Your ultimate guide on scaling business based on our collaboration with ChemAxon

After almost a decade in recruitment, we are proud to say that we were able to establish multiple lasting business relationships. However, stepping into our 7th year as partners, ChemAxon is one of our most loyal and favorite clients. Throughout our lengthy collaboration, we’ve been through several contract forms, dozens of successfully filled positions, and tremendous growth of both of our businesses. This experience truly gave us a perspective of how two companies can help each other evolve, but keep the same culture and mindset they started out with. This case study was written based on the interviews with Péter Batiz and Blanka Szendi-Joó, Recruiters at IseeQ, and Krisztina Kovács, Chief Human Resources Officer at ChemAxon.

1. Never underestimate the power of professional relationships

The beginning of our partnership looked like a typical client acquisition for us: one of our previous candidates introduced us to ChemAxon when they were in need of a recruitment agency. These occasions generally make us overjoyed for multiple reasons. Being recommended to new possible clients means that someone noticed and appreciated all the effort we put into our work and is happy to help us by mentioning IseeQ to their contacts. We always aim to establish great relationships with all our clients and candidates, not only to be exposed to new opportunities but because we genuinely care about their careers and development. We believe in delivering value to both parties, and for that reason, we only take on projects we can truly be passionate about. This way we ensure that all of our clients get the appropriate amount of attention and care and that we have the capacity to do our best to satisfy their needs.

After contracts were signed, we began working for ChemAxon in our classic contingent recruitment model. Then, Covid19 surprised everyone, and just like all the other companies in the region, we had to switch to a remote setting. Even though many businesses were acting out of necessity, most of them managed to adapt to the situation fine, and realized that it can be fully effective. Our partnership also remained unbothered, and we were lucky enough to continue to support their recruitment with new candidates. Even after restrictions loosened, we kept working together remotely. We find it most frequent in today’s partnerships that we rarely have in-person client meetings anymore, and mostly do our jobs without being present in our clients’ offices.

We are, nevertheless, present in each other’s days within IseeQ. For most of our partners, we have a dedicated account within the team, responsible for keeping in touch with their HR and relevant departments. Majority of cases, there are multiple researchers and recruiters working on a single position, and there is no individual that would be responsible for one position or project only. We have found that our productivity is at its peak this way, no colleague experiences burnout during one assignment and it also maximizes communication which fosters creativity and teamwork. This setting also takes away some of the pressure our recruiters experience, as they are able to share the responsibility. This was also the case during our partnership with ChemAxon, we had more recruiters working on filling the open positions.

2. Use unique advantages as selling points

ChemAxon opts for a laid-back marketing style in our region. Despite the innovation and the unique solutions they design, we usually have to introduce them to the candidates we reach out to. Their domain is unique, people don’t really come across anything similar even within the industry. This is a special situation, as we generally recruit for senior positions, and professionals we get to contact know the majority of the players of the given industry. However, ChemAxon is not present in one industry only. They actively seek talent (both in IT and business fields) with backgrounds in biology, and chemistry, or experience in pharmaceuticals. They also have more common roles like UX designer and react or java developer, but are always happy for candidates that show interest in their domains. This makes them stand out from the rest of our portfolio and their competitors as well and offers an uncommon, noteworthy challenge for all.

The opportunity that we get to pitch their company to possible candidates is also beneficial. This gives more control, power, and room for creativity to our recruiters to make the company as appealing as it truly is, without having to fight prejudices and unknown bias. As they combine different scientific areas in their code lines and also keep a healthy balance between work and fun at the office, they are easy to market to any suitable candidate. Their biggest selling points include a stress-free, family-friendly but not typically bureaucratic working environment. They are one of the few firms that managed to stabilize their market position and keep it during a pandemic.

3. Make the recruitment agency-client relationship and constant communication your priority

During our partnership, there was a time when ChemAxon was expanding quicker than usual, and they were in need of more talent in a shorter period of time, so one of our senior recruiters, Péter, started to work onsite for the company. This meant that he was working directly with multiple teams within the organization remotely, collecting information straight from the professionals’ channels rather than just HR. He was also part of the daily operations, communication and had access to all the information relevant to his work. This sped up the whole process tremendously, and we were able to deliver more candidates due to the clearer expectations and quicker transfer of information.

We have already written about onsite recruitment, its benefits and effects on our blog, but have not really elaborated on the reasons this might be a solution to some problems we face during recruitment. To start with, swifter communication results in a more complete understanding of each position, also taking up less time from the recruiter’s day. To put it simply, this leads to more time left for sourcing, and more focused attention to each candidate. Furthermore, soft skills are still barely mentioned in previously given profile descriptions, but if a professional sees over a team’s dynamics and communication styles, it will be easier for them to predict if a candidate is a great fit.

After 4 months of working onsite for ChemAxon we are proud to say that besides quicker results, our relationship also improved. The previously established trust towards our agency led the teams to accept Péter as part of their operations, and everyone was able to get to know him more personally. Through his eyes, our colleagues understood the assignments better and were able to deliver the perfect candidates in a shorter time by skipping the lengthy flow of information. After we switched back to our normal setting as the positions were filled, we were able to keep most of the benefits of onsite work.

4. Emphasize the points applicants will love like unique positions and fluidity

Throughout our partnership, we experienced that ChemAxon provides all their employees with great freedom regarding their area of work. Many of their colleagues migrate within the company from one department to another, based on their interests and drives. This phenomenon is often present in agile companies but still counts as a rarity in Hungary. Employers that allow this flexibility seem to care deeply about all of their workers, and signal an evolved management style.

Partly as a consequence of the innovative field of business, there were some positions with no precedents on the market. Together with HR, we managed to put together detailed descriptions of each, listing all the responsibilities and requirements, and recruit candidates based on both. Positions like these usually give our team a harder time, as the crowds are not familiar with them yet and we have to explain everything in greater detail than usual. However, ChemAxon took our advice and started hiring for team fit and character rather than education and experience, and provided the newcomers with adequate training. This ensured that all team members were highly motivated and eager to learn while functioning as smoothly as possible together. We recommend this practice to most of our clients, bearing in mind that motivated employees are always harder to find than ones that are simply qualified. Employee satisfaction is one of the most important priorities of any business.

5. Match candidates with the company’s culture

When we started working together back in 2015, ChemAxon had a flat company structure. This meant that they had no layers of management within their organization, everyone was considered equal and everyone had a say in everything. This setting is considered functional only in smaller-sized teams, as after a company reaches a certain number of employees people no longer have the capacity to take part in all the operations necessary to support such a setting. So evidently, ChemAxon had to switch to a more functional structure as well, and we found their methods more than inspiring. Their priorities included keeping the transparency and the connectedness between all employees, further facilitating proactivity and flexibility. They decided to add leaders to certain fields of their business and ensured all employees understood who they would be reporting to and what the new expectations were. They were able to keep the agility and continue to attract candidates that strive in such an environment.

However, we always had to keep in mind that this culture is not for everyone. We are all different, and some people are more attracted to stricter or even looser rules at the workplace. We embraced this change within their company and continued to recruit candidates that were comfortable with the latest situation.

Generally, structural changes of such volume result in higher fluctuation numbers and pressure on the workers. But by already focusing on employee satisfaction and caring about every individual they had in their team, ChemAxon was able to keep these numbers incredibly low. We were amazed by how well their company handled this difficult period and gladly continued to work on their open positions with one more positive experience we could tell about them to their future candidates.

We are deeply grateful for our lengthy partnership with ChemAxon and the trust they put in our team. We wish for a similarly successful new year!