A company is only as good as its employees, so if you want to run a successful business, you need to be able to find the best talent. Unfortunately, however, as many as 75% of companies say that they struggle to recruit effectively.
The entire recruitment process is costly and time-consuming, but it's essential. Unless, of course, you hire another company to take care of recruitment for you. This is where recruitment process outsourcing companies come in.
So, what is what is recruitment process outsourcing (RPO), and how can it help your business? Keep reading through this guide to find out everything you need to know.
What Is Recruitment Process Outsourcing?
RPO is a type of service that companies can use to simplify their recruitment processes. They effectively outsource the entire process to a third-party company that will find the most suitable candidates for any positions that a company requires.
An RPO company can do this with minimal input from their client. All you need to do is tell the service provider what you need, and they'll do the rest. This involves finding, screening, and assessing candidates to make sure they'll be a good fit.
RPO is an extension of business process outsourcing, and medium- and large-sized businesses use it the most. This is typically for recruiting top talent in technical or specialized areas, such as enterprise medical recruiting.
Recruitment outsourcing is often most useful in tight labor markets. These markets make it difficult to find suitable talent for specific jobs. Outsourced recruiting can be invaluable if you're focusing on growing your business but struggling to find the right candidates.
How Does It Differ From Regular Recruitment?
Some companies opt for internal recruiting, and while both of these recruitment options can help, there are some differences that will have an impact on the overall results. If you're trying to choose between the two, understanding how they vary will help you make the right choice.
In general, using outsourced recruiting services will make things easier, but your company will also lose a degree of control. As you're handing everything over, you'll be trusting an external company to find the right candidates for you. As such, you should only work with an RPO that you trust.
An internal recruiter will also have a better understanding of your company and its culture. This can make it easier to find candidates that will fit in well. With this in mind, an RPO can still often find better candidates with ease.
What Are the Benefits of RPO?
While there are some benefits to internal recruitment, it's not the best option for many companies. There are several benefits to recruitment process outsourcing services that make it a very effective solution.
Higher Quality Talent
This is perhaps the most important benefit of using an RPO company for contract recruiting. You'll notice a huge difference between hiring the right employee and hiring the wrong one.
As such, you want to get the right one every time. This is especially important in tough markets where there's a lot less talent available.
RPO companies maintain talent pools, so when you contact them with a job you need to be filled, they'll often already have several candidates available. They can then look at these candidates and analyze them alongside your specific requirements to find the ones they think will fit best.
RPO companies will likely have a somewhat different approach to your HR team. As a result, they'll look towards slightly different candidates.
This will help you build a more diverse team. There are several benefits to having a diverse team, so this could help your company even further.
Cost Efficiency
Another key benefit of working with an RPO provider is that it can be a more cost-effective recruitment method. Some companies avoid it as they don't want to pay for such as service, but in the long run, it could actually save your organization money.
Firstly, this is because it takes time and money simply to hire people. Searching for talent, interviewing candidates, and business onboarding all come at an expense. By leaving this to an external company, you can find the talent you need, often at a lower cost.
On top of this, having the most suitable talent will help. They'll be more productive from the start as they'll likely need less training. By finding people who fit in well, you may also experience reduced employee turnover.
When employees leave, you have to go through the recruitment process all over again. If you have quality employees who want to stay for longer, you won't need to use as much time or money finding new ones.
Agile, Scalable Recruitment
In any business, growth is always a goal. One of the downsides of growth is that processes change, and your business needs to be able to adapt.
Hiring is rarely a consistent process. Initially, you'll likely hire employees one at a time and not too often. When your company is larger, you may need to open a new department, for example, and will need to take on a whole new team to fill it.
An RPO company is structured in a way that enables them to serve companies of all sizes. If you experience quick growth and need to speed up recruitment, it would be difficult to manage internally. This won't be an issue at all if you're working with a reliable RPO company like Hire Velocity.
Global Compliance
This may not be the first thing that makes you interested in hiring an RPO company, but it's one of the most important. Employment laws are constantly changing, and if you breach any, your company may find itself in legal trouble.
An RPO company stays up to date with any changes, so they always use the correct processes. This way, you won't have to worry about any compliance issues when it comes to recruitment.
This is even more important if your business expands internationally. Recruitment laws vary by country, making things even more complicated. A global RPO company will maintain compliance within every company it operates in when recruiting new talent.
Reduction in Advertising Expenditure
If you have a new job you need to hire for, you'll need to do some marketing. This will typically involve making listings on job sites, but you might use additional advertising to draw in talent.
This comes at a cost, and it's one you won't have to worry about when working with an RPO company. They may simply use job listings, but if they decide to use advertising too, you won't have to pay any extra on top of the service charge you already pay.
Latest Technology
Things are always changing in the world of recruitment, and the technology involved is a part of this. When hiring internally, your HR team is likely to struggle to keep up with the latest trends and innovations.
RPO companies, on the other hand, will stay on top of this. They need to if they want to keep up with their competitors, so if you're working with a quality RPO company, you can trust they'll be using the best tools available.
This kind of technology can often cost thousands of dollars, so most businesses won't want to invest in it when hiring internally. As RPO companies make use of it constantly, they'll purchase the best software and tools on the market so that they can do their job effectively.
Enhanced Candidate Engagement
Candidate engagement is crucial during the recruitment process. To improve candidate engagement, a company needs to provide a quality CX (candidate experience). This is something that HR companies can work on, but it can be difficult to get it quite right.
It takes a lot of work and can be very time-consuming. This will take HR professionals away from their other tasks, which can have a knock-on effect.
RPO companies have the knowledge and expertise to offer an excellent CX to potential candidates. This will help them attract the top talent for you and can also help your organization have an easier time growing within your industry.
Expert Employer Branding
Employer branding is another vital element that every business should work to improve. Having good employer branding will help you attract and retain talent, and up to 72% of recruiting leaders agree that it has a significant impact on hiring.
Despite its importance, employer branding is often neglected. Many businesses simply lack the in-house expertise to improve it. If this is the case for your company, you could miss out on a lot of potential talent.
Quality RPO companies understand the importance of employer branding, as well as how to optimize it. They'll use their expertise to guide your brand so that you can get to where you need to be. This is especially important in certain industries as some can be harder to brand for than others.
Better Strategic Insight
Running a business involves a lot of strategic decisions, and data science is the foundation of this. HR and internal recruitment teams typically understand this, but there can be several factors at play that might hold them back.
If your HR department doesn't have access to the best technology, they'll be at a disadvantage. Any company with superior technology will have the edge.
Secondly, analyzing important data takes a high level of technical skill. HR professionals don't always have the skills and experience to do this.
On top of this, your company is likely to only have data that relates to your company. This can give you a good view of what's happening internally, but you won't be able to effectively compare it to your competitors.
An RPO company won't have to contend with these issues. They have access to the most advanced technology, and their team will know how to use it properly to perform suitable data analysis.
As they work with other companies, they'll have better insights into your competitors. They can then compare your data to theirs to help them make better-informed decisions.
Efficient Recruitment Processes
Recruitment can be a long and complex process. For larger companies, things only get more complicated as the process can change between departments. This can result in a lack of efficiency, and this leads to wasted time.
A full end-to-end RPO service provider will have a far more efficient approach to recruitment. All hiring will be centralized, and as they work with all kinds of businesses, they'll understand the best practices to use at every stage of the process. This allows them to streamline recruitment and produce the best results for all of their clients.
HR Has More Time
HR professionals typically have very busy jobs, and time is one of their most valuable assets. They have various responsibilities, with recruitment being just one of them. By passing this responsibility on to an RPO company, you'll free up your HR team to take care of other tasks.
When there's a shortage of talent available, the tour HR team will have a hard time finding suitable candidates and will have to spend even more time trying. In many cases, recruitment is the most difficult task that an HR team is responsible for, so hiring a professional RPO service can be incredibly beneficial.
Typical RPO Services
There are three main types of RPO services. The first is end-to-end RPO, which involves all permanent hiring services. It's the most comprehensive option and therefore, the one that offers the most benefits.
Project RPO is another option that uses a similar method to end-to-end RPO but on a single-project basis. This allows for quick deployment and is usually used when a company has an unexpected staffing requirement.
The most short-term solution is on-demand RPO. It involves recruiters joining your team for a short period to quickly secure talent. It's a much faster process but doesn't offer the same benefits as the other solutions.
RPO Services for Your Company
You're no longer asking, "What is recruitment process outsourcing?", but you still might be wondering about the best services for your company. It's important to find a reliable RPO provider who offers all of the services you need.
Hire Velocity is a full-service RPO provider that has won multiple awards over the years. Contact us today to find out more about our services.8
