Revving up hiring: reducing time-to-fill by 80% for a global engineering consulting firm

Falling behind in the race for talent

Six weeks. In the fast-paced world of automotive manufacturing, that’s a lifetime. It’s also the time it took a global engineering consulting firm to source and onboard talent to support their client, a leading global automaker, in their engine testing and validation labs. At this pace, the firm was struggling to meet their obligations to the client, and in some cases, by the time a suitable candidate had been identified and was ready to be placed, the need no longer existed. Recognizing that they were at risk of losing the client’s business, the firm’s leaders made the decision to look beyond their existing in-house team and staffing agencies for support.

Tuning up the hiring process

Within days of reaching out to Kelly for help and agreeing to terms, the Kelly Engineering team met with the firm’s leaders to develop a strategy to expand its pool of qualified talent and optimize the hiring process to support its immediate needs. Leaning on its experience supporting 90 of the Fortune 100 with contract and direct hire staffing solutions, our team quickly implemented processes that dramatically accelerated the rate of candidate screenings, background checks, and onboarding. At each step of the process, our team emphasized reliability – an area where other staffing agencies the firm had worked with had not performed well. “Aaron K. and his team are exceptionally responsive to our changing needs and timing,” said an Operations Manager with the firm. “He is always willing to assist out of hours to help resolve issues and help get suitable candidates hired.”

A well-oiled hiring machine

Within four months, the Kelly Engineering team successfully sourced and onboarded 25 contract employees on behalf of the firm for specialized roles that are critical to its client’s engine development operations, including engineers, technical writers, wire harness and instrumentation technicians, and chassis dynamometer technicians. As the Operations Manager explained, “Kelly immediately responded to our needs by not only providing many suitable candidates, it also reduced our typical time to place a candidate on site.” In fact, our team reduced the time required to place a candidate so much – down to one week or less, an improvement of more than 80% – that the firm now partners with Kelly Engineering almost exclusively to meet its staffing needs for this client.

Is your business facing a similar challenge? If so, let’s talk. From contract and direct hire staffing, to business process outsourcing and project services, Kelly Engineering provides a full range of flexible, efficient solutions designed to meet your needs.