Great! You are considering recruitment process outsourcing as a possible solution to your current recruiting pains! Doing things the way they’ve always been done or doing things the way that others have always done it is no longer working, and you need an alternative. However, is RPO the best solution for your company recruiting issues? That depends on what those issues are, and what you would want from an RPO provider. Here’s how to find out if RPO is really for you:
- Your HR Department Doesn’t Have the Time (or Staff) to Recruit – It would seem that recruiting would be just another part of the job for your HR department, but also consider that your HR staff also has to sort through resumes, interview people, write job descriptions, conduct orientation for new employees etc. They don’t exactly have the time to seek out potential candidates on social media or to build an employment brand. The HR department isn’t necessarily the same as the recruiting department, while RPO is all about the recruiting process. Let each entity do what they do best.
- You’re Wasting Money with Recruiting Companies –The two biggest problems with recruiting companies are that the fees can add up if you need to recruit a ton of people, and that their services will often go to the highest bidder. Keep in mind that a recruiting company isn’t the same as an RPO company, and that an RPO company won’t go away if someone is willing to pay more for the same thing. An RPO company won’t also charge extra if your recruiting needs change or fluctuate throughout the year. Recruitment process outsourcing is for you if you want a solution that will scale with you, or a solution that can deliver more results for fewer dollars.
- You’ve Started (or are Planning to Start) an Internal Recruiting Group – Not only have you further strained your HR department by having them hire recruiters for your company, but you’re also now investing in technology, office space, additional employee benefits etc. and hoping that this internal recruiting group will do a better job at finding the talent you so desperately need. If you’re doing this, or are thinking about doing this, then you definitely need RPO. It’s one thing to create an internal recruiting group from scratch, but it’s another thing to have outside expert help in building it, such as an RPO provider.
- You Need to Make Significant Infrastructure Changes – If the problems with your recruiting process are more than “we need more HR staff” or “we simply need better candidates”, then an RPO provider is a good fit to fixing your problems and to setting up your company for better recruiting success. By problems, we mean technology upgrades, or a lack of metrics/accountability to measure success, or dissatisfaction among your current hiring managers in how things are done. Often, these problems are signs that significant infrastructure changes need to be made, which changes easier made with the help of recruitment process outsourcing.
However, recruiting process outsourcing is not for you if you simply want to reduce recruiting costs. Although that is a benefit of RPO, it’s often the only metric companies have in measuring recruiting success, and the company really needs to take a step back and to figure out what is really wrong with their recruiting process. Sometimes, a company can reduce recruiting costs by figuring that out and then taking steps in the right direction. RPO isn’t to be seen as a way to offload your recruiting problems to someone else, or to simply find a cheaper way to do things.
