Recruitment process outsourcing services can meet a lot of needs. They can help you find great candidates for hard-to-fill positions. They can augment your current recruiting efforts during the busy season. They can help put together a recruiting funnel that will meet the needs of a growing company. However, they can't do everything. Below are the situations when RPO services aren't the answer to your problem, when they simply aren't for you.
Occasional Needs, Needs You Can't Quantify or Qualify, or Simple Headhunting Needs
"The structured process and the way that an RPO provider should be accountable for... setting up a process and making sure it meets the needs that has defined metrics means that it's not really about occasional needs or the ones you can't really qualify," said Matt Rivera, Director of Customer Relations at Yoh.
Rivera clarified that even though RPO is not an exact science, you need the data to be able to set goals and to measure progress. As with quantify, Rivera said that's about knowing why you want RPO, what you want to achieve, or want to improve your recruiting process in the first place. This is incredibly important since metrics are needed to show the client that progress has been made and the the client is receiving his/her money's worth for the service. They are also needed for payment i.e. a fee per hire. Both provider and client would need to know the number of hires made each month/payment period so that the total fee is known.
You (or HR Department) is Not Comfortable with Outsourcing or Change
"If outsourcing is not your thing, or if it's not going to be acceptable for your HR department or your culture, then it's probably not going to work really well," Rivera advised. "In the larger... full cycle, you're going to be outsourcing it. In order for the RPO provider to sign up for the [service level agreements] and the metrics, they are going to need to control of the process and the things that go into it."
This would also include executive buy-in and support. For recruitment process outsourcing to solve some, or all, of your recruiting woes, a provider would need the support of everyone in HR and above you. RPO is a partnership; it's much more than purchasing a service or handing off certain duties. Without full buy-in and support, the partnership is going to fail and nothing will get accomplished.
Limited Help for a Completely Broken Process
RPO is not the silver bullet for something that is completely broken, especially if you don't have a clue as to what's going on or what you're doing today in your recruiting process. Although an RPO provider can serve as a consultant, Rivera said that if you don't have what you need in terms of human resources and compliance, then RPO isn't going to solve your problems.
"You can't just buy the sourcing process and feed that into a broken process on the other end," he said. "It's not going to work."
If none of these reasons apply, and recruitment process outsourcing IS for you, then watch our hour-long webinar on the core RPO services. Learn the different services that are available, and which services are the best fit for your company and your needs. View the webinar below to get started.
Related Links:
Not Your Grandmother's Recruitment Metrics
Setting up for success: What to prepare for when selecting with an RPO partner
