Keeping up with the LifeSci team: James Cleminshaw

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Keeping up with the LifeSci team: James Cleminshaw

Tell me a bit about how and why you joined Hydrogen

I have graduated in July 2020 from Cardiff University in Politics and Economics. A friend recommended I look at the recruitment industry. I applied and interviewed in a few places such as real estate, IT, and tech, but Hydrogen definitely stood out. I had an interview with Tim and Daniela and the one thing that really attracted me was the potential career path available. They were very clear, and it was all laid black and white which I appreciated. The culture and owning your time were unique and extremely rare for me as I have not seen that in many companies. So these are the main reasons why I joined Hydrogen.

How’s the candidate’s work-life balance in your niche?

I work primarily in the contract market which offers a great work-life balance. Contractors can decide how often they work and also the length of the contract, allowing them to enjoy more free time if they wish. Also, a lot of the roles working nowadays are fully home-based or hybrid roles. My market is focused on CRAs, who only have to go at certain times and days when they are doing monitoring visits, as an example. As you go up the managerial ladder, clinical operation roles tend to become fully remote.

How does the salary compare in the Life Sciences industry vs others? Also, what are the promotion and development opportunities like for a candidate?

CRA level defers from country to country. Switzerland, as well as the Nordic countries, tend to have higher average salaries compared to other countries. Clients are offering bonuses and perks, e.g. big sign-on bonuses to compete due to candidate shortages in this industry. There are thousands of different pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that are all looking to hire the same people. There is a massive demand for CRAs, project managers, and clinical operation leads.

What would you say is the most challenging part of your role?

Having a candidate short market and being able to compete with many recruiters, I have to stand out and create a relationship with the candidate. Going above and beyond is also part of our culture at Hydrogen which provides training and a lot of advice from senior team members which helps me to create a strong relationship with the candidate. I also find working in the permanent market more difficult than the contract one, as it is a lot slower-paced and much harder to find the perfect candidate, but it is also a lot more rewarding.

How would you describe the team dynamic?

The whole Life Sciences team is really close and there’s no one on the team that I cannot ask for help. Friendly, helpful, and full of advice. There is no such thing as a stupid question to the team. In terms of our CRA team, it’s small which helps us create a greater bond and help each other out even more. We go out for food and drinks with the team often, which helps us to get to know each other better outside of work, which is very beneficial for the work dynamic. We also get together as a team once a month to do objection handling training which I have found to be very useful.

You have a few clients that you work with and even helped form a partnership with Hydrogen, what was your experience like in this process?

Recently I have become much more involved in dealing with clients first-hand, which is something that I thoroughly enjoy. It helps me understand the greater picture surrounding the recruitment process, and I love building relationships and having direct contact with hiring managers as it allows me to do my job to the best of my ability.

If someone was to get into the CRA field, what can they expect?

Beginning as a CRA I, the usual tasks that you can expect will vary from company to company, and even from trial to trial, but are generally quite standardised. You can expect to complete site visits from the study start-up, all the way throughout to the closeout of the trial. This includes qualification and feasibility visits, site initiation visits, monitoring visits, and termination visits, helping to ensure the quality and integrity of clinical trials. Some companies even offer CRA apprenticeships, to allow junior-level candidates a taste of what it is like.

What are your hobbies and interests?

My main hobby would be playing and watching football and supporting the best club in the world – Chelsea FC. I also enjoy going to the gym (when I can be bothered) and I also recently started kickboxing, having been inspired by my friend who is the manager of the kickboxing gym. I also enjoy playing tennis and skiing – although my skiing skills could use some improvement.

What is a hidden trait or talent you have?

I wouldn’t quite call it a talent, but I do enjoy cooking. My favourite meal to make is chicken burritos, simple yet effective, but I also enjoy trying to make new dishes or foods that I have seen people make online. It’s not the worst tasting food in the world. Maybe one day I will try to make some food for the whole Life Sciences team.

If you were a football player past or present, who would you be and why?

If I could be any footballer in the world, I would choose Frank Lampard. Firstly, he is the greatest English midfielder of all time, and secondly, he just seems down to earth, and a friendly person. If I had to choose without a Chelsea bias, I would pick Ronaldinho.

If someone was to join the team, what advice would you give to them on their first day?

My advice for someone on their first day at Hydrogen would be to learn your market as quickly as you can. It makes talking to candidates a lot easier and gives you a much greater understanding of why certain candidates want certain things. I would also say don’t be afraid to pick up the phone as much as possible, as this is the best way to improve your recruitment skills, and it also helps greatly in learning your market. Lastly, I would say don’t be afraid to ask as many questions as possible, there’s no such thing as a stupid question in recruitment and nobody expects you to know everything when you first start!

Interested to join our team? Discover more about the opportunities available at Hydrogen on our Careers page. Or if you would like to discuss more business or job opportunities in the Life Sciences sector, get in touch with us.

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"2025 and Beyond" Question and Answer session

26 Feb, 2024

Our webinar 2025 and Beyond: Why Your Hiring, Learning, and Culture Need to Evolve brought together thought leaders Enrique Rubio (Hacking HR), Lisa Skinner Källström (Teamtailor), and Hydrogen Group’s Dean Jennings and Michelle Miller. The conversation explored strategies used to tackle the challenges of the future workforce, shift organisational cultures towards lasting partnerships, and ensure teams are equipped for the age of artificial intelligence. _ The Q&A box was brimming! Our webinar offered participants the chance to consult our HR experts on addressing shifts in the people and culture realm as we approach 2024 and beyond. Interesting questions were raised, and we compiled them all to seek and reached out to our experts to get some definitive answers. For a recap on the webinar, check out our blog Navigating the Future: Insights from our Webinar "2025 and Beyond" So, here we are. Your questions - answered! - How can companies make people feel more secure in their jobs? Is it just a matter of increasing communication? Lisa suggested a shift towards a more sustainable approach. 'In recent years, we have seen many companies experience massive growth, and the need to get great talent onboard - hence offering extremely generous compensation packages. Unfortunately, many have now faced layoffs, and while the compensation and benefit strategies are not the sole reasons, I would like to propose a more sustainable approach for the future. [Increase benefits as the company grows, and as business results allow, we can increase pension levels or similar benefits – and discuss it internally! Open dialogue about results, investment choices, and their rationale fosters a sense of involvement among team members and signals the company's commitment to a sustainable direction.]' Dean echoed concerns about job security in today's volatile economy and advises, 'In today's uncertain economic climate, job security is a concern. However, by becoming indispensable and embracing tools like AI, individuals can enhance their value to employers, securing their positions for the future. Apart from using Chat GPT, what other tasks can be automated with AI? Lisa commented, ‘We’ve mentioned a few examples already, but I would look at all the systems your company allows you to use and question your suppliers on what features are or will be based on AI. For example, many applicant tracking systems allow the opportunity for AI to summarise CVs for an easy overview, generate interview questions and suggest more personalised replies to rejected candidates based on their CVs. Also, the opportunity for AI to transcribe an interview is an amazing tool which allows the interviewer to solely focus on listening and talking to a candidate as opposed to taking notes. As always, AI in these types of systems is not designed to make the decisions for a recruiter or business - but serve as an assistant to save time and work more efficiently.’ Dean added, ‘There are far too many to list. The AI directory https://aitoolsdirectory.com/ does a really good job of showcasing what does what and where you can find it.’ What is the impact of AI on employee engagement and how can HR teams use AI to promote engagement? Also, what precautions should professionals take when using AI? Dean offered his perspective by stating that ‘engagement and AI may seem contradictory, but there's a clear benefit when HR uses AI to streamline admin tasks, freeing up time for vital human interaction. Tools like Koios, for instance, offer Acoustic AI, helping HR understand team and individual personalities better, for more tailored approaches. Professionals must approach AI implementation carefully, ensuring ethical use to maintain trust and transparency in the workplace.’ How can we make sure our services stay personalised while using AI? Dean responded, ‘By leveraging AI to handle time-consuming tasks. The best thing about AI is that you get to choose what it does and what it doesn’t. If you feel strongly about human interaction to enable personalisation, you don’t have to let go of that – just embrace AI to make those interactions better. Get it to strip data in the background for you, or to type up your notes and actions as you have the conversations. The possibilities are endless, and they can be tailored to your needs.’ Within your businesses, have you experienced any resistance to the adoption of AI? How have you handled these objections? Dean responded, ‘A lot of the resistance I have seen has either been a fear of trying or a fear of being caught. There seems to be a negative connotation with AI, that if you get it to do something for you, are you cheating? The answer is a resounding no, you are working with the tools available to make yourself more productive for your organisation. Robot proof recruiter, if you haven’t read it, you should. Especially if you are a recruiter or if recruitment is part of your job role. I’ll spare you the details, but it is an amazing read that showcases the fact you can never take the people part out of recruitment - you’ll always be able to provide a better level of service than a robot (at least for now) and you need to focus on the parts of the process where human interaction is at its most vital and automate/utilise AI to get back time in your day to improve that social element of the process.’ Do you feel Employee Resource Groups will be on the rise with the future generation of workers? Dean replied, ‘A truly hybrid workplace cannot function effectively without the right technology in place. That doesn’t even need to be AI. For employees to feel a sense of belonging in a workplace, there should be a seamless experience that goes beyond just having teams up on 1 laptop in a room full of 30 people. Again, this will only advance with time ... my eutopia is to have my whole team (who are based in the UK + Thailand) sat around a virtual desk, on a beach with an interactive whiteboard we can utilise in real time via virtual and augmented reality. You may laugh now, but in the next couple of years, VR and AR tech will be the staple of hybrid working and teams coming together around the globe. This doesn’t take away from the in-person experience and nor do I think it should. It should be a tool that compliments real-time working solutions.’ How can we support older generation employees in the changing landscape? Dean offered his perspective, ‘AI is truly remarkable. It embodies the futuristic vision many of us had as children—computers and programs taking on tasks for us. For those uneasy about it, I believe it's a matter of not fully comprehending it or lacking the skills to use it effectively. AI has quietly become a part of the workplace, and many are still navigating its intricacies. The focus should be on empowering employees to leverage AI to enhance productivity and value to the organisation. Those who resist or fail to adapt won't be replaced by AI but by individuals who embrace change and view AI as a tool for greater contribution.’ How can we safeguard against the risk of AI stifling creativity in the workplace? Lisa said, ‘I would say the opposite, if we use AI for the more regular and routine tasks then we will have more time to use to be creative! For example, instead of spending hours on creating a presentation for an important project - let AI do this creating for you and spend the time on how you want to engage with your audience instead. Using ChatGPT to find easy tasks that I would previously have spent a lot of time on has been a big change in how I work and allows me find space in the day.’ Is there a regional divide across different parts of the world? Are Europeans more prone to appreciate safety/job security than Americans? Lisa commented, ‘My thoughts are that globally we have been through a lot in recent years, covid affected everyone regardless of location. After that, we had war in Europe for the first time in many years which had major effects on the economy, which I believe has made people appreciate job safety even more and value this in choosing their next employer. However, in some parts of Europe employees are still very protected by labour laws etc so I believe it is different from America where it is more common to have short notice period and less resistance from employers to terminate an employment.’ Expanding on the key themes discussed in our webinar, we're thrilled to introduce our Thrive Guide – a practical roadmap for building a thriving workplace. Within the Thrive Guide, discover actionable strategies to enhance employee engagement, foster diversity and inclusion, and implement flexible working models. Discover practical solutions to enhance workplace productivity and satisfaction. As our expert Dean Jennings emphasises, 'adapting to evolving workplace dynamics requires strategic initiatives.' This sentiment is echoed by other industry leaders in our webinar. In the Thrive Guide, these insights converge to offer practical solutions, providing a roadmap for organisations navigating change. Revolutionise your workplace. Download the Thrive Guide now!