The challenge:
Our client needed to recruit, mobilise and deploy large numbers of laboratory professionals within urgent timescales.
In March 2020, during the early stages of the Covid-19 outbreak, Reed Talent Solutions were engaged as the lead partner by our client to manage the assessment, engagement, and onboarding of very large volumes of skilled laboratory professionals.
Due to the urgent nature of the request, we had a very short timescale to provide professionals capable of carrying out critical test analysis services to process Covid-19 swab samples.
As part of the national effort to bring the global pandemic under control, we were briefed to screen, deploy and payroll data scientists, lab assistants, lab technicians, lab shift managers, sample handlers, and senior lab technicians during the first wave of cases.
This later expanded to include 12 other job titles, including section supervisors, testing supervisors, biomedical scientists, RNA extraction scientists, team leaders, PCR scientists and training managers. At this stage the sourcing of candidates also became more prevalent to our role.
The solution:
We worked around the clock to implement a bespoke solution to meet unprecedented requirements. Reed Talent Solutions implemented a bespoke recruitment solution in March 2020 and, due to the successful delivery of the service, continue to provide to the client on an ongoing basis. Within the first two weeks, we had:
Appointed a dedicated resource team of 11, including a team leader and 10 talent resourcers giving both client and applicants direct access to full support throughout the recruitment journey.
Designed and deployed a client-specific landing page to direct all applications through one central point, allowing us to promote through social media, direct mail shots and other attraction methods.
Built a stand-alone process for the client through our bespoke in-house CRM to ensure all applicants received an excellent and streamlined candidate experience. This enabled real-time access to data on applicants in each stage of the process. Candidates were also able to view progress via the system, therefore reducing queries.
Assigned an expert account management team to provide governance and strategic support and ensure that target timescales and volumes were met.
The results:
Our solution resulted in the rapid deployment of highly skilled lab technicians to meet targets in the fight against Covid-19.
Within the first few weeks of the campaign, we:
Engaged and processed over 1,000 applications
Deployed over 300 workers
The campaign and recruitment processes were so successful that we were able to build a talent pool of over 1,700 pre-screened and assessed candidates with DNA and PCR experience across the specialist staffing groups. This enabled us to provide a continuous supply of these roles to ensure our client could consistently deliver their targeted swab services without a drop in resource.
We were awarded additional projects to expand our service covering a wide base of laboratories, supporting our client’s accelerated additional resourcing needs. We were able to supply a large workforce of lab technicians, biomedical scientists, genetic technologists, and molecular biologists.
In all, we placed more than 700 candidates across seven locations.
We are concluding the contract at the end of 2022 following a successful supply since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
Find out more about our recruitment process outsourcing and volume recruitment solutions, or get in touch with one of our experts to talk through your needs.
