no matter what your need, there is an outsourced solution to address your talent challenges
Organizations battling talent scarcity increasingly want smarter, more efficient, and more cost-effective ways to manage talent, recruitment, and workforce planning. Many are discovering that recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) may be the most effective way to achieve their goals. However, what’s not clear to many talent acquisition leaders is how an RPO can address the specific and unique needs of their organization.
Fortunately, RPO comes in many forms to support an array of needs. Two of the great advantages of RPO are flexibility and scalability, which enable solution providers to accommodate just about every workforce situation. Furthermore, through economies of scale and deep investment in technology and domain expertise, global providers such as Randstad Sourceright can deliver recruitment service more cost effectively than clients’ internal programs.
The questions clients often ask include: “I have a short-term need that could turn into a long-term need. How can an RPO address it as soon as possible,” or “I don’t want to invest in a full, end-to-end RPO model just yet. What are my options?”
Below are some of the common solutions we deliver. By examining the benefits and challenges of each, you will get a better understanding of which recruitment solution is best suited for your needs.
End-to-end RPO
benefits:
- reduced recruitment costs. Many companies have high recruitment costs to cover recruitment agencies, job boards, lengthy hiring processes, and candidate database management. An RPO significantly reduces costs by streamlining the entire end-to-end process.
- centralized recruitment function. By utilizing our experienced recruitment team, clients create a centralized recruitment function to ensure governance and control. We implement a layer of governance across our on-site teams to meet the contracted service level agreements.
- employer branding. A centralized recruitment function in place ensures that all candidates have the same experience when they apply for a position. A candidate’s first impression is often the one that they will take away and share with their friends, family, colleagues, and peers.
challenges:
- time to implement. A full RPO implementation can be quite involved. Implementation may take 3-6 months (depending on program size), and while we can deploy our experienced teams on-site very quickly, a lot of the work resides internally.
- change management. Managing change is always a challenge even for the most experienced managers. Hiring managers who are used to managing their own recruitment, agencies, and processes may resist an RPO. Similarly, if there is an existing TA team in place, change management around this can be daunting and confronting.
- cost. While putting an RPO in place will definitely save the business on long-term costs, in the short term there is an upfront implementation cost related to process optimization, investment in technology, transitioning from using agencies, training, and time.
Recruiter on Demand (ROD)
A recruiter on demand solution is a different type of recruitment model. Typically, this model involves providing clients with trained resources to assist in managing short- or long-term recruitment needs.
benefits:
- time to implement. The ROD can be quickly implemented. We are able to deploy existing resources or quickly find new resources, train them, and place them on-site with the client and with minimal downtime.
- reduced recruitment costs. Similar to an RPO model, an ROD solution is scalable and cost-effective. However, unlike an RPO, an ROD lacks a layer of governance on top so the roles and responsibilities are all managed by the client.
challenges:
- governance. An ROD model does not contain any governance in terms of escalations and management of under-performing on-site consultants; clients are strictly responsible for day-to-day management of these resources. While they can ask for replacements if they aren’t satisfied with the performance, it is the client’s responsibility to supervise these recruiters.
- account management. Key performance indicators, process management, reporting and analytics, a dedicated team to manage fluctuations of volumes, stakeholder engagement, supplier management, and training and onboarding of consultants are typically NOT part of an ROD engagement. It is strictly a “no frills” approach to recruitment and should be considered only if a recruitment process exists.
Project RPO
We are often approached by potential clients to manage their project recruitment requirements that exceed existing hiring requirements. It’s an effective way to quickly support special talent needs.
benefits:
- time management. Project RPO can quickly lead to new hires or be deployed to provide on-site support for the length of the project. It also comes with all the benefits of a traditional RPO model governance and account management.
- quality. Because we have a diverse pool of recruiters and a strong pipeline of recruiters that we meet with on a daily basis, we ensure clients have access to the highest-quality candidates for any project. This can often be a challenge for our clients to hire quality candidates at short notice.
challenges:
- timelines. Due to the tight timeframes around project recruitment, implementation sometimes may take longer than what the clients expect. It’s important to manage expectations to provide a realistic view of what is achievable despite the client’s urgency.
