How Can an RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) Enhance your Hiring Capabilities?

The business landscape is rapidly changing, and employers must learn to adapt to these changes to stay on top and relevant. Acquiring talent is no longer as easy as it was, a few years ago. 

The global talent shortage has been hard on employers, making it a task for them to find relevant, skill-specific talent.

As an employer, with your business booming, you do not have the time to focus on hiring. With your business expanding, the need to onboard several quality candidates increases. Engaging with only your in-house resources will not just balloon up your hiring costs but can bring in the wrong candidates.

Therefore, it’s best to outsource your hiring requirement to a third-party RPO service provider who can help meet your recruitment needs while managing the costs and giving you hires that can add value to your organization.

What is Recruitment Process Outsourcing?

Recruitment Process Outsourcing is outsourcing your hiring needs to a third-party service provider, who may take up the entire function of the hiring process or a part of it as per your requirements. There are two ways in which an RPO provider would go about this. First, they work as part of an extension of your existing recruiting team, provide them with resources and technology and guide them through the recruitment process. Second, they deploy a whole new team to work with your current team to make the right hiring decisions and regularise the workflows.

Engaging with an RPO service provider will give your company the flexibility to focus on building the organization by channelling the energy to improve business operations rather than administrative work, which is tediously time-consuming.

How Does an RPO Work?

An RPO provider starts by assessing the hiring needs of your organization- the number of candidates, the requirement of skill-specific candidates, the urgency to fill the open positions priority wise etc.

They take up the end-to-end recruitment process- from sourcing to onboarding, or part of it, depending on your demands.

ATS (Applicant tracking system) plays a crucial part in the execution of an RPO process. 

Some RPO partners incorporate an ATS system to give clients access to results and updates about the hiring process.

One significant difference between an RPO and traditional recruiting- candidates sourced and screened in an RPO process are exclusive for one client and not made available for multiple clients.

Signs that you Need to Outsource your Recruitment Needs to an RPO Provider

You may feel that outsourcing your recruitment to a third-party provider can burden you with unnecessary overhead costs. To help you make an informed decision about the same, here are a few factors to consider determining the need for an RPO provider.

• Having trouble hiring suitable candidates efficiently
• Your poor hiring decisions are costing you.
• You have an expanding business.
• You are finding it hard to keep up 100% compliance with labour laws.
• Your internal team is struggling to keep up with your recruitment needs.
• The need for skill-specific candidates to fill positions is growing for your niche industry.

Benefits of Engaging with an RPO Partner

The recruitment process is tedious. Your task of hiring doesn’t end when you get the candidate to accept the offer letter. It is followed by the onboarding process, which has a ton of tasks embedded within. Similarly, every step of the process has its demands and functions embedded in it.

You cannot go by a one-size-fits recruitment strategy. Every company is different and has unique requirements and specific skilled candidates. It is paramount to assess the current market conditions before delving into formulating a strategy.

So, you have a solid strategy in place. But do you have the right set of people or an approach to bring it to life?

This is where an RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) comes in. An RPO provider gives you immediate access to a skilled, experienced recruiting expert who can help execute your strategy at a lower cost per hire. 

Here are a few ways an RPO can guarantee your chances of landing quality candidates-

Analysis of your current hiring process and revamping it into a better one 

An RPO partner will start by analysing the current state of your talent acquisition strategy. When every aspect of the hiring- workforce planning, technology, processes, and people is carefully examined it becomes easy to strategize a desired recruitment strategy for the better future for the organization. 

Target research

Sourcing proper candidates is not just the first step but is also the toughest. Your ideal candidate may not even be looking for a job or be present on the portals. So, how do you source them?

An RPO partner will play by their capabilities to hire you the best ones by sourcing not just active, but passive candidates as well by –

• Identifying your desired candidate profiles
• Identifying places/portals/communities relevant to the profiles
• Creating targeted messages
• Word-of-mouth leverage
• Using the right AI (Artificial Intelligence) to track engagement in the talent pool.

Identify and evaluate

While your sourced profiles may seem great on paper, some may be completely unfit for the role. Identifying those is the next critical step in your hiring process. How can you go about this?

• Screening– Phone and email screenings can be used to learn more about your candidate and their availability.
• Pre-interviews– A consultant can take an initial interview to learn about the candidate’s expectations.
• Assessment– Administration of screening tests to understand the candidate’s suitability. Sometimes personality profiles like DiSC (personal assessment tool to measure a candidate’s preference and behavioural style) may be included during the time of evaluation.

Candidate coordination

Organizing and seeing the light of an interview is a big task. Several coordination challenges are involved while setting up an interview. Being alert at every phase of the interview process is vital if you want to hold on to your potential candidates. What does an RPO partner do to help you transition through this phase?  

• Arrange a suitable time for the candidate to attend the interview.
• Confirm the panel of interviewers.
• Ensure that the candidate is prepared for the next step.
• Communicate any last-minute delays and setbacks.
• Get on with the interview.
• Process any feedback after the interview to decide the next step.
• Stay connected with the candidate post the interview until a decision has been taken.

Designing an attractive offer and negotiation

Now that you have decided on your candidate, you need to sell yourself as the most desirable company or at least that you are better than the competitors if you want them to accept your offer.

How can an RPO partner leverage your best-selling points?

–         Benchmarking the salary– Your salary budget needs to align with the current market averages. An RPO partner will help you put forth an attractive and competitive salary bracket for your candidates, that is also sustainable.

–         Rewards and benefits– Candidates look forward to the extra rewards you can offer them other than compensation aiding their work-life balance, training, and development opportunities etc.

–         Negotiation– As an experienced RPO partner, we understand the art of negotiation and can guide you through any contract negotiations that work best for both parties.

Functional process reviews

You may have the perfect recruitment solution in place. But is it delivering your desired results? An RPO partner uses their tools, technology, and insights to give you valuable input to help reap the benefits of the recruitment solution by –

– Recommending new recruitment technology

– Warning on any process issues that can be a setback

– Suggesting improvements reducing your time-to-hire

Incorporation of ATS to enhance the hiring process

ATS (Applicant Tracking System) can help streamline your hiring process. An RPO partner will help you-

– Choose an ATS that’s perfect for your organization

– Design recruitment processes to help people work with ATS

– Optimize your process to fetch the maximum value

– Auditing of procedures to ensure full compliance

– Train your internal team

Better employer branding and candidate experience

Before applying to your company, candidates look up your company profile in different avenues. Strong digital employer branding will instil a positive attitude about your brand in the minds of candidates. An RPO provider can help by-

• Assessing your current online presence.
• Recommending the right social media channels that can connect you with your target audience.
• Advising on building an attractive, user-friendly careers portal.
• Helping you integrate your online presence with systems such as ATS.
• Creating the best candidate experience, leading to positive reviews on verified and trusted sites like Glassdoor.

Employer branding is particularly important if you want to attract talented candidates.

Conclusion

To see the best results in recruitment you need to make the right plan and see through it, and for that, you need the right people and processes in place. An RPO (Recruitment Processing Outsourcing) consultant can help execute your plan effectively by offering long-term support for your HR (Human Resources) team or offering fixed-term project RPO solutions when you have one-off recruitment needs.

If you are looking to address your talent needs with the perfect RPO solution for your organization, reach out to our experts at Alp Consulting. We will help you attract, engage, and retain the best talent for your team.