Transforming Recruitment and Reducing Attrition Leads to Revenue Growth for a Medical Equipment Manufacturer
Situation: Recruitment and Retention Challenges in a Growing Company
A Japanese-based medical equipment manufacturer faced significant challenges in their recruitment efforts. Without an internal recruiting function, the company relied heavily on posting jobs through an applicant tracking system (ATS) and had a disjointed hiring process that resulted in inefficiency and high attrition. The company was experiencing rapid growth and needed to hire non-exempt skilled trade workers quickly, but they struggled with turnover—both voluntary and involuntary—particularly in their Minnesota lab. Their solution had been to use temporary workers, which only served as a short-term fix, leading to a cycle of “churn and burn.”
Solution: Scalable and Flexible ReSolution – Streamlining Processes and Addressing Compensation
The company partnered with Advanced RPO to address these recruitment and retention challenges. The first step was to streamline and simplify the application process, making it easier for candidates to engage with the company. Despite building a strong candidate pipeline for the client’s Minnesota lab, it quickly became clear that pay was a critical barrier to hiring because candidates were self-selecting out at the screening step when the hourly rate was shared.
Despite the company’s own research showing their compensation was competitive, the reality was starkly different. Using our unique methodology to analyze labor market data, we identified that the company was underpaying in the Minnesota market. We presented a comprehensive pay analysis, showing the company that they were not only competing against companies in their industry but also against businesses in retail and food service for the same hourly talent. The company’s executive leadership team was so impressed with the analysis for the Minnesota lab that they asked us to do the analysis for all their labs.
Based on our recommendations, which included both the short- and long-term benefits of adjusting compensation, the company made the strategic decision to raise wages for both new hires and existing employees at all of their labs. This move helped them remain competitive in attracting talent and had long-term cost-saving implications through improved retention and reduced turnover.
Results: Increased Staffing, Reduced Turnover, and Revenue Growth
The results of Advanced RPO’s efforts were transformative. Within just four months, the company’s Minnesota lab was fully staffed for all shifts, an achievement they had not previously been able to accomplish. The pay adjustments not only improved the company’s ability to attract candidates but also reduced attrition rates by more than 50%, both of which directly contributed to their revenue growth.
The success in the U.S. was so profound that the company expanded their partnership with Advanced RPO to handle their hiring needs in Canada. Today, they have drastically improved staffing levels across multiple locations and continue to thrive with a more efficient, data-driven approach to talent acquisition.
“We have engaged Advanced RPO on multiple occasions to request market data aimed at evaluating our current workforce’s compensation relative to industry norms. The market data furnished by Advanced RPO has proven to be exceedingly comprehensive and thorough, playing a pivotal role in enabling us to align our employees’ wages with prevailing market standards. This strategic move has effectively bolstered our competitiveness across most locations. The provided data consistently reflects the realities of the market, and the subsequent implementation of recommended wage adjustments has led to a noticeable decrease in the number of open positions in many of our locations.”
— CEO North America & Senior Director of HR