How LLS Is Filling Roles Faster as a Nonprofit Employer of Choice

The Challenge

When it comes to purpose, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) has a lot to offer employees: the chance to participate in life-saving work with a global leader in the fight against cancer. “As a nonprofit, we’re rarely a salary leader, so we need to resonate with candidates on a deeper level,” said Sharon Giotis, VP, Talent Acquisition and Internal Mobility at LLS.

After joining the LLS TA team, Giotis identified key opportunities to take candidate outreach to the next level. While the career site in place at the time was functional, it lacked depth and didn’t offer metrics to guide content improvement. Her vision was to make over the career site with the dynamic functionality and shining aesthetics that would do the LLS employer value prop justice. “Rather than just a list of jobs, we needed to better showcase everything we have to offer with a career site that would reflect a true expression of our organization,” she said.

Equally important? She wanted to empower recruiters to source and engage passive job candidates. This meant not only a career site overhaul, but the need for an intelligent platform that would equip recruiters to perform more targeted outreach. “We needed to look beyond our ATS to a CRM for this,” Giotis explained.

The Solution

Giotis recognized the importance of finding a platform comprehensive enough to help LLS meet TA goals — and that was a right-size fit for the organization. “We didn’t want unnecessary complexity,” she emphasized. A colleague’s enthusiastic referral led Giotis to the Phenom Intelligent Talent Experience platform, which stood out for its capabilities and simplicity of use.

Giotis had strong confidence not only in the product, but in the Phenom team. “When you partner with an outside vendor, they become like an extension of your work family,” she said. “Part of our decision was definitely based on the relationships we had built with Phenom’s people.”

Starting by addressing their candidate and recruiter experiences, LLS implemented numerous core Phenom products to bring personalized intelligent automation to both their job seekers and their TA team:

Phenom Career Site and CMS. The all-new LLS career page, powered by Phenom AI, provides intuitive search navigation for job seekers and dynamic content population for recruiters and talent marketers. “The site is very organic now. It’s easy for candidates to find what they’re looking for. And it’s easy for our in-house team to populate the site with imagery that brings the LLS mission to life,” Giotis said.  

Phenom CRM. The career site integrates with Phenom’s CRM, which serves as a central, real-time collection point for candidate data. This allows recruiters to build lists for personalized outreach and track candidate interactions with content. 

The CRM also makes it easy for recruiters to nurture silver medalist candidates, and even engage in cross-messaging with candidate groups who may be interested in alternate ways to be involved with LLS. “It gives us a way to transform candidates into volunteers or advocates within their communities,” Giotis said. “We have the potential to make a positive impact for the whole organization.”

Phenom Chatbot. Initially viewed as a mere add-on to the career site, the LLS chatbot has added unexpected value to the entire recruiting function. Not only does this virtual assistant give candidates a modern, convenient experience, it saves recruiters time answering FAQs. It’s also been key to passive sourcing efforts, generating approximately 350 new CRM profiles in six months, according to Giotis. 

The Results

With Phenom, LLS has been able to cement their TA strategy and maximize their impact on the broader mission of the LLS community. A key outcome: reducing their time-to-accept metric, allowing them to fill roles faster. “Before Phenom, our time to accept averaged 70 to 80 days,” Giotis revealed. “Now, we’re around 50 days. That’s a huge difference for us.”

She attributes this in part to the career site’s impactful content, which plays a role in attracting motivated candidates and educating them on what to expect. And now that the team has career site metrics to draw on, they can make data-driven decisions regarding content and messaging.

“We’re seeing an increase in highly qualified candidates who are well-informed about our mission, purpose, and all that we have to offer as an employer,” Giotis said. In addition, LLS has been able to better showcase its commitment to DE&I on the updated career site, enhancing their talent community with diverse candidates.

Phenom Talent Analytics also give Giotis a way to evaluate the cost effectiveness of various job boards and ad placements. “It’s mission-critical that we scrutinize our spending. The analytics are easy to obtain and understand, which makes it easier for us to advocate for additional budget,” Giotis noted.

The Future

Now that LLS has transformed their approach to attracting and engaging external talent, Giotis is looking at ways to improve the experience internally by implementing Phenom Employee Experience — starting with Phenom Talent Marketplace. “We want to ensure our employees develop and grow.” They’re also planning to expand campaign automations, building out “if/then” recipes to send relevant content to candidate subsets.

From a holistic perspective, Giotis looks forward to continuing her team’s impact on the wider LLS community. “That’s the goal as we continually evolve. I see the next iteration as helping to convert volunteers and advocates into candidates, and vice versa. We can even leverage Phenom campaigns to help secure corporate volunteering. It’s all connected.”