RPO case study: pharmaceutical company finds treatment to overcome talent scarcity and improve time to hire.
With a customized RPO program for operations in Japan, company improves time to hire by nearly 33%
client multinational
pharmaceutical and healthcare companygoals/challenges
With growing talent scarcity and increasing pressure to deliver talent faster, the company sought a more efficient recruiting strategy to find qualified candidates to support operations in Japan.solution
A fully customized recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) program ensures access to top talent for its key roles, while offering robust data and clear visibility for talent leaders.key results
The company has an efficient and flexible solution to find, attract and hire talent, resulting in a 32.8% reduction in its time to hire.
limited talent pools, increased recruitment competition
As businesses across all sectors increasingly compete for the same limited pool of talent, this pharmaceutical company faced a growing challenge — overcoming talent scarcity to fill numerous business-critical positions across sales/marketing, R&D, specialty care, consumer healthcare and other corporate functions for its Japanese operations with qualified individuals. But finding right-fit candidates isn’t always enough; speed is critical in ensuring the company hires the best talent before its competition does.
However, the company faced a number of obstacles in developing an effective recruitment strategy. For one, it lacked sufficient internal talent acquisition resources to support a strong recruiting function. This led to a longer time to hire than was ideal, driving the company to set a goal of streamlining hiring and closing new positions within 60 days. The company also sought to improve gender diversity among its workforce, as it was often challenged in attracting and recruiting female talent.
Given these priorities, the company recognized the value of working with an external partner whose expertise could help alleviate these struggles and ensure a strong focus on hiring for permanent employees and contingent alike.
an agile and faster recruitment strategy
Having worked with Randstad Sourceright for several years on another recruitment project, the company was familiar with the high-quality recruiters and operational know-how Randstad Sourceright provides. It selected Randstad Sourceright’s recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) solution to meet its hiring needs.
The company leverages RPO to manage hiring across its sales, corporate functions, production, quality assurance and quality control positions. Through this arrangement, it continues to benefit from rapid access to high-quality pharma talent, while maintaining full visibility and control at every step of the process.
While previously the company didn’t have the resources to focus on improving gender diversity among its workforce, it now prioritizes recruitment of female talent. The company achieves this by ensuring its agencies and recruiters are aligned on its diversity recruitment goals. It also ensures its own hiring managers understand the value of increasing gender diversity, even if it might delay time to fill to find the right candidates.
Key to a successful recruiting strategy has been the level of communication between the company leaders and the RPO team. The partners share successes and challenges, and quickly change course as necessary. The company also leverages well maintained data to better understand the local talent market and respond accordingly to attract right-fit candidates. And with strong governance, the team’s talent leaders are able to mitigate any risk before it becomes a larger issue.
As the company continues to benefit from RPO, it plans to expand its program — to increase the amount of talent directly sourced through the RPO and reduce its dependence on agencies. This will involve a comprehensive employer branding campaign to boost its brand positioning and further support recruitment.
a new approach pays off
By adopting the new RPO program, this pharmaceutical company has achieved significant improvement in its ability to recruit the talent it needs quickly.
For one, it has the flexibility and agility to scale recruitment as needed. And with strong account governance and data hygiene, it gets the visibility and control it has long sought to continue making smart, well-informed decisions about talent.
All of this has resulted in a more efficient hiring process, including filling 130 roles in just nine months and reducing its time to hire by 32.8%.