed & Expertise in Search & Selection
Carefully crafting a compellingly written and targeted advertisement, Venture used its extensive network of recruitment media to connect with suitable candidates – utilising strong relationships with engagement channels that include university partners as well as UK job boards.
Beyond harnessing the power of the best ‘attraction channels’, the Venture team were also able to provide a choice of assessment methods, tailored to the Biocatalyst business and the specific candidate population – offering the latest best practices in testing for soft skills such as problem solving and communication, as well as assessing hard skills such as coding and CAD.
Understanding the Biocatalyst recruitment processes and the candidate mindset, Venture proposed online recorded video interviews as the best way to both assess applicants and deliver a positive candidate experience – a choice of medium that is renowned for promoting an inclusive recruitment process and ‘employer brand’ for the company, as well as providing the opportunity for the employer to get ‘more of a feel’ of the candidates.
An inclusive recruitment process and positive candidate experience
The video assessment platform chosen for this assignment asked each candidate a series of core questions focused on their interest in the role and their ‘fit’ for the position, together with behavioural competency questions centred on customer service.
This highly efficient and insightful interview structure produced a short list of four high quality science graduates – through a totally transparent process that saw three candidates progress to interview stage and two to second interview stage, before an offer was made to the successful applicant.
A great hire geared for sustainable success
Venture proved incredibly able in successfully appointing a Pharmacology Graduate for Biocatalysts – and that newly-appointed employee is now being supported in their role through Venture’s Career Accelerator Programme.
Delivered by the programme’s university partners at the Open University and University of South Wales, the Biocatalyst graduate employee is undertaking courses in critical thinking, project management, and business management – key ‘core’ skills that will help with their development in this commercially focused role; and help them grow fully as their career grows.
Gemma Johns, HR Officer at Biocatalysts, was delighted with the whole service and the result, saying:
“The Venture team provided a fantastic service from start to finish – delivering a tremendous result through a process that was professional, quick, and seamless. They were able to find us high quality candidates – and their video interviews were a great tool for us to assess and get more insight into the candidates. I would recommend Venture to any other organisation who are considering hiring a graduate in South East Wales.”
