Making Sense of Outsourcing: The Pros and Cons of RPO Decoded

Is an RPO what you’ve been looking for, or is it too much too soon? We share all the details you need.

A recruiter’s life isn’t always that easy. There’s always an impetus to find the best talent available, understand the line manager’s requirements, and create a steady delivery pipeline of candidates (either via offline or online recruitment channels) who are ‘ideal’ for each position. Often, in the everyday rigmarole of going through resumes and using HR tools to find out who works (and who doesn’t), often ‘interviewing, analyzing, and hiring‘ – the most difficult part of the job – is lost in translation.

This is where Recruitment Process Outsourcing comes into play. Now, how does RPO work? Can it handle the various threads of data, diversity, and cultural interlinking? Here is a quick ready-reckoner of what is RPO, and its basic do’s and don’ts.

Also read: Cielo’s High Volume RPO is Transforming Bulk RecruitmentOpens a new window

What is RPO?

It’s as simple as it sounds: Recruitment Process OutsourcingOpens a new window takes the first level of any hiring initiative, even online recruitment strategies, off your hands, managing all the tedious everyday tasks. RPO will work as per your requirements – it could either work with your current team or offer you ‘ready to hit the floor’ resources. Importantly, an RPO provider will take charge of all the key moving pieces, such as cost-per-hire, hire rate, and employee turnover, making your job much easier.

Typically, RPOs can also offer industry-specific recruitment optimization. PeopleScout, for instance, is a leading RPO with a solution that’s specific to healthcare. “The shortage of clinical and non-clinical talent for unfilled healthcare roles will soon hit a crisis level. Our deep healthcare expertise combined with our unrivaled delivery capabilitiesOpens a new window and game-changing technology, enable us to partner with our clients more effectively than any other firm in our industry,” claims Taryn Owen, President at PeopleScout.

RPO and all its Pros & Cons

In simplest terms, an RPO plan and the associated HR tools are dependent on your capabilities and your specific hiring needs. If your hiring volume is low and your internal team is strong enough to handle the same using a few competent HR tools, you shouldn’t opt for RPO. However, for most companies, the issue isn’t with the numbers. It’s about taking over all those menial tasks and letting you focus on what matters.

Also read: IBM Acquires RPO Provider & Other Top Moves in the SegmentOpens a new window

• To begin with, RPO is a cost-sensitive solution. There will be genuine savings, and multiple job requests can be filled and screened holistically via dedicated online recruitment systems, with the RPO provider ready to optimize the entire process.
   
• An RPO provider will have the precious specialized market knowledge, linking your needs to that cross-section of the market which suits you best, making hiring faster, reducing project delays, and matching the right candidate to the most fitting compensation package. PeopleScout’s parent company, for example, recently acquired UK-based RPO and employer branding firm TMP HoldingsOpens a new window to extend their capabilities. This allows you to access services for a globally dispersed workforce, using a single vendor.
   
• An RPO provider will help you attain the scalability you need. No matter your pace of growth, with an expert RPO vendor, you can push the pedal gradually, even as your service partner imbibes the essentials of your organizational culture and brand identity. An RPO provider will have access to all the talent out there using extensive online recruitment databases – not just filling current positions, but creating a ready talent pool, which can be used in the present or for future necessities.

  If scalability is a priority at your organization, Cielo’s RPO model is a great alternative, with their BOT (or Build-Operate-Transfer) specifically meant to help small companies ramp up recruitment efforts during initial stages, but eventually move the entire structure back in-house.
   

• Needless to say, you will be able to realign your efforts to more strategic tasks: interviewing high-value candidates, building relationships, and understanding if the applicant can find the genuine intersection with your company culture.
   
• RPO providers will also offer data and reports on online recruitment patterns, key numbers and important trends, the efficacy of the HR tools used, and other insights to streamline how you approach the marketplace.

Also read: Is Your Organization Talent-Mature? Deloitte’s data tells you why this is so criticalOpens a new window .

Let’s now glance through some of its possible cons:

• Data security could be a possible challenge area, and it’s critical to carefully select an RPO provider you can trust with security-enabled HR tools.
• Often, RPO providers are a little too focused on the numbers game, leading to bulk resumes as opposed to a sustained convergence on quality. Clearly outline your SLA’s to avoid any ambiguity in this regard.
• As a leader, you’d want to keep the reins of the offline/online recruitment process in your hands. The loss of control is another factor that might be worrisome and should be stringently looked into, before inking partnerships. A solution like Cielo can help counter this, with the flexibility to “transition back the day-to-day recruitment operations management when the program reaches steady state performance.”Opens a new window

Also read: 5 ways hiring software helps you comply with the EEOCOpens a new window

Research is the golden word

There’s no other way to go about this. Read, ask around the community, and identify the best in the business, and an RPO provider who doesn’t just offer a recruiting toolbox – but can architect a genuine partnership. This will help you find a solution you have faith in, and which works perfectly for you. So, get ready, and go forth!