Bayer, the German multinational which competes for talent such as scientists and digital marketers worldwide, has been trying to improve internal mobility, reduce unwanted turnover, and speed up its hiring. So far, it is achieving all three goals.
Holly Quincey is the London-based global head of Talent Attraction at Bayer. The company is one of the world’s most powerful brands, one of the world’s largest Life Science companies, and received awards in 2019 as one of the best employers in Germany, China, United States and Brazil. Bayer addresses some of the world’s most pressing global challenges and continues to develop new solutions. The population is constantly growing and its age is increasing; that’s why it needs better medicines and high-quality food in sufficient quantities.
The company includes agriculture, pharmaceutical and consumer products divisions, selling such well-known household products as Aspirin, Claritin, and Alka-Seltzer.
Bayer chose to get all of the combined company on SAP. It also explored the possibility of adding an AI-driven platform to improve internal mobility and use a CRM to improve hiring.
It came across Eightfold (an SAP-endorsed app) and, Quincey says, began in-depth conversations and demonstrations.
These demos turned into a pilot with Eightfold in 2019. It was “hugely, hugely successful,” Quincey says. Bayer found candidates it could short-list that it would not have otherwise, using the “Talent Network” concept of Eightfold, which uses deep-learning AI to uncover past applicants, employee referrals, internal employees, alumni, and passive/sourced candidates already in a company’s network. Bayer, using Eightfold, became “really focused on recruiting people with the right skills and potential. Not just for the first job,” she says.
Bayer has moved beyond that pilot and is expanding its use of Eightfold. The intelligence Bayer has gathered to help it hire and move people internally is “incredible,” Quincey says.
The company has also seen a decrease in time to hire. With use of its own Talent Network, Bayer is relying much less on outside agencies for talent. Often, that has meant looking at its internal population, and uncovering skills its employees have that it can unlock.
As for its relationship with Eightfold, Quincey says the team has been “absolutely outstanding” and “very agile” in working with such a huge, global organization like Bayer.
Find out much more about Bayer’s talent-attraction efforts in the half-hour webinar below.
Click here to view the webinar, and here to learn more about Eightfold.