Still posting on job boards and social media and not getting the results you want? Have you ever considered partially or completely outsourcing your recruitment process? You may not have considered RPO (recruitment process outsourcing) and what it can do for you, or in-depth what the benefits of recruitment process outsourcing are. But there’s a hope this post makes you think again. Outlined here are the 10 key benefits of an RPO.
10 Benefits of an RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) Service
Higher Quality & Diversity
Corporate job postings typically receive about 250 applications, though it could touch even a thousand over time if the skill sets are common and hiring difficulty is low. How can you be sure among all the matching resumes that you are getting the right candidate? And if you shortlist a few, then what about the tests to screen them and the interviews that must be conducted?
How do you know what questions to ask and what tests to give, if you have not done it the right way before? RPOs are efficient at managing their talent pipeline and will pick the best from several eligible candidates for you. They will also ensure that there is enough diversity among your future employees.
Shorter Turnaround Time
RPO services are known to reduce hiring time by 25%. This shorter turnaround time means that available time can be devoted to other strategic imperatives the company may have. But how do RPOs achieve this?
They can do this because they have processes in place. They have access to a database of candidates, from which they can quickly select the right one. They have trained personnel who can distinguish great candidates from the rest quickly based on their attitude, behavior and skills.
Scalability & Flexibility
Want to hire someone with a particular skill set and for a shorter duration initially but others on a permanent and regular basis? This kind of flexibility is possible with an RPO provider and the services they provide.
Want to just outsource your initial stages of hiring but want to manage the interviewing and onboarding stages? That is possible too. And in the long run, this allows a business to grow and scale well over time, managing its priorities well.
Lower Costs
The cost of a candidate can also come down remarkably. Here’s how. If you are hiring a candidate as you would from a job board or responses received by email, there is no guarantee you are hiring great talent.
If the person is inexperienced, then you would need to spend on training the candidate. You would also need to spend more time screening and interviewing candidates if you are not experienced in such recruitment. This will in turn lead to higher costs. Outsourcing your recruitment to an RPO company is the best way to reduce such costs.
Innovative Insights & Expertise
A recruitment process outsourcing services provider can also give you insights and opinions that you cannot get otherwise. These insights and opinions are a result of the experience acquired over years and the reliance on technology, which enables one to gather insights based on data analytics.
Such insights could be based on the recruitment processes, interview strategies etc. that the company has been using. RPO services can tell you how to improve on these and suggest ways to improve employer branding and the employee value proposition so you can attract the best talent, by conducting competitor and brand gap analysis.
Monitoring and Reporting
The access to better tools and continuous monitoring of the recruitment process helps make quick changes to it. Such monitoring of the recruitment process helps to identify gaps in it, possible bias, wrong procedures etc. which can be corrected by an RPO service. And the reports and analytics generated will help justify the measures taken to investors and other stakeholders.
The reports might also help decide how the recruitment process can be modified to meet external challenges such as those posed by a pandemic, sudden scarcity of talent, economic distress etc. Predictive and prescriptive analytics can help greatly in such cases.
Better Compliance
Compliance is another big challenge. Recruitment process outsourcing providers might also help meet the compliance needs in recruitment. Do you know how bad it can be if you post a job without the necessary etiquette that it demands?
For instance, if you use language that indicates you have a gender or racial bias or if you quote a salary that is less than the industry average and if it is lower than how much you should be paying as per government legislation, then you could be alleged of being non-compliant.
Reduced Need for Advertising
Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) services can help reduce the need for advertising by attracting candidates through other means. Here are a few ways RPO can reduce the need for advertising:
- Proactive sourcing: Passive candidates, the ones who are most suited for the job, may not respond to traditional job postings. This is because they are working in reputable companies, getting attractive salaries and not necessarily looking for a job change. Using innovative and proactive sourcing strategies alone, one can acquire them for the job. An RPO uses such strategies.
- Ready talent pipelines: RPOs have a database of high-quality candidates they can easily tap into and deploy for job roles in companies. These candidates have the necessary skills and the expertise to do better than the competition.
- Employer branding: Candidates today spend a lot of time researching the companies they will be working for. They want to see that the company is involved in CSR and other initiatives. Strong employer branding will help RPOs attract the right candidates through word of mouth and referrals, both of which are non-advertising techniques of reaching the people.
Increased Employee Retention
One of the main benefits of Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) services is that they can greatly help with retention. Some of the ways RPOs can help with this are by recruiting candidates of high quality and improving the recruitment processes to provide a better candidate experience. Ongoing support provided to recruited candidates can train them on essential skills for the future, sharpen their communication skills so that there is no miscommunication at the workplace, and help them in career development. All these too can in turn lead to higher employee retention.
State-of-the-art Recruitment Technology
The technology that RPOs use enable them to provide a stellar service to their clients. They not only use AI and ML tools that are very advanced but techniques such as gamification to ensure that the candidates hired are top notch and up for any challenge that you may have. The other workforce management tools could also play a big role in recruitment, simplifying things for you. And the support they generally provide is attested to by many and great too.
Conclusion
All that’s well and good, but before you opt for an RPO service, you must first ensure that the company’s business needs are being addressed by them. Discuss your needs in detail, down to what kind of attitude and behavior you expect from the candidates and how the RPO can provide ongoing support to ensure that they keep doing a great job for you. You need to avail the services of an HR company with a great reputation, where dedicated and experienced individuals will manage your recruitment needs.
