In the past 20 years, the number of RPO and MSP providers has grown, as has the range of RPO models available. Consider the following to make the right choice of RPO partner for your business. A good recruitment outsourcing partner should:

1. Listen. No two organisations’ recruitment challenges are identical and so, outsourced recruitment solutions cannot be rolled out as ‘one-size fits all’ models. Once the design is perfected, a good recruitment outsourcing partner should ensure continuous improvements and innovations are made to the service offered. This can only be done if the partner listens.

2. Offer technology solutions. Recruitment technology is becoming better known, trusted and adopted by more organisations to manage their recruitment processes and spend. They facilitate transparency, visibility and decision making through the use of quality metrics, allow talent pooling and immediate access to candidates, as well as save time by reducing duplicate applications (and that’s only naming a few of the benefits). Resource Solutions not only has experience of using a range of ATS technologies first hand, but can also offer our own talentsource, which is used by 90% of our current clients.

3. Suggest specific cost efficiencies and process enhancements. In order to deliver the best service, a good recruitment outsourcing provider will take time to understand your priorities and how they can improve delivery while introducing efficiency savings. Working closely with clients, we have suggested cost containment programmes including analysing and streamlining preferred supplier lists, the potential use of a master vendor, mandating contractor holidays or taking ownership of third party consultants, and switching to a daily rather than an hourly rate (to name just a few). None of these cost efficiencies impact on vendor margins.

4. Measure the service and delivery against agreed indicators. We believe that any partner should provide quarterly reviews on service level agreements; this enables the recruitment outsourcing provider to demonstrate the service delivered against benchmarks agreed with the client. Whatever the reporting and measurement methodology employed however, it’s important to maintain a clear focus on the strategic goals of your organisation when agreeing the indicators.

5. Ideally have an on-site team. We have staff based in our clients’ offices, which we believe is vital when recruiting professionals at the mid to senior level. While it is more expensive than, for example, employing an offshore team to screen applicants’ CVs, it delivers a significantly superior service and ultimately a higher non-agency fill rate.

6. Offer an extensive menu of services. Given that organisations have different needs when it comes to RPO, flexibility in service offering is a useful indicator of the right partner. Can your partner do as much or as little as you require? From taking control of temporary and contractor recruitment to country-wide or multi-territory talent acquisition, working with an existing applicant tracking system or implementing bespoke tech solutions.

7. Designate a project implementation specialist. It is vital that a designated project implementation team are assigned to your solution. The team should only work on implementation, both leading up to the ‘go live’ date and beyond resulting in a smoother implementation process.

8. Invest in its relationships with its vendors. Much of the recruitment focus with RPOs currently is on direct hiring. Whilst we focus on cutting edge direct sourcing, we also believe it is important to have a genuine partnership with vendors and act in a fair and transparent way - visible to both clients and vendors - at all times. There will inevitably be circumstances when agencies are the best recruitment option and we want vendors to work better, harder and longer for us than they do for any other provider.

Choosing an RPO or MSP partner is a significant decision for an organisation. If you are thinking about recruitment outsourcing or would like to extend the range of services we already provide your organisation feel free to contact us.