A global leader in medical technology faced a familiar hurdle: regional silos were slowing down global growth. Rather than accepting fragmented regional success, leadership set a bold mandate: build an intelligent talent strategy that is both unified and future-ready. By expanding their long-standing partnership with Cielo and leaning into the Workday ecosystem, the organization adopted an AI-driven hiring model that balances global scale with local market precision — ultimately delivering a 167% return in net savings in the first year.
Challenges
Breaking the regional mold for global speed
Operating in the high-stakes life sciences sector requires hiring velocity, compliance and precision — requirements that legacy systems simply cannot support at scale. With teams distributed across four global regions, progress was stalled by inconsistent workflows, disconnected systems, and administrative friction.
To scale further, the organization required a future-ready, intelligent talent strategy that could increase global agility and unify talent acquisition across regions and align with internal mobility initiatives — all while reducing cost and complexity.
Solutions
A bold vision for tech-enabled human expertise
Leadership recognized that true transformation occurs when organizational, operational and technology silos are removed. By selecting Cielo as its global agency of record, the organization integrated its technology and service partners into a single, evolving ecosystem. The organization deployed a future-ready, data-driven talent ecosystem built on three strategic pillars: growth (building a global talent pipeline), efficiency (driving operational excellence and agility), and empowerment (fostering culture, insight and inclusion).
Strategic moves included:
Advancing ethical AI adoption: Deploying Workday HiredScore to identify top workforce talent faster while maintaining ethical, responsible AI standards within the Workday platform.
Scaling global excellence: Expanding the recruitment model into APAC and LATAM to ensure a consistent experience for every candidate and hiring manager worldwide.
Advancing recruiter productivity: Automating high-volume workflows to free recruiters to focus on relationship-building and strategic hiring decisions.
Results
Driving results in a high-compliance world
The client’s vision has resulted in a recruitment engine that transcends industry standards to set a new pace for compliant, global hiring.
The human impact | The strategic edge | The financial return |
|---|---|---|
Empowering the workforce Achieved a 37.8% reduction in time to progress for top-of-funnel candidates. This gain in recruiter efficiency moves teams away from manual filtering to building authentic connections with candidates. | Accelerating innovation Decreased the time to submit candidates by an average of 11 days quarter-over-quarter. Ensured critical R&D and manufacturing pipelines can keep pace with demand. | Total cost reduction Delivered a 27% savings in year 1, optimizing agency utilization and eliminating redundant workflows across the ecosystem. |
Ethical efficiency Leveraged Workday HiredScore to optimize candidate matching. By using intelligent recommendations from prior applications, the team elevated candidate quality. | Future-proofing talent Built the foundation for continuous technical agility. With the initial six-month rollout established and adoption steadily climbing, the organization is uniquely positioned to scale its digital ecosystem. | Embedded technology value Successfully embedded key technology assets, including a new AI operating platform, delivering a 167% return in net savings in the very first year. |
This intelligent talent strategy delivered immediate operational improvements across core KPIs. The team reduced aged requisition thresholds across all job grades, expanded total talent pool depth, and saw a significant lift in both candidate and hiring manager satisfaction.
The strategic impact: Driving global growth
By supporting 97% of hiring across R&D and manufacturing, Cielo enabled a shift from fragmented regional tactics to a high-performance global workforce standard. This unified approach strengthened the organization's global operational foundation. The resulting transformation ensures critical R&D and manufacturing talent is in place exactly when needed, mitigating the risk of regional delays.
Moving to a single, AI-integrated ecosystem has provided the data and agility required to pivot quickly in a competitive market. This ensures the unified global vision is backed by a high-performance workforce engine capable of accelerating the delivery of life-saving medical technology while integrating talent acquisition and internal mobility to drive long-term retention and engagement.
Key advantages powering this success:
Agile & scalable intelligence: An AI-powered approach that predicts hiring needs and automates workflows while maintaining global flexibility.
Growth-efficiency-empowerment model: A balanced three-pillar framework delivering a 167% return in net savings in year 1 alongside proactive talent development.
Tech-enabled transformation: Advanced platforms that clear out manual tech hurdles, expand talent pools, and drop aged requisition thresholds.
One-team partnership: Unified global governance with shared analytics dashboards fostering a connected, high-performing talent function.
Scaling potential with Cielo
A global vision requires a partner capable of translating complex workforce technology into a measurable competitive advantage. Cielo serves as a strategic extension of the client's team, clearing the path for internal stakeholders to focus on innovation. By blending workforce expertise with the Workday platform, this MedTech leader has established a future-ready foundation for sustained global growth.
About the client
This organization is an international provider of healthcare-related technologies and services, focused on supporting advancements in medical research, diagnostics, and patient care. With a presence across numerous countries and a large global workforce, it delivers a broad range of solutions to research institutions, healthcare providers, and life sciences organizations worldwide.
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