The Client
Zeta Farmaceutici Group represents a reality of excellence in the pharmaceutical landscape of Northern Italy, a family-owned company with a strong Venetian entrepreneurial footprint that today boasts over 400 employees between Zeta Farmaceutici located in Sandrigo, Vicenza, and Marco Viti Farmaceutici, in Mozzate, Como.
The accelerated growth in recent years, combined with natural generational turnover, has radically transformed recruiting needs, requiring a more structured and specialized approach to attract qualified talent in an increasingly competitive job market.
The challenges of recruiting in a family-owned pharmaceutical company
Zeta Farmaceutici's growth path has highlighted specific complexities that required a complete rethinking of traditionally used recruiting strategies.
1.1 From internal network to structured search
Storicamente, l'azienda si affidava principalmente a un network interno molto solido, alimentato dal tessuto territoriale veneto e dalle connessioni con università e associazioni. Come racconta Egle Valente, HR Manager di Zeta Farmaceutici: "Storicamente la nostra strategia di recruiting si basava su un network territoriale molto consolidato, alimentato dalle connessioni che avevamo costruito nel tessuto universitario veneto e dalle relazioni sviluppate nel corso degli anni. Si trattava di un approccio che funzionava bene per l'inserimento di figure junior o per ruoli standard, integrato dall'utilizzo della somministrazione come unico canale esterno strutturato. Tuttavia, quando abbiamo iniziato a crescere e a necessitare di figure più particolari e specializzate, ci siamo resi conto che avevamo bisogno di un approccio diverso, più sofisticato e con una copertura di mercato più ampia."
This model, effective for many years, began to show its limits in the face of the need for specialized figures who required specific and often rare skills in the local market.
1.2 Engineering skills in a competitive market
One of the most significant challenges concerned the recruiting of engineering profiles, which are particularly attractive and difficult to find. "The market for engineering profiles presents particularly competitive dynamics that we have experienced directly. These are extremely sought-after candidates who, given the scarcity of supply and high demand, have the opportunity to choose among various opportunities, often opting for the most economically advantageous proposal. This creates a kind of continuous auction where companies find themselves competing not only on projects and growth opportunities, but also and above all on economic parameters, thus misaligning the market." says Egle Valente.
1.3 Balancing family tradition and external expertise
The company was facing the delicate balance between maintaining its family identity and the need to introduce external expertise that would bring a different and broader vision of the market. The challenge was to find individuals who could integrate into the existing corporate culture while contributing new experiences and perspectives.
1.4 Location and territorial attractiveness
Being located in the province, despite all the advantages of the Venetian industrial fabric, entailed specific challenges in attracting talent willing to work in a non-metropolitan context, especially for highly specialized roles that might also find opportunities in larger centers.
How Reverse made a difference
The partnership with Zeta Farmaceutici arose from a meeting that successfully combined respect for the client and a distinctive value proposition.
2.1 A commercial approach that knew how to listen and propose
Egle Valente recounts the beginning of the collaboration: "The approach of the consultant Giovanna Grande came at a time when we were receiving numerous proposals from Headhunting firms. I have a direct personality and do not appreciate overly insistent commercial approaches, so I expressed clearly: 'I will consider you but I do not want to be pressured with continuous contacts, because with me this type of strategy achieves the opposite effect.' Giovanna showed great intelligence: she respected my request, remaining present discreetly and professionally, but also managed to illustrate Reverse's working model and how it could meet our future needs."
The result? When Zeta Farmaceutici started its growth phase and developed the need for more structured recruiting channels for specialized roles, Valente independently sought contact with Reverse: "I remembered not only their respectful approach, but also their working method, which seemed more strategic and less transactional than other market players."
This case demonstrates how the ability to build authentic relationships, combined with a distinctive model and the patience to await the right moment, can transform an initial contact into a long-term strategic partnership.
2.2 Transparent methodology and process control
The first element that struck Zeta Farmaceutici was Reverse's methodology. "What immediately struck me about Reverse's approach was the methodological transparency and the ability to maintain constant control over all aspects of the selection process. It wasn't just about receiving a periodic phone call with generic updates, but about having access to a structured and detailed view of what was happening in the market, how the search was concretely proceeding, what activities were underway, and the partial results obtained. This working method represented something completely new. The ability to always have timelines, progress, and market feedback under control allowed us to better plan our internal activities and have realistic expectations about closing times. It was an approach that perfectly met the needs of a company like ours, accustomed to direct process control and the need to always know the status of any critical activity for business operations." explains Egle Valente.
2.3 The Scout as a strategic added value
The use of the Scout for technical assessments represented a particularly valuable element for a company where people traditionally grew only internally. "The value of the external Scout is very high for a company like ours, which has historically always favored the internal growth of its collaborators. The fact that the Scout is an external figure, who brings with them experiences gained in other company contexts, represents a fundamental strategic enrichment. It is not just about having technical skills, but about bringing perspectives, approaches, methodologies that derive from varied professional experiences." reflects Egle Valente.
This particularity of our service was one of the first aspects to arouse curiosity and lead to the choice of Reverse, and over the years the involvement of the Scout has become a consolidated practice for Zeta Farmaceutici.
2.4 Deep understanding and authentic relationship
Further development took place thanks to the relationship with Marilisa Cappellano and her team. Egle Valente describes the collaboration as follows: "The collaboration with Marilisa truly represents a case of optimal professional synergy. She is a person of great competence and preparation, but above all endowed with that capacity for understanding and adaptation that makes working together extremely effective. What I particularly appreciate is her ability to immediately get to the heart of the matters, avoiding dispersion or overly elaborate approaches that often risk complicating processes that can be managed more directly and effectively. Once she has understood our company dynamics - our history, our values, the type of work environment we offer, and the profile of people who tend to integrate best into our reality - it is as if she has acquired a key to interpretation that allows her to work with extreme efficiency. We no longer have to waste time explaining the context each time or realigning ourselves on search parameters: she has memorized our specificities and immediately knows how to orient herself in the right direction. This translates into a significant acceleration of all subsequent processes and a quality of the presented profiles that clearly demonstrates the depth of understanding achieved."
"Working with Zeta Farmaceutici - comments Marilisa Cappellano, Senior Executive at Reverse - taught me how fundamental active listening is in the early stages of a partnership. It's not just about understanding the required technical skills, but about grasping the cultural nuances of a family business that has built its identity on solid values. Our approach had to adapt to a reality where every hire not only represents the acquisition of a skill, but the introduction of a person who will need to integrate into a consolidated relational fabric. This meant developing a particular sensitivity in candidate evaluation, where soft skills and cultural adaptability assume a specific weight at least equal to technical skills. It is a painstaking job that requires time and dedication, but ultimately produces superior quality matching results."
Technology at the service of relationships
A particularly appreciated aspect was the integration between technological tools and human relationships, which optimized processes without losing personal contact.
"The use of the Reverse dashboard has become an integral part of our internal decision-making process, involving various levels of the organization. It is not a tool that only I use as HR Manager, but we have extended access to the area managers who are involved in searches from time to time. This distribution of access creates transparency and information sharing that optimizes the entire decision-making process." explains Egle Valente.
This distributed use of the dashboard allowed for broader team involvement in recruiting decisions, giving line managers a "more scientific and detailed view of profiles".
"The real innovation in our approach with Zeta Farmaceutici was finding the perfect balance between technological efficiency and human relationships. The dashboard is not just a monitoring tool, but becomes the nerve center of a transparent collaboration where every stakeholder has real-time visibility into the progress of the search. At the same time, we maintain direct and personalized contact that allows us to interpret feedback, adjust the strategy as work progresses, and guarantee the flexibility that family businesses particularly appreciate. It is this combination of methodological rigor and relational flexibility that has allowed us to become a strategic partner rather than just a service provider." comments Marilisa Cappellano.
Positive feedback from candidates
The quality of the process is also confirmed by the feedback from the placed candidates.
"The feedback we have collected from candidates who were placed through Reverse's selection process has been consistently positive, an element that confirms the quality of the experience not only from the company's perspective but also from that of the candidates themselves. This is an aspect that I consider particularly significant because it demonstrates that the process is well-structured and professional even from the perspective of those experiencing it on the other side. It means that we are effectively dealing with high professional standards and an attention to candidate experience that goes beyond simply filling the position." says Egle Valente.
Positions successfully filled and ongoing dialogue with both the company and candidates
During the collaboration, we successfully closed five strategic positions that highlight the variety and complexity of challenges tackled. Among these stand out the Local Brand Manager, a cross-functional role actively working with European market teams; the HSE Advisor, for whom we successfully expanded the search from the food sector to manufacturing, finding highly valuable complementary skills; and the Head of Sales, a strategically crucial figure for the Solina group.
To date, all hired candidates are still with the company: a testament to the effectiveness of an approach based on continuous dialogue and personalized support from the first interview to onboarding. The feedback from the new hires confirms not only their professional suitability but, above all, their alignment with the corporate culture. Jasmin Funk sums up Reverse’s approach by saying: “It feels like the work is based not just on quantity but really quality and the relationship built from start to finish of the selection process, all the way through to the candidate’s entry into the company.”
And this is an approach that creates tangible value for all parties involved: the company achieves successful hires, candidates find opportunities aligned with their aspirations, and over time a strategic partnership rooted in mutual trust is built.
Evolution Towards a Strategic Partnership
Another key insight to date concerns the evolution of the relationship: from transactional to strategic. Jasmin Funk told us that "nowadays, when we have a position to fill, especially if it’s strategic or complex, our first thought is Reverse. We no longer consider multiple agencies like we used to – we found a partner who understands our needs and knows how to navigate our sector, so why look elsewhere?"
Strategic key takeaways
Respecting client timelines as a foundation of trust
The case history of Zeta Farmaceutici demonstrates how a commercial approach that respects client timelines can be crucial for developing lasting partnerships, especially with family businesses that operate with their own decision-making logic.
Contractual flexibility as a differentiator
The ability to adapt contractual agreements to specific situations, demonstrating authentic partnership rather than procedural rigidity, can transform a supplier into an exclusive strategic partner.
Cultural understanding for family businesses
In recruiting for family businesses, understanding internal cultural dynamics is as crucial as evaluating technical skills. The ability to "get to the point" by eliminating "fluff" can be more appreciated than elaborate but less substantial approaches.
Scout as a tool for cultural enrichment
For companies with strong internal growth, the introduction of external expertise through qualified Scouts represents a strategic value that goes beyond a single placement, contributing to the cultural evolution of the organization.
Shared dashboard for managerial involvement
The use of advanced technological tools in a distributed manner allows for the involvement of multiple stakeholders in decision-making processes, maintaining transparency and control without overburdening the processes.
Retention as an indicator of matching quality
In family contexts where cultural integration is crucial, the retention rate becomes the most significant indicator of the quality of the recruiting process, more so than simple closing times.
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