Making the business case for RPO
How Recruitment Process Outsourcing helps you win in a tough talent world
Introduction
The job of recruitment is more challenging than it’s ever been. Volatility has become the new norm and the traditional ups and downs in hiring demand have become more extreme. At the same time the workforce is shrinking and the rate of change in skills and technologies is accelerating. That means demand for labor is greatly outstripping supply. The result is a highly candidate-driven market where good people get to pick and choose their employers according to an increasingly diverse list of concerns. Are there opportunities for me to progress? Can I work from home when I need to? How serious is this company about reducing CO₂?
In this new, challenging environment, organizations cannot expect to beat competitors to the best talent by sticking to the same old, same old. Instead, they need to take a more strategic, more holistic, and more innovative approach to recruiting and retaining talent.
It’s a big challenge – but it’s not one you need to tackle alone. Through a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) partner, you can access scalable, expert resource to meet hiring demand quickly while still managing your overall cost base. And you can tap into deep expertise in areas such as talent strategy, sourcing, and employer branding so you can implement skills-based hiring, accelerate your internal mobility programs and be at the cutting edge of the latest developments in AI.
Over the next few pages, we look at 7 ways in which a recruitment process outsourcing partner can help your organization optimize its hiring power in an increasingly competitive market to achieve your business objectives.
1. Navigate the market with greater speed and agility
To survive and thrive in the face of fluctuating demand, organizations must become as agile possible – particularly when it comes to recruiting permanent and contingent workers. Only then will they be able to respond quickly enough to changing market conditions, deploying people with the right skills and capabilities, when and where they are needed.
The good news is that RPO partners tend to be masters of scalability.
Most RPO partners will offer you the option of scaling costs up and down in line with demand. In fallow periods, the TA function can be pared back to a core team. Recruiters who are surplus to requirements are transferred temporarily to other clients, ready to return whenever volumes start rising again. This allows the organization to downsize without losing vital skills and capabilities that will be needed in the long term and without damaging your brand.
Some RPO partners are also agile enough to refocus their hiring on different parts of the business or on different skills-sets. So, if your business needs to build a new capability to support a change in strategy, you can react at speed. Those RPO firms with specialist sourcing centers tend to be able to respond to business needs with greater speed and agility. These centers use data and deep market insight to identify, engage and nurture short-, medium- and long-term talent pools.
1. Navigate the market with greater speed and agility
To survive and thrive in the face of fluctuating demand, organizations must become as agile possible – particularly when it comes to recruiting permanent and contingent workers. Only then will they be able to respond quickly enough to changing market conditions, deploying people with the right skills and capabilities, when and where they are needed.
The good news is that RPO partners tend to be masters of scalability.
Most RPO partners will offer you the option of scaling costs up and down in line with demand. In fallow periods, the TA function can be pared back to a core team. Recruiters who are surplus to requirements are transferred temporarily to other clients, ready to return whenever volumes start rising again. This allows the organization to downsize without losing vital skills and capabilities that will be needed in the long term and without damaging your brand.
Some RPO partners are also agile enough to refocus their hiring on different parts of the business or on different skills-sets. So, if your business needs to build a new capability to support a change in strategy, you can react at speed. Those RPO firms with specialist sourcing centers tend to be able to respond to business needs with greater speed and agility. These centers use data and deep market insight to identify, engage and nurture short-, medium- and long-term talent pools.
Case study: Scaling the workforce at speed
When a global e-commerce company meet a sudden spike in demand AMS supported them to hire 175,000 US-based warehouse employees within just six weeks. The company’s internal team wasn’t big enough to cope with the sudden influx of candidates, so we used our scalable model to rapidly assemble and deploy a candidate care team of 35 agents.
2. Recruit for skills
Skills-based hiring has become a hot topic over recent years in response to the talent shortage. Done effectively, it can shine a light on different industries that are ripe with skills-adjacent talent, naturally widening the scope of potential new hires. But, while there has been a lot of talk around the topic, many organizations are struggling with how to get started. An RPO provider can be a close advisor in the journey towards a more skills-focused talent acquisition function.
Here are just four ways an RPO partner can help.
1. Market insights
Skills-based hiring depends on deep market insights. Many RPO partners have dedicated market insight teams that can help you understand what skills are available where and, also uncover the hidden industries and locations where skills-adjacent talent exists.
2. Expert sourcing
Through an RPO partner you have access to specialist sourcing teams who can run sourcing and attraction campaigns based on skills rather than roles, building talent pools of critical skills outside of specific open requisitions. If it’s early days on your journey towards skills-based hiring then outsourcing this as a discreet piece of work can be very effective way to start, freeing up your in-house team to focus on business-as-usual requests.
3. Technology
If you are looking to take a skills-based approach to hiring across your internal and external market, you need the right technology to support you. Luckily, AI-driven technology can now create efficiencies in advertising roles, skills-matching, candidate identification and shortlisting to name just a few. An RPO partner will help you choose and implement this technology or draw on their own proprietary tech to implement this on your behalf.
4. Upskilling and reskilling
Where you can’t find the skills you need, implementing a “recruit, skill and deploy” program has huge advantages and there are RPO providers out there who can support you to do this. At AMS Talent Lab we work with you to identify talent with the right potential, often from underrepresented groups, and equip them with the skillsets you need covering everything from programing to green skills. This not only helps you fill your skills gaps but simultaneously increases the diversity of your workforce.
Case study: Attracting and engaging tech talent
When a multinational bank struggled to attract and engage tech talent, they partnered with AMS to implement a skills-based approach to hiring. We narrowed down over 200 job profiles to 4 key skills; created an updated talent value proposition to specifically target these skills and implemented new sourcing strategies to find and engage the right talent. As a result:
- Time to hire reduced from 65 to 28 days.
- 95% of candidates converted to bench selection.
- Diversity of candidate slates increased.
3. Accelerate internal mobility
Given the realities of the skills shortage, you would expect companies to be turning to their internal workforce to search for talent. Yet internal hiring has been going down. Our Talent Climate report shows that the rate of internal hiring has decreased to 24%. One of the lowest rates we've seen in years.
According to Deloitte the issue is that most organizations are not making it easy for their employees to find new roles. They found that just 6% of companies felt they were proficient at internal talent mobility, while more than half of employees thought it was easier to find a job outside their existing organization than inside.
An RPO partner can help you build and implement an internal mobility program that makes it easy for employees to move around your organization and helps you fill your skills gaps. Their deep understanding of how to deliver an exceptional candidate and hiring manager experience makes them a perfect partner for this role.
At AMS we support 80% of our clients with internal hiring.
Case study: Creating a culture of internal mobility
Prior to the pandemic, this bank’s prevailing approach was to focus on the external candidate market. Many employees found it difficult to seek alternative roles as hiring managers looked externally to find talent.
AMS worked closely with the bank to set up a 'career mobility squad’ to identify and accelerate growth-oriented employees and start creating a positive culture whereby moving roles felt effortless and rewarding. The squad implemented several new innovative ways of increasing internal mobility which led to a:
- 13.5% increase in internal applications.
- 7% increase in internal hiring.
4. Build a compelling employee value proposition
Having a strong, well-defined employee value proposition (EVP) has been linked to everything from decreased attrition to better productivity and bottom-line impact. A CEB study entitled Branding for Influence found that a strong employer brand can raise your quality of hire by 9% and improve applicant pool quality by 54%. According to LinkedIn, companies with stronger employer brands see a 43% decrease in the cost per hire.
The tougher the talent market gets, the more important your EVP becomes. Candidates today are subjecting organizations to ever greater levels of scrutiny. What will they make of your company’s market reputation? How attractive do you appear to them as an employer? These are critical questions that organizations must address if they want to survive and thrive in the current talent market. But data from Aptitude Research shows that less than 50% of recruiters spend time on employer branding or DEI initiatives each week.
Many RPO providers are also employer branding experts. They know how to develop an authentic and compelling EVP – and how to communicate it in a way that will help you stand out from the crowd and attract the top performers in your market. It doesn’t even need to be a costly or time-consuming process. In many cases, the basics are already there – the task is merely to bring your culture to life by engaging with employees, listening to their experiences, and retelling their unique stories to the outside world.
Case study: Establishing a reputation as a top employer
Synchrony, one of the largest issuers of store credit cards in the US was looking to build their team with qualified professionals. They recognized that having a distinct employee value proposition was crucial for achieving standout in a crowded market.
AMS helped them establish their reputation as a top employer by focusing on their culture, telling their unique story, and remaining committed to a strong candidate experience. As a result, they have been able to grow their business significantly while at the same time decreasing cost per hire and cost per application.
5. Create a more diverse and inclusive workforce
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is not an issue – it’s a necessity. Study after study shows that when organizations truly harness the diversity of their workforce, they make better decisions, do smarter, more innovative work, and can financially outperform their peers.
Research also shows that a robust DEI strategy can make an organization a more attractive place to work. According to Glassdoor, more than 3 out of 4 jobseekers and employees (76%) report that a diverse workforce is an important factor when evaluating companies and job offers.
But increasing diversity, equity and inclusion is easier said than done. Despite best efforts, DEI initiatives often fail to deliver promised outcomes. Even when issues are identified and understood, many companies still find it impossible to develop solutions that work.
This is where having a quality RPO partner can make a real difference – because they should have the DEI insights and expertise needed to move the dial.
At AMS, we like to start with a DEI diagnostic, providing clients with an objective view of the current state of diversity, equity and inclusion within their organizations and identifying areas where structures and processes can be improved. We then work with our clients to put those structures into place. We also support our clients to achieve their DEI objectives through inclusive recruiting and by proactively sourcing candidates from under-represented groups.
5. Create a more diverse and inclusive workforce
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is not an issue – it’s a necessity. Study after study shows that when organizations truly harness the diversity of their workforce, they make better decisions, do smarter, more innovative work, and can financially outperform their peers.
Research also shows that a robust DEI strategy can make an organization a more attractive place to work. According to Glassdoor, more than 3 out of 4 jobseekers and employees (76%) report that a diverse workforce is an important factor when evaluating companies and job offers.
But increasing diversity, equity and inclusion is easier said than done. Despite best efforts, DEI initiatives often fail to deliver promised outcomes. Even when issues are identified and understood, many companies still find it impossible to develop solutions that work.
This is where having a quality RPO partner can make a real difference – because they should have the DEI insights and expertise needed to move the dial.
At AMS, we like to start with a DEI diagnostic, providing clients with an objective view of the current state of diversity, equity and inclusion within their organizations and identifying areas where structures and processes can be improved. We then work with our clients to put those structures into place. We also support our clients to achieve their DEI objectives through inclusive recruiting and by proactively sourcing candidates from under-represented groups.
Case study: Building a roadmap for a DEI organization
The DEI diagnostic we conducted for our client, Staples Inc., included an end-to-end review of their TA operations, policies and procedures. We carried out market and competitor research, facilitated interviews with senior leadership, engaged with individuals across the TA and HR teams, and conducted multiple workshops.
Through our diagnostic work, we were able to gain a clear picture of the situation on the ground, understand the processes and technologies the company had in place, and identify obstacles and opportunities associated with hiring diverse talent. This meant we could then provide Staples with a carefully tailored roadmap for sustainable and scalable DEI success.
6. Unleash the power of technology
HR technology brings huge benefits to employers and candidates everywhere – and the dramatic acceleration in the development of AI has opened up new possibilities in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of recruiting. By adopting up-to-the-minute solutions for recruitment marketing, candidate relationship management and assessment, organizations can engage with new generations of digital natives in the ways they expect and prefer. The use of technology to streamline recruitment processes and reduce time-to-hire also allows talent teams to concentrate on higher-value activities, such as engaging with candidates and stakeholders or delivering intelligence, insights and thought leadership.
But the bigger the HR tech market becomes, the more complex it gets – and with so many different solutions available, it can be difficult for HR professionals to identify what trends and technology will really help them get ahead. Many organizations are also struggling to make the most of the technology they adopt. In a recent survey, 60% of recruiters stated that poor integration is the greatest frustration with technology.
Here are three ways your RPO partner can work with you to get the most out of your HR tech:
1. Understand the business problem
What exactly is the problem you’re trying to solve? How can technology add value? Who will be using the technology and how will they be using it? These are all questions a partner can help you answer to find the right solution for your business.
2. Identify the best available technology solution
RPO providers are regularly demoing, rating, and ranking new solutions on behalf of their clients. This gives them deep insight into the HR tech landscape and means they are well-placed to select the technology that will best meet your organization’s needs.
3. Embed the new technology
Finding the right technology is only the start. To get the most out of your solution, you need to make sure it is properly integrated and deployed – and, crucially, you need to bring all the potential users in your workforce fully up to speed with the new technology. This means delivering training to all relevant employees, as well as clearly communicating what’s changing and why.
Case study: Innovating ahead of the competition
We helped McDonald’s become the first organization to provide a voice-activated job search. The custom-built technology has helped to reduce candidate application times and to promote McDonald’s as an innovative employer. It’s just one example of how working with an RPO provider can help organizations beat their competitors to new technology and gain a clear advantage in the talent marketplace.
7. Improve time, quality and cost of hire
Ultimately the objective of every TA leader is to hire better people, faster at a lower cost and this is the primary reason they turn to an RPO partner for help. Most RPO firms work to a clear scope of service with defined SLAs and KPIs such as, improved candidate quality; improved time to hire; reduced costs; and candidate and hiring manager satisfaction rates.
Time to hire
Time to hire is still the most common metric used by TA functions to indicate effectiveness. But despite the heavy focus on this KPI, time-to-hire is on the up. Our Talent Climate series research shows that it’s skyrocketed over the past five years, reflecting the increasingly challenging talent market.
RPO firms use data-led market insights and up-to-the-minute sourcing methods to give you access to a wider and more diverse talent pool. They also put in place streamlined processes enabled by the latest technology. So, you to find and progress the right candidates faster.
Cost to hire
The built-in agility afforded by an RPO partner allows businesses to scale cost up and down in line with demand as well as take advantage of economies of scale, and the ability to leverage lower cost recruiting channels and technology. As a result, organizations typically find that they make significant savings with recruitment process outsourcing.
Quality of hire
You could argue that recruitment is the most important job of HR. If you don’t get the right people through the door, then your development and engagement efforts are wasted.
The right RPO partner will help you find and assess the right talent. They will work with you to develop the right talent value proposition to get in front of that talent. And they will implement an inclusive and engaging candidate experience to keep talent engaged with your brand through to offer and beyond.
Case study: Cutting hiring time in half
This leading banking and financial services group was facing high candidate drop off rates when hiring for admin and clerical workers. They wanted to offer candidates a gold standard digital experience with reduced time to hire and a more efficient process for hiring managers.
AMS partnered with the group to completely transform the application process. We put in a new automated system to drive candidate sourcing and application and a new assessment platform to deliver a branded digital assessment and video interview experience.
- Candidates can now complete 80% of the recruitment process upon application with a screening call the next working day meaning a possible offer within 24 hours of applying.
- Time to hire has reduced from 7 days to 3-4 days.
Conclusion
A world-class RPO partner won’t just get your hiring done. With their insight and expertise, you can continue to attract, recruit, retain and reskill the right people for your business, no matter how tough the talent market becomes.
It’s about building a future pipeline as well as meeting your immediate hiring needs.
It’s about finding talent in places you never thought to look.
It’s about developing and communicating an authentic employee value proposition that attracts the very best talent and creates advocates among existing employees.
It’s about embedding DEI at every level of the organization.
It’s about knowing how to use the latest and greatest technology to streamline your recruitment process and create consumer-level experiences for candidates and hiring managers alike.
Want to find out more about what RPO can do for your business? Whether you are entering a new market, scaling up a team or looking to optimize your whole recruitment process, we have a solution to match.
It starts with a conversation.
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