The Speedy Guide to RPO

3. So many acronyms!

The term RPO is often used as an umbrella phrase for several different types of recruitment outsourcing solutions. While all the solutions are flexible, there are certain elements that allow you to distinguish different types and approaches:

RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) - typically the management of the end to end permanent recruitment process on behalf of an organisation. It’s multi-year and includes the review of the recruitment process and the provision of the right technology at the right time.

Project RPO / ROD (Recruiter On Demand) - for short-term needs, the end-to-end management of the recruitment process can be delivered, but using the organisation’s existing technology and processes. Fast to implement and normally up to 12 months in term.

MSP (Managed Services Programme) - similar to RPO; but refers to temporary workers. If you’re looking to outsource the hiring and management of your contractors, MSP could be the right choice.

TTA (Total Talent Acquisition) aims to help organisations solve urgent or mission-critical hiring challenges, whether permanent or contractual. We integrate and streamline your talent strategy for full oversight and strategic advantage.

4. Which elements of the TA function are handed over to the RPO provider?

Well, that’s really up to you. The ‘classic’ end-to-end RPO model usually includes every step of the recruitment process, from strategic planning to onboarding talent, including background checks, but some organisations prefer the RPO provider to focus on sourcing and screening, feeding qualified, interested and available longlists into the existing internal TA team.

What expertise will an RPO provider bring?

Here are some typical areas you should expect your RPO provider to help with

• Workforce planning - liaising with the hiring community to map anticipated hiring over the next month, 3 months or more
• Recruitment process optimisation - refreshing the end-to-end process to create an experience for candidates that helps them choose your organisation over a competitor
• Technology strategy - complimenting your existing tools, bringing high-impact point solutions into key parts of the recruitment process
• Talent access strategy - combining and automating multiple routes to the candidate market
• Micro EVPs - refining the messaging to specific target groups whilst maintaining the global EVP
• AI resilient screening & assessment - making sure that you can assess the true potential of the applicants
• Compliance - to local legislation and regulations
• Data & insights - bringing information such as talent supply and demand, behaviours within candidate communities and candidate expectations that combine to help position you as the employer of choice
• Reporting - clear visibility of performance against key criteria that will be the foundation for objective conversations with your provider and internal stakeholders.
• Continuous improvement - what worked last quarter might not work this quarter! Large and small-scale innovations will keep you at the forefront of the talent market and your hiring managers happy.

5. How can you measure the performance of your RPO programme?

Start by agreeing on clear Key Performance Indicators (KPI). These should be aligned with your wider business objectives, as this will help you to evaluate the RPO performance in the context of your overall business strategy. Measure service levels against each key performance indicator and expect your RPO provider to deliver weekly, monthly and quarterly reports on the service levels achieved.

Some of the most commonly used KPIs in RPO are:

• Agency usage
• Time to hire
• Cost per hire
• Quality of hire
• CV to interview ratio
• Interview to offer ratio
• Offer to acceptance ratio
• Diversity of candidates
• Employee referral to hire ratio
• Hiring manager and candidate satisfaction

This data will help to identify trends in the delivery of the service. It will focus both parties on how to intervene early to improve service levels and it will provide good news stories that can be celebrated internally as proof that the Talent Acquisition function is industry-leading.

6. How to choose your RPO provider.

Give us a call or drop us an email and we’ll walk you through the process.
Meanwhile, you can read this article or have a look at this summary

Assemble a cross-functional team of stakeholders who share the ambition to re-imagine Talent Acquisition. Our suggestion for the core team is:

• HR Leader
• TA Leader
• Business Unit Heads
• Finance/ Procurement Category Manager

Agree what the goals of outsourcing are., What will a successful service look like for your organisation?

• Cost reduction
• Faster recruitment process
• Less time demand for hiring managers

Gather data that will help RPO providers design the right solution for you:

• Over the course of the last 12 to 24 months, how many new employees did you hire?
• Where were these roles based? What was the salary range for each? What was the discipline or specialisation of each position?
• Is your hiring dependent on seasonality? Do you notice any spikes in hiring within certain periods?
• What is your average annual employee attrition?
• What do your hiring managers currently think of your hiring process? Is there anything that you know of that they would like to see changed?
• What about your candidate experience, your employer brand, and EVP? Are you expecting to see any improvements in these areas?

Answering these questions will help you better understand what you’re looking to achieve through your work with an RPO provider. You will then be better positioned to ask for specific information and quickly filter out potential partners based on their capacity to meet your particular requirements.

Final thoughts…

You don’t have to do this alone! Talent Acquisition is an area we are passionate about, and we love having conversations with people interested in different ways of approaching a universal challenge - how to find the right people to join an organisation quickly and in a more human way.

Contact us here….