Founded in 1976, SAS is a global leader in the provision of business analytics software and services and employs over 11,000 people at 400 offices in more than 50 countries. SAS helps organisations across all industries realize the full potential of their greatest asset: data. Simply put, SAS allows its clients to transform data about customers, performance, financials and more into information and predictive insight that lays the groundwork for solid and coherent decisions. That’s why SAS is used at more than 50,000 sites in over 100 countries, including 93 of the top 100 companies on the 2010 FORTUNE Global 500® list.

In 2005 the UK and continental operations of SAS were employing a recruitment model which needed to cope with high volumes of hiring in highly competitive labour markets, was very complex and heavily dependent on the use of a wide range of external agencies. The company therefore decided to explore the use of a dedicated outsourcing partner, which could deliver a smarter, faster solution and also reduce overall costs. Following a competitive tender process involving three RPO specialists, SAS opted to work with Ochre House because of the flexibility of its approach, the scalability of its model and the close cultural fit between the two companies.

Ochre House quickly took over responsibility for all delivery aspects of the hiring process embedding an initial team of two, which has over time grown to four onsite with SAS. The team handles all hiring for SAS’s UK operations, including new graduates, professional services such as implementation consultancy, project management and technical architecture, sales, pre-sales, legal, finance and HR. Ochre House also provides ad hoc support in the recruitment of senior professionals across other areas in the EMEA region through its centralised executive search function.

With the partnership into its seventh year, Ochre House has now extended the support it provides to SAS into several key,’ value-added’ areas. The team has, for example, worked closely with SAS to enhance its workforce planning capacity, providing in-depth intelligence on the external employment market and allowing SAS to align its talent plan to its commercial strategy.

• Between 90 and 100 hires completed annually, mainly in the UK, but also in areas as diverse as CEE, Dubai, Egypt, France, Germany and Nigeria
• Average hiring time reduced from 87 to 43 days
• Average cost of hire reduced by 32% in the first year alone
• Recruitment via agency reduced to 10% of total
• Employer brand defined and enhanced to raise awareness of SAS amongst potential employees
• SAS HR freed up to focus on business partner role
• SAS and Ochre House partnership now into its seventh consecutive year

“We’ve developed a very close relationship with Ochre House to the extent that we now see them as an extension of our own organisation, part of the very fabric of SAS. The way they have integrated themselves with us means that we have real confidence in the way they represent our brand in the employment marketplace. The combination of an embedded team and their centralised resources gives us the best of both worlds and has helped to maintain a very high quality of recruit, whilst reducing reliance on third parties and controlling cost of hire.”

Janine Baker, Head of HR for UK and Ireland, SAS