Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) is a custom recruiting solution that can take many different forms. Some RPO solutions focus on individual pieces of recruiting, like candidate sourcing or interviews, and while other companies prefer to outsource their entire recruiting function to an RPO provider. What the RPO solution looks like depends on the needs of the client, and therefore an RPO program can grow and change over the course of the provider-client relationship.
To illustrate how RPO solutions can adapt to changing client needs, we’ll take a look at how an example of a program developed by a leading RPO Provider, Yoh. From a limited engagement to a fully outsourced, end-to-end recruiting solution, we’ll touch on what went into building this program based on a previously recorded RPOA webinar entitled “Practical RPO: Getting Real Benefits from an RPO Solution.”
A recent client of Yoh in the global manufacturing sector had been tackling cost efficiency issues in their recruiting processes. While the client had a robust recruiting department already in place, equipped with 20 recruiters who were each responsible for over 700 annual hires, there was a great deal of fluctuation in the frequency of hiring requests. Hiring could see as much as a thirty percent difference from year-to-year.
The client brought in Yoh to create cost efficiencies. However, due to the close relationships that existed between the recruiters and the hiring managers, they did not want to outsource the entirety of their recruiting functions as to not disrupt the recruiter-to-hiring manager relationship.
The initial scope of the RPO engagement was that the company would continue with their internal recruiting program, and that Yoh would provide the following:
- Job Placements & Digital Advertising
- Candidate Sourcing
- Administrative Support
However, the needs of the client evolved as the program matured. The manufacturing company acquired another business that did not have as robust a recruiting program as the client did, and so the client turned again to Yoh for assistance. Yoh proposed that they switch to a scalable recruiting model for the newly-acquired organization. This would enable the new organization’s recruiting capabilities to expand and retract as needed without adding additional cost to unneeded or unused infrastructure.
As the company continued its expansion efforts, they were faced with a new problem: internal turnover. In addition to expanding their advertising, sourcing, and administrative work and scaling it to the new organization, Yoh also provided a direct, hiring manager-facing recruitment solution as well to satisfy internal hiring needs. Near the end of the program, the client ultimately decided to fully outsource recruiting with an end-to-end program-based solution as a result of the cost-savings benefits and newly develop streamlined processes brought on by the RPO program.
Over the course of the RPO relationship, the client’s recruiting function transformed from a fully in-house recruiting model to a flexible outsourced model that was more process-efficient and less costly than their previous recruiting infrastructure. As the client’s needs changed, the RPO provider worked with them on a consultative level to adapt the RPO program and provide more value under the new circumstances.
In addition to the changes the client company experienced, what helped Yoh expand the RPO solution for the client was the excellent work that they did in the initial stage, under the more limited program. Yoh’s success in providing immediate savings and streamlining the recruitment structure proved their value to the client, making them the natural RPO provider to turn to when greater recruiting needs arose.
