Given the state of the economy, it`s no surprise some companies are scaling down their recruiting ranks. But the economic slump doesn`t mean companies can afford to slack on recruiting efforts. Companies may be filling fewer jobs, but they still need to recruit for hard-to-fill positions and build talent communities to ensure they have access to the talent they need when they need it. This will be evident when the economy rebounds and there is a resurgence in hiring.
Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) is a form of business process outsourcing where an organization outsources all or part of its recruiting function. As budgets tighten, more organizations are turning to RPO to source, select and on-board employees. Cost-effective solutions scale to business needs, provide expertise in filling hard-to-fill positions, respond to fluctuating hiring volumes and can deliver a better candidate experience, which aids branding efforts.
RPO can be a recession-proof solution because while a company may have reduced recruiters and slowed hiring to contain costs today, it may need resources to fill a significant number of hires six months from now, to meet new competitive demands. With RPO, recruiting is no longer a fixed cost; it`s a flexible operating expense that organizations can scale up or down as business needs dictate.
Over the past several years, RPO has gained momentum as organizations realize that regardless of the economy, they can reduce hiring costs, improve recruiting processes and deliver a competitive edge. Yet, organizations that fail to define their recruitment objectives and business priorities will never realize the full value an RPO solution can deliver. To help organizations drive success from the start, there are best practices talent managers should consider when outsourcing their recruiting functions as well as associated implications for other talent management operations.
RPO Is More Than a Vendor Relationship
One of the biggest changes in RPO in recent years is the movement away from transaction processing to creating a real strategic partnership. Early RPO relationships were focused on non-core recruiting functions and solving particular hiring challenges. Today, RPO is about the effective process management of a business function, not simply filling open positions with available candidates. Essentially, an ongoing recruiting program builds a company`s talent management function. For the best possible outcomes, an RPO vendor should be integrated into the corporate culture as a valued partner.
Companies should establish rigorous metrics and reporting. Historically, organizations that created the best results embraced their RPO provider as an extension of their own operation and culturally integrated it into the company. Companies must commit to giving the RPO relationship the attention it needs. For example, some organizations don`t assign the RPO to a strategically motivated, influential leader such as the vice president of HR or the head of talent acquisition. How the relationship is established and governed is a precursor to success. RPO should have visibility at the higher reaches of the organization because when planned and executed correctly, it offers a serious competitive advantage. Organizations need to position the relationship where it has strategic influence and more visibility across the company.
Companies should clearly define business goals and recruitment objectives at the outset. Rather than an offering of set services and solutions, the RPO relationship should be defined by the company based on business needs. While some organizations may only want an applicant-tracking solution or assessments and sourcing, others may choose to outsource the entire end-to-end recruiting function. For example, does the company need consulting services to facilitate workforce planning? Or, does it need resources to make the entire process from sourcing to screening to on-boarding new hires more efficient? Whether it`s an element of the recruiting process or a full-cycle soup-to-nuts approach, examine business needs and then build an appropriate support model.
Recalibrate metrics that are important to the organization. Many organizations gather huge amounts of data and then do nothing productive with the information. Service-level agreements are part of every RPO relationship, so creating critical metrics is a productive exercise to conduct. Choose two or three key metrics that will enable the organization to not only gather information but make business changes based on the information received. RPO is a good opportunity to move recruiting away from the transactional day-to-day focus of the number of requisitions filled to a more value-added, strategic role, such as examining the quality of hires and making a correlation between quality and the impact on customer service or sales.
Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) is a form of business process outsourcing where an organization outsources all or part of its recruiting function. As budgets tighten, more organizations are turning to RPO to source, select and on-board employees. Cost-effective solutions scale to business needs, provide expertise in filling hard-to-fill positions, respond to fluctuating hiring volumes and can deliver a better candidate experience, which aids branding efforts.
RPO can be a recession-proof solution because while a company may have reduced recruiters and slowed hiring to contain costs today, it may need resources to fill a significant number of hires six months from now, to meet new competitive demands. With RPO, recruiting is no longer a fixed cost; it`s a flexible operating expense that organizations can scale up or down as business needs dictate.
Over the past several years, RPO has gained momentum as organizations realize that regardless of the economy, they can reduce hiring costs, improve recruiting processes and deliver a competitive edge. Yet, organizations that fail to define their recruitment objectives and business priorities will never realize the full value an RPO solution can deliver. To help organizations drive success from the start, there are best practices talent managers should consider when outsourcing their recruiting functions as well as associated implications for other talent management operations.
RPO Is More Than a Vendor Relationship
One of the biggest changes in RPO in recent years is the movement away from transaction processing to creating a real strategic partnership. Early RPO relationships were focused on non-core recruiting functions and solving particular hiring challenges. Today, RPO is about the effective process management of a business function, not simply filling open positions with available candidates. Essentially, an ongoing recruiting program builds a company`s talent management function. For the best possible outcomes, an RPO vendor should be integrated into the corporate culture as a valued partner.
Companies should establish rigorous metrics and reporting. Historically, organizations that created the best results embraced their RPO provider as an extension of their own operation and culturally integrated it into the company. Companies must commit to giving the RPO relationship the attention it needs. For example, some organizations don`t assign the RPO to a strategically motivated, influential leader such as the vice president of HR or the head of talent acquisition. How the relationship is established and governed is a precursor to success. RPO should have visibility at the higher reaches of the organization because when planned and executed correctly, it offers a serious competitive advantage. Organizations need to position the relationship where it has strategic influence and more visibility across the company.
Companies should clearly define business goals and recruitment objectives at the outset. Rather than an offering of set services and solutions, the RPO relationship should be defined by the company based on business needs. While some organizations may only want an applicant-tracking solution or assessments and sourcing, others may choose to outsource the entire end-to-end recruiting function. For example, does the company need consulting services to facilitate workforce planning? Or, does it need resources to make the entire process from sourcing to screening to on-boarding new hires more efficient? Whether it`s an element of the recruiting process or a full-cycle soup-to-nuts approach, examine business needs and then build an appropriate support model.
Recalibrate metrics that are important to the organization. Many organizations gather huge amounts of data and then do nothing productive with the information. Service-level agreements are part of every RPO relationship, so creating critical metrics is a productive exercise to conduct. Choose two or three key metrics that will enable the organization to not only gather information but make business changes based on the information received. RPO is a good opportunity to move recruiting away from the transactional day-to-day focus of the number of requisitions filled to a more value-added, strategic role, such as examining the quality of hires and making a correlation between quality and the impact on customer service or sales.
