Talentmark is the place for recruitment in Life Sciences

Rob Helmich, Business Unit Director

Whether Herakles Pharma Staffing wanted to become part of Talentmark, the renowned international recruitment and outsourcing agency for Life Sciences. Rob Helmich, business unit director, didn’t take long to decide: “For me, there were only advantages. Together with the other divisions in Talentmark, we offer our clients and candidates a wide range of services, from interim, secondment, recruitment & selection to executive search. We are the quality player which completely understands the industry. I would be mad not to be interested.”

Things were certainly not going badly for Herakles Pharma Staffing. Specialised in recruiting for office and field staff positions in Life Sciences, the company had a nice portfolio. In 2021, the company had even experienced its best year since it was established in 2006. “Because of our focus on specific positions in the industry, we were successfully building our business,” says Helmich and continues: “But due to the structure with our former sister organisation, we weren’t getting enough financial meat on the bones to really grow. We saw a huge market with amazing opportunities for us, but we simply didn’t have the people to grab them. That was sometimes quite hard. Now we are part of Talentmark, we have the space to grow. For my team, this is an enormous boost. Also at individual level, each team member can develop in many different directions. Yes, that makes the work more interesting and challenging.”

Own business units

But not much else has changed, says the business unit director: “Talentmarkt has been building its business in Europe for over fifty years. We are now a part of that. The other companies which have joined Talentmark are independent business units like us. And we still focus on office and field vacancies in Life Sciences in the Netherlands. The benefit of our collaboration is that we complement each other and that we can also offer joint additional services. We can now more easily take on bigger projects, we are more effective. The advantage for our clients is that if they have vacancies in several disciplines or countries, as Talentmark we can now take an integrated approach. Recruiting is no longer so uniform.”

I foresee that in five years, we will have grown into a renowned European player in Life Sciences

There are also big advantages for the candidates, Helmich explains: “Because we have a better overall picture, we can offer candidates a wider scope. Not just in the Netherlands, but in Europe and eventually worldwide.” Merging the various business units has gone surprisingly smoothly, says Helmich: “We have regular consultations and actually reach agreement very quickly. But we still need to align the working methods of the various business units, for example. Even though we focus on our own division, in practice you can encounter awkward situations where several business units are talking to the same candidate about different vacancies, or with the same client about overlapping positions. We are now adapting the software so that you can immediately see who’s doing what. These are just small teething problems which we want to resolve quickly.”

European player

Helmich is confident about the future: “If we steadily expand our activities in Life Sciences according to plan, I foresee that in five years, we will have grown into a renowned European player. At the same time, very importantly, we will still be close to our clients and candidates. Because personal contact is always an important priority in our policy. Recruitment in the Life Sciences industry starts with Talentmark, that will need to be the standard. Thanks to the high quality, professional services and the surprisingly strong personal touch.”