Recruitment Process Outsourcing

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Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) is a form of business process outsourcing (BPO) where an employer outsources or transfers all or part of its recruitment activities to an external service provider.

RPO may involve the outsourcing of all or just part of recruitment functions and process. The external service provider may serve as a virtual recruiting department by providing a complete package of skills, tools, technologies and activities. The RPO service provider is "the" source for in-scope recruitment activity.

On the other hand, occasional recruitment support, for example temporary, contingency and executive search services is more analagous to out-tasking, co-sourcing or just sourcing. In this example the service provider is "a" source for certain types of recruitment activity.differentiating between RPO and other types of staffing

The biggest distinction between RPO and other types of staffing is Process. In RPO the service provider assumes ownership of the process, while in other types of staffing the service provider is part of a process controlled by the organization buying their services.

Contents 1 History 2 Benefits 3 Problems 4 External references

[edit] History

While temporary, contingency and executive search firms have provided staffing services for many decades, the concept of an employer outsourcing the management and ownership of part or all of their recruiting process wasn't first realized the late 1990s.^{[citation needed]}

It is claimed that the impetus for RPO was a shortage of skilled labour created by the dot-com boom and RPO was created to fill the gap .^{[citation needed]} Cutting costs is often cited as the main reason for other forms of business process outsourcing and this may also be the case for RPO.^{[citation needed]} However, in most instance when organizatons consider RPO it is not necessarily to cut costs, but rather to make their recruitment costs more variable and more closely aligned to organizationl business cycle dynamics.

The use of RPO is also said be influenced by labour force trends. Workers change employers more often than previous generations which were often employed by the same organisation for their entire working life. De-regulated labour markets have also created a shift towards contract and part-time labour and shorter work tenures. These trends increase recruitement activity and may encourage the use of RPO^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Benefits

RPO's promoters claim that the solution offers improvement in quality, cost, service and speed.

RPO providers claim that economies of scale enables them to offer recuritment processes at lower cost while economies of scope allows them to operate as high-quality, specialists.^{[citation needed]}. Economies of scale and scope are said to arise from a larger staff of recruiters, databases of candidate resumes, and investment in recruitment tools and networks.

RPO solutions are also claimed to change fixed investment costs into variable costs that vary with fluctuation in recruitment activity. Companies may pay by transaction rather than by staff member, thus avoiding under-utilization or sacking recruitment staff when activity is low.

[edit] Problems

Outsourcing of company processes may fail or prove a poor organisational fit. Improperly implemented RPO could reduce the effectiveness of recruitment.^{[citation needed]}

The costs charged for recruitment transactions may total more than the cost of the internal recuritment department.

RPO service providers may fail to provide the quality or volume of staff required by their customers.

Placing all recruiment in the hands of a single outside provider may discourage the competition that would arise if multiple recruitment agencies were used.

An RPO solution may not work if the company's existing recruitment processes are performing poorly. An RPO solution may not work if the service provider has inadequate recruitment processes or procedures to work with the client.

RPO may not resolves difficulties that organisations have hiring staff when they are perceived negatively by potential employees. This will instead require improved branding and an adjustment of image.

Organisations with efficient hiring process that are viewed as employers-of-choice by potential staff may stand to gain negligible benefits from RPO.

[edit] External references

• Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association