10 Things to Know Before Choosing an RPO Service Partner

Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) is the best way for a recruitment agency to expand its talent pool, refine candidate search, and deal with time constraints and fluctuating hiring demand. An RPO service partner can help staffing agencies in talent acquisition, offering outsourced recruitment services such as talent sourcing, payroll management, timesheet management, full-cycle recruitment, CV formatting, and accounts payable.

Choosing an RPO service partner to outsource your recruitment processes can be complex and challenging. Here are ten tips to help you choose your Recruitment outsourcing services provider and get the best-outsourced solutions for your staffing business.

10 Tips to Help You Choose an RPO Service Partner

1. Your Hiring Needs

The first step is to assess your hiring needs. Every small or large business has to identify the staffing requirements, hiring goals and processes they would like to outsource. There are various reasons a company chooses to outsource their recruitment processes, including managing the full cycle recruiting, building a talent pipeline, or getting expert assistance for complex or time-consuming processes.

The recruitment agency, while selecting an RPO partner, should have an open discussion around key requirements such as,

• The type of roles to hire for
• The kind of industries they need to cater to
• Level of expertise required to fill the positions
• Do you want to outsource all hiring or specific roles?
• How can an RPO service partner help?

Clarity on critical objectives is necessary to make the right decision regarding outsourcing to an RPO and choosing the best RPO company.

2. RPO Company’s Reputation

Understanding an RPO company’s track record of service delivery and outsourcing efficiency is crucial for the selection process. The company’s brand reputation in the industry, its clients, the number of years in the RPO industry, its service delivery efficiency and reputation are strong indicators of its performance.

An RPO’s reputation impacts the employer’s brand; therefore, an RPO that is known to provide an exceptional candidate experience is likely to attract better-quality candidates. Job seekers are hesitant to accept offers from companies with a bad reputation.

3. Cost to Value

Cost is one of the organizations’ most important factors when choosing an RPO service partner. Some big RPO companies may have higher prices than the less expensive ones. While RPO services can be costly, their benefits may create greater value for the company and, in effect, outweigh the costs. Keeping a position open for too long or bearing the cost of having a dedicated recruiter are important considerations when choosing an RPO partnership.

Before choosing an RPO service provider, staffing agencies should consider the ROI or return they will get on their employment investment and if the RPO company can provide them with the right employees at the given cost. Every RPO has a different fee structure for all kinds of recruitment outsourcing services they offer. Selecting a company with a clear and transparent fee structure is advisable.

4. Business Compatibility

Your RPO partner must understand your business and have deep industry knowledge of your business domain. When choosing a recruitment outsourcing company, ask them questions about your field of business and open questions about the job positions you want them to fill. Such questions will help a staffing agency understand its knowledge of the related field and requisitions for specific roles.

Those RPO agencies with better knowledge of specific areas of your business domain can help you find the most suitable employees from their network.

5. Industry Expertise

Industry expertise is a crucial requirement for closing specialty hirings. If your staffing agency wants to hire for specific industry segments, you must check your RPO partner’s hiring experience and expertise. Some RPO providers have deeper knowledge in certain industry segments such as healthcare, IT, education, or manufacturing.

You can also work with different RPO partners for different specialty hiring requirements to harness their strengths in the area.

6. Customization & Flexibility

An RPO company that can provide customizable outsourcing solutions and flexible services for your business needs is a great option. Since every company is unique, so are its hiring needs, and therefore, you need an RPO service provider that can work out outsourcing solutions exclusive to your needs.

Your RPO partnership must allow the flexibility to scale your hiring requirements up or down according to changing business needs. And in doing so, the staffing agency need not attract any penalty or fees. A flexible RPO partner which offers customized solutions can help your business achieve long-term objectives by shifting its approach and strategy accordingly.

7. Implementation Strategy

Your RPO company should provide you with an implementation strategy to help you achieve your goals without conflict. For this, the staffing agency must give the outsourcing partner all the necessary information, relevant data, hiring timeline and implementation process for your recruitments. Most RPOs have a standardized template for the recruitment implementation process, but every business has different needs and therefore requires a suitable implementation strategy.

8. Size & Market Reach

Depending on your hiring requirements, you must consider an RPO company’s size and market reach before making the selection. Different RPOs have different reach and talent pools they cater to. A smaller RPO may have good access to the local talent pool and strong national market reach. However, suppose your hiring needs include candidates for global roles. In that case, you need to look for RPOs with an experience in the international market and the ability to source talent across geographies.

9. Internal Stakeholders

The governance model of the RPO is an essential factor to consider before any collaboration. A clear understanding of the stakeholders on both sides, the client and the vendor, are needed for a successful partnership.

10. Hiring Timelines

A successful RPO partnership will require a solid strategy to achieve thousands of hires within the timeframes. Before choosing a recruitment outsourcing service, delve deep into the hiring goals and timelines, examine your recruitment process, and set milestones for achieving your metrics. Hiring time cycles and conversion ratios are significant indicators of the success of an RPO partnership.

To better understand how RPO works, Read our Complete Guide to RPO Services.

Choose the Right RPO Service Partner

An RPO service partner that can help your staffing business grow in time and support its needs is essential to stay competitive in the recruitment industry. Consider the above points before choosing an outsourced recruiting service provider and if you need help, get in touch with our offshore recruitment team for a free consultation.

Originally published Jul 04, 2022 01:07:20, updated Feb 05 2024

Topics: Offshore Recruitment Services, Outsourced Recruiting Service Provider, RPO Service Partner