As a leading company in smart home technology aims to increase brand awareness across Mexico, it entered into a Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) partnership with Cielo to develop its talent acquisition and early talent attraction strategies. To establish the organization as an employer of choice, creating a strong TA strategy was crucial to finding the top talent needed to build and accurately represent the new brand.

The challenge
With six locations across Mexico – Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, San Luis Potosi, Monterrey, Ciudad de Mexico and Chihuahua – the organization relies on top talent in multiple, key roles to help the business grow. A truly customized approach to talent acquisition was necessary due to the company’s new independence from a larger organization and the vastly different talent pools in each location.

During the launch of the new brand, Mexico locations required upward of 350 annual hires total. These new hires fill roles across IT, Accounting, Finance, Engineering, Procurement, Sales, Customer Service and HR. With the head of TA looking to increase innovation while also lowering expenses and complications, the company decided to build its function with Cielo as its RPO partner.

The solution
The new Cielo team started with a level of comfort and understanding thanks to a previous experience between Cielo and the client’s former parent company. This allowed the partnership to start with a unified mentality right out of the gate.

Providing Enterprise RPO solutions for all six locations in Mexico, Cielo developed a plan based on the individual hiring needs for each unique site. The team also worked closely with hiring managers to ensure understanding of each job and its requirements.

The team also focused on separating the new brand from its former parent company. Cielo’s WE BECOME YOU™ mentality helped recruiters get into the client service mindset and work as a team to be successful under the new company’s identity. Along with this, recruiters developed hiring roadmaps for hiring managers – helping them better understand the hiring process and their role in the journey.

Additionally, the team placed a significant emphasis on recruiting recent graduates from key universities in Mexico. This allowed the client to build its brand and appeal to a new talent pool that was unfamiliar with the organization’s name while also connecting with key talent to fill roles. Cielo recruiters regularly attended university hiring events – including a virtual career fair targeting firmware engineers, a specific need for the Chihuahua location.

Other tactics include:

  • Virtual job fairs for customer service roles
  • Sponsoring robotic tournaments
  • Judging engineering student competitions
  • Hiring different roles and job types for different locations and markets
  • Partnering with local job boards to implement multichannel branding and targeted recruitment marketing

Throughout the new talent acquisition strategy’s execution, recruiters closely collaborated with HR managers at each location. This allowed for a well-consolidated program, giving HR managers and hiring managers the confidence and trust in the quality of service they would receive from recruiters in the hiring process.

The results
After 18 months into the partnership, a culture of continuous improvement has been established on the talent acquisition team. New best practices have been established and successfully implemented. The unified mentality shines through, with every member of the team embodying the brand.

Key outcomes from the partnership so far include:

  • 28 days average time-to-fill, compared to an industry standard of 45-50
  • An increased focus on diversity, up 40%
  • Improved hiring manager satisfaction, up 90% since program launch

What’s next
Cielo’s deep understanding of the client’s history, challenges and future trajectory have been key to the TA success so far. Anticipating growth and evolution, the Cielo team is working hard to build even greater flexibility and resilience into the client’s talent acquisition strategy – allowing them to adapt and succeed in any talent market.


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