Allergan’s transformation with flex talent acquisition

Challenges

To evolve and maximize new business opportunities, the global pharmaceutical company Allergan needed bold-thinking talent in the ever-changing life sciences space.

Its commitment to fostering innovation and strategic partnerships expands beyond research and development. With 17,000+ global colleagues, Allergan still needed the flexibility and scalability to source and engage top talent. So, it entered a Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) partnership with Cielo in 2015 to help streamline and optimize its talent acquisition process for business growth.

Cielo’s dedicated team centralized Allergan’s talent acquisition function to support global functions, commercial sales, operations (manufacturing, supply chain, engineering, quality) and R&D. Since the inception of the partnership, Allergan and Cielo have partnered through multiple expansions, acquisitions and divestitures, allowing Allergan to continue building one of the broadest development pipelines in the pharmaceutical industry.

“When our business unit started the recruitment conversations for our product launch, it was clear that building a best-in-class surgical sales team in 90 days would be a significant undertaking. Our Cielo team delivered – filling every last position by our deadline. We were impressed with Cielo’s ability to attract and hire a high caliber of talent in advance of our launch. The teamwork and leadership demonstrated has built the foundation for continued success,” said David Lecause, Vice President of Sales - Eyecare Division of Allergan.

Solutions

Creating scale and flexibility

Cielo designed an RPO partnership model to support the merger of three large organizations, including the change management and technology expertise required to streamline three different ATS and background check vendors.

The team size also more than doubled from the start of the partnership, driving results for volume fluctuations caused by double-digit acquisitions, divestitures and multiple sales expansions.

Candidate care

In an era of instant gratification and personalization, Allergan and Cielo saw the opportunity to put renewed focus on the candidate experience to stay ahead of industry trends and candidate expectations. The team launched several strategies to elevate the candidate experience.

Text campaigns are used to remind candidates about interview schedules and share essential information like office locations. A Tip Guide was created to assist candidates in bringing their best selves to on-site interviews. This high-tech and high-touch approach, which also includes personalized “good luck” emails sent to candidates before their interview and on their first day, helped boost candidate engagement and truly reflects Allergan’s culture of caring.

Diversity recruiting

To fuel Allergan’s Bold Culture, the talent acquisition team focused on partnership and promotion to engage and recruit a diverse talent pool. In 2017, the team launched a partnership with RallyPoint, an online community of service members and veterans, to promote Allergan as an employer of choice. Since launch, the talent acquisition team garnered over 870,000 job impressions. Allergan has also focused on recruiting diverse candidates through targeted digital campaigns, social media and dynamic recruitment marketing plans utilizing specific diversity and inclusion-focused job boards.

Technology

Just as the biopharmaceutical industry continues to innovate, the recruiting landscape is increasingly dynamic. Allergan and Cielo stay ahead of the curve by searching and implementing new technology tools that work to improve the recruitment process for both the candidates and the company.

To stay top-of-mind with millennials and new graduates, the talent acquisition team employed the use of virtual career fairs and video interviewing. This helps tailor the recruiting approach to tech-savvy talent looking for convenient ways to engage. Handshake, an online career network that connects schools, students, alumni and employers, has also been a valuable technology tool to connect with new talent.

For critical roles in the customer service function, on-demand video interviewing was implemented to speed up time to hire and increase the quality of candidates. As on-demand video interviewing can be new to some, text and automated voice messages are sent in advance of a video screen to explain the process and provide tips for success.

Allergan also benefited from integration of Cielo’s proprietary candidate relationship management platform. This technology enabled recruiters to source and build talent pools, engage candidates with text and email campaigning, and simplify a part of the hiring process with self-scheduling for interviews. With large sales classes or expansions, the platform automates and tracks critical onboarding paperwork reminders to ensure there are no delays in start dates. This technology continues to support Allergan candidates even after they’re hired. As part of a reimagined employee referral program, the platform sends emails to new hires at their 90-day mark to check in and introduce the referral program and benefits.

“Our partnership with Cielo has been critical for us in securing the industry’s best talent. The team’s ability to flex and scale with our rapidly changing needs, while always bringing innovative ideas and technology, helps us ensure that our talent acquisition strategy is always aligned and supporting the business’ needs,” said Daniella Gigante, Executive Director – Talent Acquisition for Allergan.

Results

Boosted strategic sourcing

• Since the start of the partnership in 2015, Cielo’s dedicated recruiters have sourced, engaged and hired over 4,000 employees
• Direct-sourced candidates from the talent acquisition team quickly increased to the second-leading source of hire, following internal hires

Decreased agency use

• Overall agency usage dropped from almost 20% in 2015 to 5% in 2017
• Agency support for Sales decreased from 14% to 6%, saving over $600,000 since the start of the partnership