Talentmark’s strength lies in personal contact

Edwin Kamerman, Business Manager

There was some healthy doubt when XDES was asked if it wanted to be part of Talentmark. With a stable number of seconded employees and a large group of satisfied clients, the recruitment company was doing well. “But we also recognised a win-win situation for all involved,” says business manager Edwin Kamerman. “With a wider network and more resources, we are guaranteed growth. Which means we can offer our seconded employees more opportunities, provide our clients with an even better service, and it gives our team of recruiters more options to develop.

These are interesting times for secondment and recruitment. It’s not so much looking for vacancies but finding suitable candidates. Because they are scarce and the demand for Life Sciences professionals continues to increase. Not just because the industry is growing anyway, but due to Brexit, more pharmaceutical companies are coming to the Netherlands. Furthermore, research and production departments are expanding enormously as a result of Covid-19, among others. “So, it can be quite a challenge to fill vacancies,” says Edwin Kamerman, who started as a recruiter at XDES, was then promoted via various positions to business manager at XDES and is now business manager at Talentmark Hoofddorp.

He continues: “Previously, we took most of our candidates from our own database with over seventy thousand leads. Now that we are part of Talentmark and are expanding our resources, we can also recruit in other ways. For example, we are much more active on LinkedIn, our network is bigger, and we can be much more visibly present at trade fairs. We are not an agency that quickly recruits candidates from the market with a fancy story. That approach isn’t in our DNA. Our strength mainly lies in personal contact. It’s important to us to establish a bond with our potential candidates. We keep calling. We call to ask if they are interested in coming to us. We ask them if we can call them in six months’ time. And six months later, we call them to ask if they are still enjoying their current job. If you’re persistent, the time will come when the potential candidate tells us they are willing to talk to us about their next career move.”

Obviously a satisfied and well-functioning employee is the best advertisement you can have.

Competence Academy

When assessing which vacancy then best matches the candidate, personal contact continues to be key at Talentmark. Kamerman: “We have one and sometimes more conversations to see which position best suits this candidate. To do this even more accurately, we recently developed the Competence Academy. Part of this involves the candidate doing an assessment, which makes it clearer where their strength lies. This enables us to place our candidates even better.”

Lining up several candidates in the recruitment sector for the Life Sciences industry is no longer a luxury. This is partly thanks to the unwritten rules of the portals, the recruitment system used by most pharmaceutical companies. As soon as a vacancy is published via these portals, the recruiters have a limited time to confirm a search assignment and find a candidate. Kamerman: “If you don’t do this, your ranking falls and you are less likely to be asked to fill other vacancies. So, you need to know the system well and be on the ball. And that means having potential candidates at the ready. Within Talentmark, we now have the knowhow and the resources to respond well in this portal system.”

Once on board, Talentmark looks after its seconded employees extremely well. XDES was already known for the generous holiday allowance, sickness leave and other terms of employment. Within Talentmark, more improvements have been made. Kamerman: “That’s another of our strengths. Candidates tell us that they like being seconded by us. Compared with their colleagues on the work floor, everything is very well organised for them. We feel that’s very important. Obviously a satisfied and well-functioning employee is the best advertisement you can have.”

Doubled

Where will Talentmark Hoofddorp be in five years’ time? Kamerman knows the answer: “Since the start of this year, our team has grown from 115 to 155 seconded employees. In five years, this number must have doubled. In the intervening years, we will have further professionalised our organisation. We will have been able to experiment, develop new operating models. In terms of communication, image and impact, we will have a strong and solid reputation. We can offer our seconded employees a wide range of opportunities, provide our clients with top level service and our team of recruiters will have plenty of scope for personal development. Talentmark is where you go when you’re looking for a job in the Life Sciences industry or who you ask when you need the right candidate.”