Strategic RPO for Boehringer Ingelheim

As the world’s largest family-owned global pharmaceutical company, Boehringer Ingelheim (BI), has been committed to improving patients’ lives for more than 130 years. BI and Cielo began their Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) partnership in early 2012 to evolve talent acquisition for greater business support by building a more sophisticated recruitment strategy. The close partnership has enabled BI to deliver on their vision of finding value through innovation. 
In the dynamic global Life Sciences market, Cielo provided strategic support, enabling BI to stay ahead of the competitive curve through new product launches and business unit transformations.

Solution
Through years of cultivating trust and credibility, Cielo’s dedicated team has executed a centralized recruiting model that supports BI’s major job functions – scientific, R&D, manufacturing, production, operations, sales and marketing, legal and various other enabling functions. Cielo’s tech-enabled team is made up of specialized groups that allow for niche sourcing and screening to cater to each of these unique categories. The relationship between Cielo and BI has blossomed into a true partnership where we work as one team to be adaptable to changing business needs. This has included a large investment in R&D, acquisition of a new business unit, and the divestiture of an entity.

Continuous Improvement and Innovation
As BI’s strategic direction has shifted, Cielo keeps pace to support the changing demands for Life Sciences talent. Together, the partners have:

• Delivered on a sizable sales force expansion to meet BI’s aggressive market launch of the first-ever FDA-approved treatment for IPF, Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, a debilitating and fatal lung disease. The team was able to fill 110 Sales Consultant roles prior to product training and launch.
• Hired more than 100 Oncology Sales Consultants and Oncology Nurse Educators to launch BI’s new Oncology Therapeutic area.
  • 41% of hires were directly sourced by the Talent Acquisition team.
  • 82% of the new hires were top-ranked sales consultants at their previous company with 11 years of relevant experience.
• Scaled resources to complete a large transformation process for BI’s Human Pharma business, maximizing an important investment in their R&D function with highly skilled talent.
  • Flexed to fill more than 1,100 positions in less than a year up from the initial estimate of 400.
• Partnered with the BI’s HR Business Partners and Talent Management department to conduct a first-year calibration on all sales representatives, tracking first-year retention, performance ratings, and results to sales goals. This data was cross-referenced against the candidate profiles to establish a targeted hiring profile for skills, experience, and competencies that yield the greatest results.

Delivery Impact
Cielo and BI’s close partnership continues to provide pivotal benefits, including improved candidate quality, accelerated response times to candidates and hiring managers, improvement on key SLAs and greater operational efficiencies – all carried out by a program designed with an eye toward maximizing valued recruitment tactics such as referrals and ensuring a positive experience for both external and internal candidates. The team’s tireless and thoughtful work keeps talent acquisition a distinct advantage for BI in the pharmaceutical marketplace, allowing the organization the ability to innovate and flourish in the changing landscape.

HIGHLIGHTS

Reduced Agency Reliance

• Since the partnership began, BI reduced agency use in North America from >20% annually to <1% annually for a cumulative savings of approximately $44 million.

Reduced Time to Fill

• From 2013 through 2016, overall Time To Fill has improved 17%, dropping from an aggregate average of 65.6 days to 49.5 days.
  • Critical roles in Science and R&D saw a 20% improvement, from 82 days to 66 days.

Excelling at the Tactical to Drive Strategy

• Championed an ongoing strategic engagement with the business centered on an improved analytics package – allowing the team to address operational inefficiencies and build a stronger collaboration with HR Business Partners and Operations Leadership.
• Introduced market analytics and competitive intelligence to the hiring departments to drive proactive problem solving for compensation challenges, job description misalignment, and targeted talent identification efforts.