Challenges
SAS is a global leader in the provision of business analytics software and services. The company’s talent acquisition models in the U.K. and continental operations needed to cope with high-volume hiring in highly competitive labor markets that were very complex and heavily dependent on external agencies.
So, SAS decided to explore working with a dedicated partner that could deliver a smarter, faster talent acquisition solution and reduce overall costs. Following a competitive tender process involving three Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) specialists, SAS opted to work with Cielo for three main reasons: flexibility of its approach, the scalability of its model, and the close cultural fit between the two companies.
“We’ve developed a very close relationship with Cielo to the extent that we now see them as an extension of our own organization, part of the very fabric of SAS. The way they have integrated themselves with us means that we have real confidence in the way they represent our brand in the employment marketplace. The combination of an embedded team and their centralized resources gives us the best of both worlds and has helped to maintain a very high quality of recruit, whilst reducing reliance on third parties and controlling cost of hire,” said the Head of HR for SAS.
Impact by the numbers
Reduced cost per hire
Average cost per hire reduced by 32%
Average hiring time
An average hiring time of 43 days, down from 83 days pre-Cielo
Solutions
Cielo quickly took over responsibility for all delivery aspects of the hiring process, embedding an initial team of two (growing to four over time) on-site with SAS. The team handles all hiring for SAS’ UK operations, including new graduates, professional services such as implementation consultancy, project management and technical architecture, sales, pre-sales, legal, finance, and HR. Cielo also provides ad hoc support in the recruitment of senior professionals across other areas in the EMEA region through its centralized executive search function.
SASThe way they have integrated themselves with us means that we have real confidence in the way they represent our brand in the employment marketplace.
In the talent acquisition partnership's seventh year, Cielo has now extended the support it provides to SAS into several key, value-added areas. The team has, for example, worked closely with SAS to enhance its workforce planning capacity, providing in-depth intelligence on the external employment market and allowing SAS to align its talent plan to its commercial strategy.
Results
Together, SAS and Cielo accomplished incredible talent acquisition outcomes, including:
- Hires completed mainly in the UK, but also in CEE, Dubai, Egypt, France, Germany and Nigeria
- Lowered average hiring time from 87 to 43 days
- Reduced average cost per hire by 32%
- Dropped recruitment via agency to 10% of total
- Employer brand defined and enhanced to raise awareness of SAS amongst potential employees
- SAS HR freed up to focus on business partner role
About the client
SAS
SAS is a global leader in the provision of business analytics software and services, and employs over 11,000 people at 400 offices in more than 50 countries. SAS helps organizations across all industries realize the full potential of their greatest asset: data. Simply put, SAS allows its clients to transform data about customers, performance, financials and more into information and predictive insight that lays the groundwork for solid and coherent decisions. SAS is used at more than 50,000 sites in over 100 countries.
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