Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) is a type of outsourcing where an organisation transfers some or all functions of their recruitment process to a specialised partner. RPO providers integrate with the broader business to ensure an improved and consistent applicant experience.

Organisations can engage an RPO provider to help with short-term scaling issues such as moving into a new geography or longer-term needs such as organisational transformation. Regardless of duration, RPO partners provide several benefits over staffing firms or agencies, including:

Best Practice and Experience

RPO providers transform recruitment functions for many organisations across industries, regions and company structures. This experience, coupled with specific research and training, builds leading-edge best practices which you would not have in-house. The benefit is that where a staffing agency is just trying to fill the roles you give them, an RPO partner benefits by improving your processes, recruitment brand and people.

Continuous Innovation

Continuous improvement is a critical aspect of RPO learning and development programs. RPO providers are constantly updating their training to ensure their talent acquisition staff stay up to date with the latest cutting-edge recruitment and industry trends. Unfortunately, traditional staffing agencies tend not to look at the future, hiring for today rather than adapting to what is coming.

Brand attractiveness

Leading RPO providers bring experience in tailoring solutions that encompass employer brand strategies. These work to attract passive candidates, retain existing employees and improve the candidate experience. Staffing agencies run the risk of diluting the employer brand because messaging can be inconsistent; RPOs, on the other hand, consult clients on enhancing the perception of their employer brand while monitoring the client and their peers for benchmarking. They then use the results to improve external communications and recruitment marketing messaging. Recruitment process outsourcing providers also leverage relationships with vendors, such as Glassdoor and Monster, to further support the client’s brand development.

Staff retention and bottom-line benefits

The cost benefits of retaining staff are far greater than internal and external recruitment costs. You must also factor in the loss of intellectual property, training expenses and opportunity costs. The employer brand improvements an RPO partner brings not only help with attracting new staff but cement existing staff in the roles as the employer’s attractiveness increases.

Conclusion

The simple truth is that a good RPO partner has a broader network, better tools and domain knowledge than in-house teams. This statement isn’t an inditement on your organisation but rather the simple truth that an RPO partner specialises in this field. This combination means they can notify and screen a more significant number of candidates and show you which channels are best for niche roles. Your in-house talent staff can utilise this knowledge to improve their recruitment activities. Talk to us today to understand how an RPO model could help your business save costs and get access to fantastic talent.