From program managers to professors and postdocs, SilkRoad Recruiting helps Van Andel Institute attract the best and the brightest.
“Brand reputation is everything in our field. We’re showing top talent who we are and why they should work here. SilkRoad Recruiting helps us convey that positive image to elite talent.”
A leading-edge life sciences organization, Van Andel Institute seeks to improve the health and enhance the lives of generations to come through disease research and education. Talent acquisition in the industry is highly competitive, as the world’s foremost universities and private institutions vie for superstar candidates.
Despite its state-of-the-art research facility, Van Andel Institute struggled with an expensive, outdated applicant tracking system. Hiring managers avoided it, because the user interface was poorly designed. Recruiters couldn’t easily post open positions on the career portal, so they relied on outside resources–even to make minor updates to the site.
The recruitment team recognized that the Institute’s online employment brand should be more attractive to A-list applicants. They also wanted agile processes for pre-qualifying, tracking, and hiring candidates. In sum, Van Andel Institute sought a recruitment solution that would mirror its culture of excellence and the expertise of its skilled workforce.
After a thorough evaluation process, Van Andel Institute made a decision: Replace the outdated software with SilkRoad’s recruitment management and applicant tracking system. Using SilkRoad Recruiting, Van Andel Institute has been able to:
Brand reputation is everything in our field. We’re showing top talent who we are and why they should work here. SilkRoad Recruiting helps us convey that positive image to elite talent.
In a dynamic recruitment market for skilled professionals, the new career portal sets Van Andel Institute apart from competitors. The portal’s rich content conveys the organization’s strong employment brand, highlights its values, and presents the amenities and strong community spirit of its home city, Grand Rapids, Michigan. What’s more, the recruitment team can now easily add new pages and make changes to the portal—without needing help from outside resources. Plans are now in place to feature high-profile hires on the site and Google analytics is now in place to measure visitor traffic.
SilkRoad Recruiting has been enthusiastically adopted by the organization’s managers, who appreciate the system’s user-friendly interface and well-designed workflows. Extra phone calls to HR for status updates have been eliminated: Now everyone can see at a glance where an applicant or candidate stands in the process. The result? Time savings for all.
SilkRoad Recruiting was a winning decision for the Van Andel Institute. Overall, the system’s high-powered capabilities ensure that the recruitment process is strategic, transparent, and particularly cost effective.
The leadership team was so pleased with SilkRoad’s state-of-the-art software that they also purchased SilkRoad Onboarding and SilkRoad Performance -at a significant cost savings. Together, the three SilkRoad solutions are projected to reduce the organization’s direct talent expenditures by 70% annually.
With SilkRoad Recruiting, the Van Andel Institute is able to showcase its strengths as an employer and its reputation as a powerhouse of scientific talent. Last but not least, SilkRoad helps the recruitment team stay focused on their ultimate goal: hiring the best talent in biomedical research and education.
Share thisResource:
