RPO: The What, Why and How
As a business owner, HR manager or an employee charged with hiring new staff members, you are well versed in the complexities and difficulties of finding the right applicants for a position. Whether constrained by time, budget or availability, hiring new employees is more of a headache than the exciting growth process it should be.
However, there is a solution available to help you get a qualified employee quickly with a low cost to you: RPO.
What is RPO?
In an RPO, or Recruitment Process Outsourcing solution, an external company, such as Skywalk Group, takes over parts of or all of your recruiting process. Using their experience in recruiting, they design and manage a customized recruiting process to meet your needs. The RPO company owns the design and management of the recruitment process, as well as the responsibility for the results. You get the benefit of the work they do.
How does RPO work?
Most RPO companies have varying levels of involvement; at Skywalk Group we offer OnRecruit, our signature RPO program. We will create a customized recruiting process, designed to meet your needs. The size and scope of the process can be as large or small as you need it to be all based on an hourly pricing model. After meeting with you to understand what kind of roles you need to fill and the personalities and skills you are looking for, the company will put the process into action by mining data, sourcing, and screening candidates to create a pool of eligible and qualified applicants for your open positions.
Why should I use RPO for my business?
You can also think of it as “what benefits does RPO offer over my internal recruiting process?” Here are a few benefits of RPO to keep in mind:
Reduced costs through shared risks - your business success dictates your hiring needs. When things are going well and you need to hire more people, your recruiting staff and needs spike. When business is down, your need for recruiting staff decreases. Using RPO allows you to pass the costs and risks to that company instead of bearing them yourself.
Faster time to hire - there is truth to the adage “time is money.” Hiring professional level employees takes time, effort and of course, money. The faster it goes, the sooner you can take advantage of that employee’s productivity. Hiring goes faster with an RPO because of a…
Streamlined recruiting process - often, companies have disjointed or uncoordinated recruiting processes; you may even have experienced some of this yourself. A big part of any RPO project is evaluating what is already in place in order to create a recruitment process that works smarter, not harder.
The bottom line: using RPO allows you to fill your staffing needs with qualified employees at the lowest cost per hire. And isn’t that the ultimate goal? To learn more about Skywalk Group’s signature RPO service, OnRecruit, visit the Recruiting area of our website or contact us today.
This blog post was originally published in June 2016 and has been updated for content and clarity.