Case Study: Philips

How Helix Helped Philips Accelerate its Transformation

Executive Summary

Faced with stagnant growth and a risk-averse culture, Philips launched the Accelerate program to drive transformation. Helix, as a preferred recruitment partner, played a key role in shifting hiring practices to prioritise key behaviours over specific product experience. This approach resulted in a more engaged and high-performing workforce, contributing to increased market share, faster project execution, and a renewed culture of growth.

The Challenge

Philips, under CEO Frans van Houten, recognised the need for a cultural shift to reignite growth. The Accelerate program identified four crucial employee behaviors: Eager to Win, Take Ownership, Team up to Excel, and Always Act with Integrity. However, hiring managers were entrenched in a risk-averse mindset, prioritising candidates with specific product experience over those demonstrating these key behaviours. This limited the talent pool and hindered Philips’ ability to attract high-performing individuals.

Solution

To drive this shift, Helix partnered closely with Philips’ HR, Talent Acquisition (TA), and senior leadership teams to educate and persuade hiring managers across Philips Healthcare, about the benefits of prioritising high-performing behaviours over direct product experience. This approach was implemented across all Healthcare divisions, including Cardiology, Critical Care, Respiratory Care, Mother & Child Care, Oncology, Radiology, Ultrasound, Healthcare IT, and Informatics.

Through sustained collaboration, we encouraged hiring managers to consider a broader range of candidates for roles such as medical sales specialists, sales leaders, clinical application specialists, marketing, product managers, project managers, and field service engineers across the Healthcare teams. Helix sourced candidates exhibiting behaviours aligned with Philips’ Accelerate culture: Eager to Win, Take Ownership, Team Up to Excel, and Always Act with Integrity.

Results

While some hiring managers adapted quickly, others required time to fully embrace this new approach. During interviews, candidates who exemplified the desired behaviours stood out for their drive, responsibility, and teamwork. Over time, the positive impact of hiring these high-performing individuals became evident:

• Market share grew.
• Competitor accounts were won.
• Projects advanced more quickly.
• Teams became more invested and collaborative.

The ripple effect was transformative. Existing team members raised their standards, and Philips began to experience renewed growth. Succession planning also improved, as a new generation of leaders emerged, embodying the cultural values championed by Accelerate.

Through this partnership, Helix was pivotal in supporting Philips’ cultural evolution, delivering talent that contributed to long-term organisational success.