Author: amanda

Client Challenge

Following the acquisition of a large competitor, a global pharmaceutical research and drug development company needed to reorganize its HR function from a shared services model to a decentralized HR function, including decentralizing recruiting.

The most difficult area to transition was R&D Talent Acquisition, where older processes were non-responsive to current business needs, and no direct-sourcing expertise existed.

Adding to the transitional difficulty was a long period of uncertain hiring demand. As the companies melded their workforces, hiring demand became unclear and unpredictable. DoubleStar was engaged to help the firm reinvent its recruiting strategy, processes, and methods to become more agile, more targeted, and more efficient.

Our Solution

DoubleStar assigned a team of 5-8 recruiters (depending upon demand levels) with R&D recruiting experience to handle the day-to-day global recruiting needs of the division. We installed a direct sourcing team to provide talent-market mapping and targeted cold-sourcing capabilities. We also installed a Consulting Project Leader in the US and a Recruiting Manager in the UK to help reengineer processes, build capabilities, and train the client’s staff.

We also advised the VP of R&D Recruitment on talent planning, recruitment best practices, and measuring results against industry benchmarks. We also provided ongoing process improvement, recruitment strategy, talent optimization and consulting services, as needed.

Business Impacts

This 6-month relationship grew into a 5-year partnership that enabled the client to save over $2 million in recruiting costs, make over 1,700 global hires a year, and provide an enhanced level of recruiting and talent market services to the business leaders.

Client Challenge

A leading healthcare system needed to cut implementation time in half for a new electronic medical records (EMR) system. The system needed to be installed in 400 physician practices in 18 months, an effort that required the identification, recruiting, and hiring of 40 highly specialized systems analysts and implementation specialists in less than 90 days.

Our Solution

DoubleStar assigned a team of recruitment consultants specializing in healthcare IT to identify candidates with the specific combination of IT and EMR knowledge required for these roles.

Working with the health system’s CIO and his direct reports, we designed and managed a recruiting initiative that identified talent targets, conducted an aggressive direct-recruiting campaign, executed detailed pre-qualification interviews, scheduled on-site interviews, and assisted our client in making and closing all offers.

Recruitment was only part of the assignment, however. DoubleStar worked with the existing IT management to construct a phased training and deployment process for the new hires to ensure optimal integration and the shortest time to productivity. The IT recruiting team later adopted this design as a best practice.

Business Impacts

The implementation of the new EMR system to 400 physician practices and ambulatory care offices took just 18 months – half the time originally projected. DoubleStar’s focused solution produced the required hires for less than $4,000 per hire, resulting in an overall savings of $250,000 compared to the cost of traditional third-party recruiting firms.

Additionally, our team transferred our entire work product to the client’s recruiting team, leaving them with a pipeline of recruitable talent for future openings and a replicable methodology for training and deploying new hires.

Client Challenge

The leading national $1 billion provider of healthcare information systems launched an IT and Process Improvement Consulting Division to enable its clients to use their technology investments more effectively.

The new division’s growth was limited by only one thing: its ability to find, recruit, and hire the highly specialized healthcare IT talent required to lead the complex assignments its customers needed to execute. However, the company did not have the capability in-house to identify and recruit a large number of specialized IT professionals with skills in specific technologies for roles with an 80% national travel requirement.

To meet the need of hiring 100-125 specialized consultants annually, this client engaged DoubleStar to design and execute an end-to-end recruiting solution.

Our Solution

At the outset of this engagement, DoubleStar conducted a detailed needs analysis to determine current needs and likely near-term hiring needs. From that analysis, DoubleStar developed a national recruitment plan that prioritized both talent and geographic needs. We also created customized recruitment plans to account for the local talent market differences and a plan for efficiently screening and interviewing candidates to shorten hiring cycles.

DoubleStar then executed direct and indirect recruiting campaigns in Southern California, Chicago, Phoenix, Dallas, Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia, and South Florida. The solution included centralized sourcing and direct recruiting, on-site interview teams at each location, recruitment consulting services to the client’s regional consulting directors, and strategic staffing planning services to the Division’s Vice President.

To support the direct-recruiting initiatives, DoubleStar also developed a national advertising/branding campaign, an accelerated employee referral program, and standardized interviewing templates for all positions recruited.

Business Impacts

This partnership, originally contracted for six months, was extended for over five years because it delivered continuous results, including:

• 125 hires were executed annually, ranging from $90,000-$150,000 in compensation, at a fully loaded cost per hire under $5,000.
• Turnover was reduced to under 10% annually due to enhanced pre-screening and more accurate selection practices.
• The division was enabled to aggressively seek new business and prevail over the competition on the strength of its solid talent pipeline.
• Hiring costs for this division were reduced by 50% annually, representing an annual savings of $600,000-$700,000.
• The cost of recruitment became a fixed, predictable expense, enabling the growing division to better forecast talent acquisition investments.

Client Challenge

The HR team for one of the world’s top biopharmaceutical companies was having difficulty balancing increased demand for recruiting with their already heavy workloads. As a result, hiring managers were going to multiple agencies to service their staffing needs. As expenses grew, the client decided a more controlled and cost-effective approach was necessary.

The company selected DoubleStar to co-design and execute a pilot RPO to determine how it might work in their environment.

Our Solution

After reviewing a number of service providers, the client selected DoubleStar to conduct an RPO pilot in one of their most challenging areas: R&D. DoubleStar worked closely with the Senior Director for R&D Recruiting to plan, structure, and implement a 12-month project with a specific focus on difficult-to-fill R&D positions.

The project was implemented in three phases:

Phase I – Planning and Initial Rollout

• DoubleStar worked in partnership with our client to understand current hiring needs and likely future demand to size the project.
• Based on the positions assigned to DoubleStar, a project team was deployed with strong experience recruiting for biotechnology organizations.
• DoubleStar helped fine-tune recruitment processes, such as improving utilization of an applicant-tracking system and implementing new sourcing and screening techniques to identify viable candidates more quickly and accurately.
• DoubleStar introduced recruitment metrics that helped the organization better understand recruiting effectiveness.

Phase II – Assuming Day-to-Day Recruiting Responsibilities

• The client moved the entire recruiting process to DoubleStar, including directly interfacing with Hiring Managers without HR involvement.
• The client and DoubleStar assigned project leaders to manage the recruiting relationship and ensure all service-level agreements were met.
• Fine-tuning opportunities were identified and changes made to enhance process effectiveness.

Phase III – Transition from Pilot to Steady State

• Once demand levels became more predictable, DoubleStar adjusted the project team to a more flexible model to accommodate fluctuating needs.
• DoubleStar assigned a permanent project team to support a long-term recruiting solution.
• Other areas of the company were added.
• Formal project milestones were established, and periodic reporting/metrics were implemented.

Business Impacts

Following a successful RPO pilot, the client is fully engaged in a long-term RPO relationship, and other divisions have come on board. Benefits include:

• Cost-per-hire reduction by more than $5,000 per hire in R&D
• Elimination of at least $250,000 in annual agency spend
• Creation of a centralized, efficient, and coordinated recruitment effort for R&D
• Achievement of positive client satisfaction survey results indicating the pilot was a success
• Development of a database of R&D candidates for future use
• Provision of a scalable recruitment solution that can expand or contract depending on the client’s business needs