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By: Helios on March 22nd, 2023

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Could an RPO Recruiter Help Your Business?

Talent Acquisition

Success is all about having the right processes. Companies need the right procurement process for buying equipment, the right sales process for converting customers, and the right customer service process for building lasting relationships.

Recruitment is now different. Your ability to build a team depends on your recruitment process—the step-by-step routine you use to bring in fresh talent. Like any business process, you can hire consultants to advise, assist, or manage the entire process from end to end. This is known as Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO).

RPO recruiting can transform the way you hire. Whether you need to fill a gap in your HR team or manage large-scale project recruiting, RPO can help. In this piece, we’ll talk about how RPO can support your business.

So, what is RPO recruiting?

The Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association (RPOA) defines RPO recruiting as “a form of business process outsourcing (BPO) where an employer transfers all or part of its recruitment processes to an external provider."

In practice, this means forming a partnership with an RPO service provider. Your RPO consultant works closely with you, filling much the same role as an in-house recruitment expert.

Your RPO recruiter can help with any part of the hiring process, including:

  • Overseeing individual recruitment tasks, from writing the job description to onboarding the new hire
  • Managing large-scale hiring projects when you need to build a new team
  • Developing more efficient recruitment processes
  • Applying industry best practices to your human capital strategy
  • Automating processes with recruiting technology, such as applicant tracking systems
  • Coaching and training your in-house recruitment team

An RPO recruitment expert will help you get better results from your current hiring process. That provides long-term benefits to your business—even after your RPO consultant has moved on.

How is RPO different from other forms of talent acquisition?

Unlike traditional recruiting methods where companies use staffing agencies or contract recruiters to fill vacant positions, RPO providers become a collaborative partner with the company. They work as an extension of the company's HR team, sharing desks and attending team meetings to gain as much knowledge as possible on the company's culture, work style, and communication methods.

An RPO consultant will:

  • Focus on improving your recruitment process
  • Make your hiring needs their priority
  • Work with you through every step

Typical recruiting agencies, on the other hand:

  • Deliver an on-demand service according to your needs
  • Have simultaneous clients they prioritize according to internal factors
  • Give you resumes, but leave the hiring up to you

A recruiting agency can be very useful, especially if your human resources team is already full of recruitment experts and you only need help with talent sourcing. However, if you want to see more value from your hiring process, you might consider an RPO provider.

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What are the benefits of an RPO recruiter?

RPO consultants are focused entirely on your hiring process. Their goal is to help your organization build the team you need to deliver your hiring strategy, and they aim to do that as efficiently as possible.

Not only that, but they also deliver lots of other tangible advantages, including:

  • Less pressure on hiring managers: Outsourcing recruitment means that your leaders will spend less time on recruitment tasks, which allows them to focus on core business.
  • Results-based approach to hiring: RPO recruiters are concerned about more than just putting bodies at desks. They also look at things like cost-per-hire, time-to-fill, and long-term retention for new hires. Part of their goal is to help you improve those metrics over the long term.
  • Holistic approach to recruitment: Other recruitment services will typically look at one type of hiring solution—for example, a staffing agency will source candidates from their own talent pool. RPO recruiters look at all available options, including temp-to-hire arrangements and internal recruitment.
  • Broad experience: RPO recruiters move between lots of companies, which means they have seen the hiring methodologies used in other companies. They can apply their knowledge to your recruitment process and help you find new efficiencies.
  • Flexible arrangements: Working with an RPO consultant is like having an in-house recruitment expert, but with one key difference. Your RPO recruiter is on a flexible agreement, which means that you have the scalability to support your current needs. You can also look at Project RPO when you need to manage a high-volume hiring initiative.

Why should you use RPO Recruiting?

The success of any organization depends on its employees, and finding the right candidates who embody the company's culture and work ethic requires a strategic, relationship-based approach.

An RPO recruiter can help companies achieve this by providing a collaborative partner dedicated to delivering the best talent pool available. With their advanced recruitment tools and techniques, RPO recruiters can optimize recruitment strategies, reduce costs, improve the candidate experience, and lower the overall time-to-fill.

What are the benefits of Recruitment Process Outsourcing?

Recruitment Process Outsourcing offers several benefits that can help organizations build world-class team. First, it allows companies to focus on their core business while the RPO recruiter takes care of their recruitment needs. Second, it provides a collaborative partner who is committed to making the best decisions for the company's growth, success, and culture. Third, it offers advanced recruitment tools and techniques to optimize recruitment strategies, reduce costs, and lower the overall time-to-fill. Fourth, it offers lower fees than traditional recruitment methods.

Is RPO recruiting worth the cost?

RPO solutions do have a price tag, and it’s often more expensive than other talent solutions like contingency recruitment.

However, as with any price analysis, you need to consider all of the associated costs to see which is the best option. Recruitment costs to consider include:

  • Advertising: Publicizing your current vacancies can get expensive, especially if you’re targeting the wrong people. RPO recruiters can help you focus your ad spend on the right audience.
  • Screening and interviews: Interviewing can eat up productivity, as hiring managers have to clear their calendars to meet applicants. RPO consultants will help you to design an efficient, well-organized interview process that cuts down the total time-to-hire.
  • Lost productivity: An open position means lower productivity. Your team is at least one person short, which means that other team members have to fill the gap. Reducing your time-to-hire will help you get back to maximum productivity as soon as possible.
  • Failed hires: What happens if your new hire doesn’t work out? It means returning to the beginning of the hiring process, which doubles the total cost of hiring—not to mention the time and effort wasted on onboarding and training.
  • Process inefficiencies: An under-optimized hiring process will cause your business to waste money every single time you hire. For example, if you miss a potential cost saving of $1,000 and you hire 100 people, you will have wasted $100,000. An RPO consultant could help you find those efficiencies, offering substantial long-term savings.

These are just some of the things to consider when pricing a recruitment solution.

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