Best practice companies make talent acquisition a key priority during both strong and weak economic conditions. It may seem hard to believe…why would companies want to recruit during a recession? Furthermore, how can sourcing and screening strategies take precedence over other key talent initiatives such as downsizing and restructuring?
To maximize talent investments during an economic slowdown, organizations need to rethink their current strategies and make the necessary changes to not only reduce costs but improve the accuracy and quality of hires. With more candidates in the workforce, recessions are an excellent time to “upgrade” your talent pool.
Sound simple? Well, unfortunately it’s not. Just ask GSK. The leading global pharmaceutical company has invested a considerable amount of time and energy to restructure their sourcing and screening strategies with a heavy focus on two major themes…integration and innovation. It is important to note that these changes did not happen overnight. In many cases, they began as early as 2004 and will continue beyond 2010 as GSK continues to prioritize and re-evaluate their strategies.
How Has GSK Invested in Strategic Sourcing?
• Internal Sourcing Function- GSK created an internal sourcing function under their global talent solutions department with the goal of reducing costs spent on executive search firms. Over the past few years, this sourcing team has filled 500 roles, saved $15 million and provided organizational benchmarking data as well as competitive intelligence.
• Global Talent Center of Excellence- Over the past year, GSK has continued to move away from a decentralized sourcing model by including this function in the global talent center of excellence with the goal of integrating talent acquisition with talent management.
• Technology Investment-GSK selected Peopleclick’s RMS solution as a robust solution for global enterprise organizations. As an early adopter of Peopleclick, GSK has continued to align with companies that prove to be innovative in their approach to talent acquisition.
How Has GSK Invested in Screening and Selection?
• Recruiters Toolkit- This end-to-end toolkit includes two primary tools used for the selection process across the organization. Some of these tools vary by the needs of different business units. They are integrated in the recruitment workflow and help inform hiring decisions, limit the risk that the company enters into when making a hiring decision, and reduce the cost associated with a new hire.
• Skillsurvey- As an innovative organization, GSK selected SkillSurvey to automate the reference checking process and move this process to the beginning of the recruiting lifecycle instead of the end. GSK has measured several key performance indicators including time to fill and recruiter workload.
• Standardized Assessments- GSK’s pre-hire assessment model is consistent throughout the organization and utilizes the underlying framework of their behavioral leadership framework. This behavioral leadership framework is used for the post-hire phases and will help integrate talent acquisition and talent management through the center of excellence.
These continuous talent acquisition initiatives during both a strong and weak economy have helped GSK reduce the redundancy associated with a decentralized model, increase communication and improve efficiency. We are publishing a more indepth case study on this topic…stay tuned.