What Is RPO? Is It Right For You?
Approaches to recruiting have drastically changed over the past 20 years. With the development and advancement of social media, the emergence of the millennial generation entering the workforce (and now Generation Z), and an increasingly decentralized workforce, organizations are more transparent than ever, and candidates expect more.
Twenty years ago, recruiting resembled purchasing. Organizations had a position to fill and candidates lined up to fill the position. Today organizations strive to be an employer of choice as they position themselves in the marketplace. Twenty years ago, companies used traditional sources like newspapers to post positions. Sites like Monster.com and CareerBuilder were just coming into existence. In today’s market, the candidate has become more sophisticated and demands more information about the company, leadership, and direction than ever before. Additionally, the number of avenues that one can use to try to reach these candidates can be overwhelming. Vehicles and tools that worked yesterday may not be adequate today. Add to this that the cost to recruit quality candidates has soared when you factor in the expense of hiring a recruiter, working with temporary staffing firms, or paying contingency recruitment fees that can be as high as 30%.
In recent years, another option has been gaining momentum. RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) is a service where an outside firm manages all or part of the recruitment function. This can be for a single position, specific department, or an entire company. They can handle the entire search, or only parts of the recruiting function like sourcing and screening. The RPO firm becomes a temporary partner/expansion to your Human Resources Department equipped with the knowledge, skills, tools, technologies to immediately improve recruiting results! They have teams of experienced recruiters who are well versed in how and where to find top talent utilizing the most sophisticated technologies today.
This type of service is typically less expensive then hiring an internal recruiter, and significantly cheaper than working with temporary agencies or paying contingency fees – often saving as much as 60%. You own the product of all work done for you by the RPO firm and can utilize candidates for future needs at no additional cost. You set the number of hours each week that they support you and most RPO firms will allow you to stop and start the service at any time. There are a number of situations where an RPO solution can net you strong results:
You have open positions that are difficult to fill
Anticipated increase in hiring activity
Great variances in the volume of hiring
Internal resources are minimal or non-existent
Need to reduce recruitment expenses
You presently have hiring manager dissatisfaction in time-to-fill or quality
Need to increase your employment brand over competition
The process to get started with this type of service is simple, but there are a few critical areas you will want to cover. Make sure the RPO provider conducts a detailed Needs Analysis for each position and takes the time to understand the unique characteristics of your company. Establish the process that you would like the RPO firm to follow. Finally, just like you would with an internal employee, you will want to define performance goals to measure success and understand the reports you will receive to analyze progress.
Incorporating an RPO solution into your business plan can be a powerful and flexible recruiting solution for your business. If you have questions about how an RPO could work with your organization, Skywalk Group was one of the early pioneers in this type of recruiting solution and we would be happy to answer any questions or outline how a program like this may fit into your company.
By Jeff Taylor
Updated 1/20/21