Ganesh Nikam, Biojobz, Staffing Company for Bio & Pharma Space

Pune based entrepreneur, Dr Ganesh Nikam, is doing something very unique in the HR industry through his venture, Biojobz. In conversation with YourStory.in, he tells us all about it!

Ganesh, what is Biojobz all about?

Biojobz was established 3 years ago in Pune. Today it is one of the leading recruitment and staffing companies in the Bio/Pharma space, working extensively with almost 90% of the 20 leading Life Sciences and Pharmaceuticals companies in India and even MNCs with Indian operations. We have been growing over 100% every year since inception. Currently we operate in India, shortly moving to Australia, USA, Europe and South East Asia

What made you start Biojobz?

I am a qualified MBBS Doctor with an MBA. Armed with my education in the medical domain, a management degree and work experience with the world’s largest company in vaccine production for three years, I developed my unique ability to understand the industry where the businesses environment is very niche, knowledge intensive and highly complex. Unlike other industries where, with limited industry knowledge, one can recruit, Bio/Pharma industry requires a very deep understanding of industry, even to make the first phone call. This is the opportunity that I saw where the normal recruitment companies were not able to deliver. It gave me the seed to start my own venture and thus Biojobz was born.

How do you manage to train your employees on the nuances of the industry?

That’s a very good question. This is where most of the other recruitment companies fail to perform. I can tell, irrespective of the obvious constraints mentioned above, that I have the strongest recruitment team in India. I carefully handpick the best talent form MBA colleges, with relevant graduation specialization(Microbiology/Pharmaceutics/Molecular Biology) and a flair for recruitment. All of them go through a very strenuous training program, peer review, search techniques and even actual candidate/client meetings.

What differentiates Biojobz from other recruitment companies?

There are a lot of points of difference. One is my team, which is one of the best in India and understands the technical aspect of this complex business. Secondly, our exclusive network and non-dependency on job portals. We have, over the last three years, very patiently and painstakingly made a very exclusive and relevant database. Third, our processes which are completely online on our own application called Laksya, where we do all our sourcing, scheduling, tracking and other formalities. This gives us a huge advantage in terms of our speed of delivery and quality of candidates. Fourth, our niche offering in the Bio/Pharma sector is our biggest strength. It has made our focus razor-sharp and our competencies, impeccable. We are recruiting graduate level factory workers to CxO level positions and across domains and geographies, but all in the same industry.

How did you fund your venture?

Recruitment per se does need a lot of investment to start with. One of our other group companies did the initial funding and after a few recruitments, we were self sustaining. Presently, we work on a very healthy profit margin.

What do you see as future trends in recruitment industry, especially in the Bio-Pharma domain?

Generally speaking, I do not see why recruitment in any industry should be in-house. Especially in Bio-Pharma sector, which is highly knowledge intensive, companies find it very hard to get good people, train and retain them. We have experienced that we are far more superior than any Pharma company’s in-house recruitment processes. I strongly see the recruitment function moving out of the company premises. I also see that due to the rise in contract manufacturing in India, a lot of recruitment will be done at the factory level and hence rural/semi urban recruitment will grow a lot. Usage of social media and online innovation will soon catch up for various recruitment functions like sourcing, validating, reference checks, personality analysis (for senior positions) etc.

What challenges are you facing in your business?

There are quite a few of them. Our constant endeavor is to provide long term career and job enrichment options to our clients. It is a challenge in its own. Another challenge is to balance sourcing with companies who can be our clients as well as potential hunting grounds. In recruitment, one cannot work with all the clients as that can be an ethical conundrum. We very carefully balance that and are internally clear that some of the leading companies should never become our clients.

What are your future plans with Biojobz?

We are currently doing a massive rural/semi urban recruitment drive across the nation with one of the leading Pharmaceutical companies. I am personally building capabilities where we are recruiting talent in line with future strategy(especially research initiatives) of the companies which generally has long investment period and we understand that a wrong team can completely jeopardize the huge investment. Also, as Indian Bio-Pharma industry is going global, we are following them with their recruitment needs across the globe.

Finally, since you are a Doctor by profession, do you get time to practice?

Unfortunately I do not get any time. Though sometimes I do advise my family for free but they do not always take the risk :)

To know more about this venture, check out http://www.biojobz.com/

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