Health technology developer decided to attract new talent by building better visibility and stronger brand
Varian is a major player in Finland’s software development market. When the company partnered up with Brunnen at the start of 2019, its priority was to recruit new talent. The team of 250 professionals was looking to grow by 40 new experts.
Today, Varian Finland employs approximately 300 people representing more than 20 nationalities. Most of Varian’s staff are software developers working on radiation therapy apps, cancer treatment management and cloud computing services, and the team has a broad skills base in programming, applied mathematics and physics.
At the start of our partnership, Varian was especially looking to recruit more physicists and mathematicians as well as software developers. Competition for skilled software developers is fierce.
Varian’s strengths lie in its extremely international, highly educated team and the meaningful work it offers. The team in Finland consists of the best experts in their respective fields and almost half of them have doctoral degrees. Varian’s global market share in radiation therapy devices is more than 50 percent.
Varian Medical Systems’ radiation therapy devices are used to treat more than four million patients each year worldwide. Its dose calculators are used by more than 100,000 healthcare professionals at cancer clinics around the world. The Finnish unit’s recruitment challenges were critical for the whole of Varian, as much of the intelligence in the radiation therapy devices is developed in Finland.
“Brunnen helped us to motivate Varian’s own staff to start spreading the word about the company,” says Varian Finland’s Managing Director Kari Toimela. Health technology is a highly sophisticated area that requires a keen eye on, for example, health claims. This is why it was so important to get Varian’s own experts involved in communication.
The company’s management and experts were armed with strategic communication priorities, common goals and strategic KPIs. Individuals were given a platform by boosting their competence and desire to get their voice heard. Varian’s relationship with the media was built systematically and with a clear goal in mind.
Targets met through teamwork
The partnership with Brunnen allowed Varian to meet its recruitment target. The team’s visibility on social media increased by one third, and earned media quadrupled.
“Our partnership has been extremely tight-knit from the start. Brunnen has listened to our feedback and changed and revised its approach as required. Although our experts are busy, it has been wonderful to see how enthusiastically they have embraced communication planning and content production and how actively they have been present in different channels,” Toimela says and adds: “Varian’s reputation and employer image have improved considerably. Media interviews and other earned media have also helped us with recruitment.”
Varian Medical Systems merged with another health technology giant, Siemens Healthineers, in April 2021. While keeping its own brand, joining forces with Siemens Healthineers has given Varian even better opportunities to discover new innovations and shape the future of healthcare and cancer treatments. For patients and healthcare professionals, this means a more seamless journey from diagnosis to treatment and follow-up.