The Truth about Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)

By definition, recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) is a customer-oriented solution that provides a wide spectrum of manpower, expertise, tools, technology and processes to expand the clients’ own recruitment capabilities.

Many Human Resources Managers find themselves hesitant when it comes to outsourcing their company’s recruitment process. The main reason is the large number of misconceptions regarding RPO:

• RPO is too expensive
• RPO can distract my team
• RPO is a long and complicated process

Here is what we have to say about it:

1. Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) is not too expensive. It actually reduces recruitment costs significantly. When outsourcing recruitment to a dedicated team, the company can save on agency fees, advertising fees, employee referral fees, job board costs, candidate communication costs, travel expenses, and relocation costs – not to mention the “hidden” costs associated with overhead and administrative support.

2.  Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) helps your team focus on their HR core activities. Without RPO, HR employees are asked to juggle recruiting tasks on top of their daily routine. The result is a slower, error-prone work flow, increased stress, and loss of motivation. However, with RPO, a company no longer needs to advertise, interview, overload its HR staff with additional tasks, or go through a rigorous, resource-consuming process. Recruitment professionals assume responsibility for finding qualified candidates – for all assignments – within a short period of time. Meanwhile, the HR Department can focus on its existing staff development needs.

3. Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) is not a lengthy or complicated process. RPO actually proves to be both time-saving and effective because the full scope of recruiting tasks is taken care of by qualified professionals. Each position/hire receives the time and attention it needs. The beauty of this model is that it is very flexible and scalable to work within various client acquisition requirements. It can be set up to manage an organization’s total recruitment function or cater to specific or partial assignments. Some clients use the service to improve their ability to attract talent for specialized functions, i.e., marketing, financial, technical, etc., while others use RPO to seek help addressing regional or international needs for locations in other markets and countries.

More Resume Writing Tips!

1) Customize your resume’s objective. Use titles that match the job for which you are applying.

2) Be Specific. Often times, resumes are written in the following manner: “managed client accounts successfully.” Most of the times, the recruiter would wonder: what does the candidate mean by successfully and how many clients were there? Two? Ten? One hundred? It makes a big difference.

3) Take a step back. Although a resume is not a piece of poetry, you need to put a lot of time into it. Pick your words carefully. Do not say “I did this…” when you can say ” I executed, conducted, managed…”

4) Emphasize your core skills. Do make sure you read the job description thoroughly (at least twice) and then highlight the skills and competencies that you have and that are also required for the job for which you are applying.

For more information, please contact us at marketing@searchpatharabia.com.

Social Media Recruitment: Headhunters Edition

Yes, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, …. are all social media sites that can give you access to a wider pool of talent. However, do they facilitate your search for candidates? Do they even make it more efficient?

Having a wider selection of candidates – probably hundreds who might fit the job – could actually make your recruitment process lengthier; you would need to contact (inmail, tweet…) a larger number of candidates and then wait up to see how many responded. Some may respond late – others instantly –  but what makes it even more frustrating is that you don’t know if your message was received. Your recruitment process often gets stuck in phase I – especially when you don’t have an alternative contact detail.

How can you deal with this? Here’s what some executive firms are doing…
Many headhunters are hiring dedicated social media recruiters to handle the entire SMM process. This way, LinkedIn, Twitter and other similar sites would strongly support recruitment – giving headhunters access to a new pool of talent  and  helping them arise the curiosity of inactive candidates.

If you are a headhunter and you still haven’t been active on social media sites, it’s about time to do so. Using social media sites gives you online exposure and visibility and makes your recruitment richer, if not much more efficient.

Tip: When using social media sites for recruitment, narrow down your search results, be selective and take a few minutes to assess the profile before taking any action.

When Does Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) Make Sense? (4)

Recruiting not only requires qualified personnel, it also requires significant investment from the company.  Agency fees,advertising fees, employee referral fees, job board costs, candidate communication costs, travel expenses, relocation costs – not to mention the “hidden” costs associated with overhead and administrative support – all add to the cost of hiring.  And when a key position is left vacant, delaying the hire itself can be costly for the company.

RPO removes these additional costs while ramping up the entire recruitment process. The company no longer needs to advertise, interview, overload its HR staff with additional tasks, or go through a rigorous, resource-consuming process that may or may not end up with a qualified talent pool.