Global Talent Attraction and Acquisition – Thermo Fisher Scientific

Thermo Fisher Scientific, with annual revenue exceeding $30bn (£27bn) and a global team of more than 80,000 colleagues, delivers a combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and pharmaceutical services. The organisation has around 6,000 open vacancies at any one time. Recruiting such a vast number of people while ensuring excellent hire quality is the job of its Talent Acquisition (TA) team.

• When the Covid-19 pandemic began, as the largest manufacturer of sterile injectables, Thermo Fisher Scientific began manufacturing and supplying PPE and then moved on to diagnostics and vaccine produ While the number of business-as-usual vacancies fell, an exceptionally large number of vacancies were created to support the new work. In all, they went up to an average of 14,000 vacancies.
• The team had always planned to move recruitment into a more agile approach and applied this to 29 prioritised Covid-19 projects. Within these there were dozens of smaller programmes, with anything from a few hundred to thousands of positions to fill, ranging from factory workers to scientists.
• To manage the workload, the TA team broke down every project into core roles. They then broke the vacancies into regions with each having a dedicated team. These teams used reporting tool ‘Power BI’ to set up project dashboard/monitor progress.
• The team has delivered on their existing strategy, fast-tracking the recruitment process, while maintaining standards and working collaboratively, despite being a team of 550 members. As a result, the business is in an extremely strong position and has developed a way of working that has revolutionised its recruitment.

Judges’ comments: “Not only is Thermo a worthy winner, but is a story of resolve and determination. The TA team found themselves in the heart of the Covid-19 pandemic and thanks to their incredible delivery they ultimately supported a key pillar of the UK’s response.”

Also: This category benefited from a wide variety of achievement from organisations large and small. This allowed a lively and engaging discussion amongst the judges, who were though unanimous with their choices.

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