Customer success stories

ICON

How a clinical research organization accelerates the development of pharmaceuticals and biotech devices that save lives and improve quality of life.

Headquarters:
Dublin, Ireland
Industry:
Clinical research
Company size:
40,000
Revenue:
$2 billion
Founded:
1990
iCIMS products:
Applicant Tracking System
Text Engagement
Candidate Relationship Management

ICON advances clinical research worldwide by providing development and commercialization services to pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device, as well as government and public health organizations. That’s a big job with big talent needs.

When ICON acquired PRA Health Sciences and those needs got a lot bigger – and more urgent. Forecasting 17,000 to 18,000 annual hires, ICON’s talent team needed to pull off a quick, seamless merger of their talent acquisition tech stack so they could get recruiting.

ICON’s approach 

PRA Health Science’s talent team had been using iCIMS to recruit for years prior to the company being acquired by ICON. Knowing that it would be the best platform to merge the two companies’ massive databases, PRA Health Science’s talent acquisition leaders advocated for using iCIMS as the lynchpin for their go-forward strategy.

Team picture of ICON employees wearing green company t-shirts

While integration is a challenge for any organization going through a merger and acquisition, iCIMS ATS gives us an advantage because it’s so flexible integrating with other platforms.

Senior Director of Americas Talent Acquisition, ICON

Exterior of an entrance to ICON's office building

Source from rich talent pools

ICON’s recruiters use their massive database as a prime source for candidates. But this database doesn’t just help fill requisitions here and now.

Recruiters build relationships with prospective talent by pulling lists of specific candidates – sometimes silver medalists, sometimes previous employees – and reaching out using their candidate relationship management system. One talent leader calls it the “lifeblood for building candidate relationships.”

Many organizations would look to LinkedIn for that type of data, but we can find data reflecting many years of relationship-building by tapping into our iCIMS ATS database.

Senior Director of Americas Talent Acquisition, ICON

Texting candidates gives recruiters an edge

ICON competes for in-demand talent with niche skills, most of whom are actively being recruited by other employers. Recruiters use text messaging as a quick and effective way to reach busy candidates about everything from new job opportunities to inquiring about references.

In fact, the ICON team gets a 30% better response rate using text messages compared to cold emails.

Team picture of ICON employees in an office

It’s second nature for people to look at their phones. iCIMS Text Engagement is a tool of convenience that recruiters use to send quick, personalized messages – like wishing them good luck on their interviews – and get immediate responses.

Director of Global Talent Acquisition, ICON

With iCIMS, ICON:

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Increased candidate responses by 184%

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Shaved response time from 14 to 8 minutes

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Boosted response rate to 40%

Learn how iCIMS can help you drive ROI

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