The Benefits of Outsourcing Your Recruitment (RPO)

Benefits of Recruitment Outsourcing

Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) has been in the spotlight over the last few years as many large organisations recognise the benefits of embracing the solution. Organisations are once again growing and expanding and this requires a much more sophisticated approach to sourcing, attracting and hiring top talent as well as retaining your high performers.

It’s not just larger organisations though that can benefit from outsourcing some or all of their recruitment process.  Small to medium sized organisations are actively embracing recruitment outsourcing as a means to gaining competitive advantage. With the advancements in technology, job boards and social media recruiting it should (in theory) be easier to track down new candidates.  However, it is actually becoming more difficult to find, attract and engage with new talent.  The demand for these skilled individuals is increasing and this gives candidates an advantage when it comes to considering a career move.

There is an increasing trend these days to gather and analyse data to make business decision (analyse trends, forecast and predict the future and measuring the effectiveness of the recruitment process).  RPOs particularly are embracing metrics to measure the effectiveness and quality of the recruitment process.  Despite the many different types of metrics (hiring manager feedback timeliness, ageing requisitions, CV to interview ratio, interview to offer ratio, offer acceptance, retention, etc.) there are two metrics that consistently remain in most management information packs – cost per hire and time to hire.

Reduced Costs

Costs remain one of the biggest factors in making business decisions – whether it is direct or indirect costs (operational costs = cost per hire or costs impacting revenue and profitability = time to hire).

Recruitment costs are significant even if you get it right first time.  Equally having an empty seat can be costly to the business in terms of lost revenue, productivity and often increases pressure and demand on the existing team.

• Direct Costs: Direct costs usually relate to the cost of advertising and recruitment agency fees for placing a candidate.  The cost of advertising has considerably dropped over the last decade as a result of social media and advertising on-line.  However, it can dramatically increase the amount of time spent managing the high numbers of applications received.  Recruitment Agency fee’s can be deemed expensive however needs to balanced out against the demands on the business from attempting to delegate to line managers and the inherent risks this can bring.
• Indirect Costs:  The recruitment process can potentially be an administrative burden.  Larger organisations may have sophisticated Vacancy and Candidate Management Systems or Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) in place to automate a lot of the applicant tracking process and administrative tasks.  However, even an “off the shelf” system can cost thousands to implement and that’s before it’s been configured to fit the existing business processes and ongoing technical support.  So for smaller businesses this just isn’t a viable cost for a relatively low number of vacancies.  So the administration tends to be handled manually and this can be incredibly time consuming.

Time Savings

Time is money in business and no more is that relevant than the recruitment process.  Organisations tend to focus on the direct costs (Advertising costs or Agency Fees) but neglect to measure the considerable indirect costs relating to the recruitment process.

For smaller businesses that don’t have systems, processes or an in-house recruitment expert on hand with market knowledge then the indirect expenses can have a significant impact on core business activities.  Considering most recruitment is also time sensitive and often reactive it can be difficult to plan the time appropriately into an already busy diary.  Recruitment often has to take priority over other “business as usual” activities as there’s usually an urgent need to replace the leaver.

The benefits of outsourcing can be significant particularly for the small to medium business that may not have the resources larger organisation have access to.  Simply having one point of contact can reduce the amount of time spent setting up the recruitment process and managing the administration (advertising, CV screening, candidate management, interviewing and negotiating the offer etc.)

• High Street Recruitment Agencies: If you distribute your vacancy to several agencies, it will take you time to brief them all properly, time to answer all their queries and questions throughout the process.  If you do not spend this time briefing the agents properly you are likely to get higher volumes of CVs that don’t match your criteria and therefore, you’ll have lots more screening out to do even before you get to the interview stage.  It’s also likely there’ll be a CV race between the agencies and again you’ll receive a higher number of candidates that don’t necessarily match the criteria.
• Direct Advertising: If you advertise direct you’ll receive lots of calls from both interested candidates and also recruitment agencies wanting your business.  You’ll then need to manage the applications and candidates throughout the process and ensure they are properly and appropriately informed at every stage.  Without a system as mentioned above this is very time consuming.  Every interaction or lack of communication is impacting your brand and reputation – so it’s important the process is managed fairly, objectively and consistently.

Recruitment Process Outsourcing is concerned with building long term relationships and a strong partnership with the client.  They will spend time understanding the organisations brand, employment proposition, culture and their hiring needs.

Select the right RPO for your business and you’ll benefit from years of sector experience and knowledge, gain timely access to valuable and current market intelligence and competitor information and benefit from a fast and efficient service without the cost of implementing or maintaining a sophisticated system.

 

Careerz Limited, based in Canterbury, offer specialist recruitment services across Kent, London and the South East. Services include permanent and contract recruitment and recruitment process outsourcing(RPO).

For further information, please call John Adams on 01227 656 888 or or 0208 0990 888 or visit www.careerz.co.uk