VINCI: Reducing Candidate Dropouts

The Challenge

VINCI Facilities, a world leader in sustainable building management, faced recruiting challenges to find increasingly scarce talent across key business functions including engineering, commercial, facilities, defence and construction.

One of the key challenges VINCI faced was a high instance of candidates failing to start their employment following acceptance of a verbal offer. VINCI wasn’t alone in this challenge as revealed in the latest CIPD Research and talent planning report supported by Omni. In the Report, it was found that of those organisations that recruited in the last 12 months, more than a quarter (27%) of selected candidates always, mostly, or sometimes failed to turn up on the first day, effectively “ghosting” the employer.

VINCI sought an innovative recruitment partner that was aligned with their sustainable culture and values.

The Objective

VINCI’s goals were to:

  • Establish a dedicated and pro-active recruitment team
  • Streamline and improve recruiting processes across all functions
  • Boost employer branding to attract candidates for hard to fill roles

Omni was tasked with streamlining the recruitment process, implementing new technology and improving candidate engagement to ensure VINCI could secure the best talent quickly and efficiently for hard-to-fill roles within the organisation.

The Strategy

Omni implemented several targeted strategies, each designed to address key pain points in the hiring process:

  1. Streamlined Onboarding Process: Omni together with VINCI HR team, implemented a more efficient process for post offer candidate vetting within its ‘Defence’ Division where delays and onboarding challenges were being seen previously. This included agreement on a escalation process.
  2. Enhanced Candidate Engagement: To keep candidates engaged during the pre-start phase, Omni initiated regular check-in calls conducted by both Recruiters and a newly introduced Candidate Care Team. This engagement ensured that any questions or concerns from candidates were addressed quickly, helping to maintain momentum and commitment until their start date. VINCI branded welcome e-cards were created and sent to candidates post-offer, creating a more personal and positive experience that reinforced their decision to join VINCI.
  3. Improved Hiring Manager Involvement: The interaction between the Recruitment Manager and new starters was also reviewed. A Recruiting Manager guide was introduced, which included critical touchpoints ahead of the candidate’s start date. In addition, Recruiting Managers were provided with recruitment and onboarding training, emphasising the importance of regular candidate contact and the importance of their role in preventing ‘dropouts’
  4. Faster Contract Administration: Omni and VINCI worked together to implement an improved Service Level Agreement (SLA), reducing the time for a contract of employment to be issued to new starters from 5 days to just 48 hours. This reduction meant candidates received their contracts sooner, allowing less time for the candidates to be swayed by other employers and counteroffers.
  5. Data-Driven Insights: Omni measures on an ongoing basis, the impact and effectiveness of process changes and improvements through analysis of the data captured within the recruitment systems used. Trends identified within the data are reviewed at a leadership level including VINCI’s Head of Resourcing, Head of HR, and Managing Director – enabling the team to continually identify areas for further improvement.

Conclusion

The collaboration between VINCI Facilities and Omni has significantly improved recruitment outcomes, especially in reducing candidate dropouts and a marked reduction in time-to-hire. Through a combination of streamlined onboarding, enhanced candidate engagement, and faster contract administration, the partnership has delivered tangible results.

Get in touch with us today.