As a specialist of very specific and technical recruitments for the food industry, Leaderia and its European partners at IFR-A (International Food Recruitment Alliance) has been working a lot on R&D recruitments over the last few years. We found it interesting to compare the needs of companies in\u00a0the UK<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0the Netherlands<\/a>*, the impacts they want through their new talents, and about the peculiarities around these recruitments across Europe.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the Netherlands, the requirements are always more demanding. Almost all customers ask for\u00a0specific degrees<\/strong>, with a solid knowledge<\/strong>\u00a0of the food industry,\u00a0the ability to switch<\/strong>\u00a0from one product to another one. They also often grant much importance about the\u00a0personality<\/strong>: someone able to\u00a0communicate<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0closely work<\/strong>\u00a0with the other departments, entrepreneurial, sensitive to customers\u2019 needs is appreciated. We have the same effects in France, where the\u00a0technical skills<\/strong>\u00a0are obviously key but the\u00a0communication skills<\/strong>\u00a0and the\u00a0embodyment of the values<\/strong>\u00a0the company promotes also are (for instance, we look for people personally convinced about meat alternatives). We have been very much requested about R&D assignments.<\/p>\n On the other hand, in the UK, since the Covid pandemic and even more since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the\u00a0R&D services slowed down<\/strong>. Companies in the UK are more cautious with their investments and do not see the R&D services as essential as Operations or Engineering.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>For French customers, we have noticed that, considering the context, companies wanted\u00a0to make the difference<\/strong>\u00a0from competitors through\u00a0its innovation force<\/strong>. They ask us for\u00a0creative<\/strong>\u00a0profiles, able to be\u00a0disruptive<\/strong>,\u00a0think out of the box<\/strong>\u00a0and answer to\u00a0realistic trends<\/strong>\u00a0while being new.<\/p>\n In the UK, less fantasy is at stake\u2026 Most customers are\u00a0reducing the costs<\/strong>\u00a0by focusing all their\u00a0efforts into the core product range<\/strong>. Some companies, still innovation-driven, now centralize their efforts to find solutions in order to improve\u00a0cost efficiency and energy savings<\/strong>\u00a0thanks to new processes developed by the R&D.<\/p>\n For our Dutch partners, it\u2019s all about if the company is sales reactive or proactive. A\u00a0reactive company<\/strong>\u00a0only brings products that the customers want, so the R&D objective is\u00a0to meet this demand<\/strong>. They thus would prefer a\u00a0knowledge-based<\/strong>\u00a0profile, with a lot of experience to work on the required products.<\/p>\n On the other hand, a\u00a0proactive company<\/strong>\u00a0will bring something new to the customers and\u00a0create a new demand<\/strong>, the wanted profile will then need to have a more sales-oriented vision.<\/p>\n In the Netherlands<\/strong>, on average,\u00a0R&D jobs are pretty popular<\/strong>: around 60-70 % of graduate people want to work in R&D. The product development area is pretty\u00a0easy for fulfill<\/strong>, the research of new product is a little bit less attractive. The main challenge is to advise their clients about the\u00a0attractivity of their needs,<\/strong>\u00a0to be perfectly\u00a0aware of the trends<\/strong>\u00a0(an industry which used to be attractive at the time may be not attractive now), and help them to determine what they really want.<\/p>\n In the UK, the\u00a0candidates aren\u2019t as active<\/strong>\u00a0as they used to in the past, because there was a sharp rise in employment rate and payroll<\/strong>\u00a0within the last few months.<\/p>\n More important, R&D profiles are\u00a0high-skilled profiles in a very specific field<\/strong>\u00a0so they are more difficult to find. Because of Brexit, recruiting EU candidates isn\u2019t always a better solution, so our British partners have\u00a0to look for candidates abroad<\/strong>. They perfectly know the ingredients market and their role to advise customers makes completely sense.<\/p>\n Same observation for France: sometimes, our operational\u00a0customers want the perfect copy paste of a former employee<\/strong>\u00a0in terms of technical skills. As candidates are more and more hunted, we need to offer them a\u00a0real step forward<\/strong>,\u00a0be attractive<\/strong>, and this may happen if the person is not perfectly plug and play. We also have to convince our customers that a profile with a\u00a0strong motivation<\/strong>\u00a0and a\u00a0high potential<\/strong>\u00a0is much more\u00a0relevant and sustainable<\/strong>\u00a0than hiring an already experienced person who will get bored too early to stay long.<\/p>\nWhat are the requirements of the customers when recruiting R&D profiles?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
What is at stake for your customers when recruiting R&D profiles?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
What are the challenges of recruiting R&D profiles?<\/strong><\/h2>\n