The Six Steps of RPO Implementation

Once you’ve developed an internal involvement plan and selected an RPO provider, it’s time to implement your RPO solution. In this post, based on the RPOA webinar “RPO Implementation: Laying the Ground Work for Success” presented by Ryan Baca, vice president of About Talent, and Heather McGotty, the director of Human Resources at Welch’s, we take a detailed look at the six steps of RPO implementation: pre-planning, discovery, solution design, pre-launch, launch, and post-launch.

Step 1: Preplanning Stage

During the pre-planning stage, the client and provider work together to determine the resources and constraints that exist within the client’s organization. That comes through in both the RFP process but also through some initial follow-up. Heather McGotty of Welch’s observed that during Welch’s RPO implementation, pre-planning actually took the bulk of the time, as her company made sure that the vendor had every piece of information that could be relevant.

Step 2: Discovery Stage

Once the resources and barriers within the company have been identified, the RPO provider and client have a discovery session that maps out the desired process for the RPO solution. This process will inform and support many of the design elements of the solution.

Step 3: Design Stage

After all of the information has been gathered from the pre-planning and discovery stages, the provider can start to design an RPO solution that will best fit the client’s needs and work to mitigate their barriers and constraints. According to Ryan Baca of About Talent, this is the stage where the client and provider go “how can we both work together to achieve the desired result?” This stage also determines the technologies and roles that will support the RPO process. Baca points out that “often during the design phase, a client and service provider will create an inventory of tools and where there is overlap, where gaps exist, and how to address those gaps.”

Step 4: Pre-Launch Stage

This stage is the testing ground before the official launch. During the pre-launch stage, all technologies and processes that will go into the execution of the RPO plan will be tested to see if they are in working order and ready to go. Providers can also use a tool called a preparation plan to ensure that the testing is thorough.

Step 5: Launch

During the launch, the provider and client actually execute all of the technologies and processes that they spent the first four stages planning for and testing. According to Baca, “ideally the launch should be as uneventful as possible” (Baca) since everything should have been tested and deemed ready to go beforehand, during the pre-launch stage. McGotty concurred, saying that, “by the time you get to launch and execution it should be a non-event.”

Step 6: Post-Launch

The post-launch stage lasts the duration of the RPO engagement. Though it is often overlooked, it can be an “invaluable element of continuous improvement and customer satisfaction,” says Baca. During this stage, the vendor oversees the operation of the RPO solution to determine if anything needs to be adjusted or improved.

These six steps for implementing an RPO solution last the life of the project, from the moment a client selects the RPO vendor to the end. While these six steps are a recommendation for best practices rather than absolute law, Baca says that “an RPO provider should subscribe to some form of implementation methodology.” The detail and effort that go into a successfully executed RPO solution should not be underestimated. McGotty calls her experience of working with About Talent to implement an RPO solution “a validation of how much planning it takes to get things done,” and emphasizes that “it really does take a lot of preparation on both sides.”