We’re an agile RPO provider, which means many businesses who are trying to scale trust us with their hiring projects and recruitment strategies. As a result, it’s no surprise that we get asked a lot questions about what RPO is and what is means for businesses within the tech industry. Demand for talent in the tech sector is currently soaring, and sometimes this means that a little help is needed to reach and recruit top talent.
Our approach to RPO is unique in that our core services can be flexed to suit business needs; our recruiters can embed themselves into your organization but you can scale back the services as and when required. Our agile model is perfect for scaling businesses who need to hire at speed as well as more established names looking to build out new teams or manage growing recruitment efforts.
Here are some of the questions that we are often asked about our flexible approach to RPO. We wanted to share our insights with you in one place so that you have a greater understanding when thinking about outsourcing your recruitment process in the future.
1. Why should I outsource my recruitment process?
Outsourcing the recruitment process can relieve the pressure from your HR or senior teams. If you’re a scaling business time is precious, and your senior team could be focusing their attention on other aspects of the business. With large corporations, if you’re hiring at scale outsourcing tech recruitment means less work for internal HR teams and acts as a less permanent solution to expanding your internal recruitment capability.
Outsourcing tech recruitment often means faster time to hire and better quality of candidates. Other benefits of RPO include a more diverse talent pool and a more strategic talent partner to help with business growth.
2. What is RPO and why is it different to contingent recruitment?
Collaborating with an RPO agency is a partnership, working towards long-term goals and carrying out large-scale recruitment projects which align with your business strategy. Recruitment process outsourcing means experts integrate within your business and become an extension of your team. They can not only help with urgent hires and facilitating demand but more tactical elements of recruitment like employee value propositions, talent brands and digital attraction campaigns.
Contingency recruitment agencies, often called staffing agencies or temporary placement agencies, are used for a single vacancy that must be filled quickly. Their services are often used on an ad-hoc basis when the position is hard to fill or time is limited. Contingent Recruiters will charge a fee if a candidate is hired; therefore, they have to act quickly as they are often in competition with other agencies.
If you’re looking for help with a small tech recruitment project or if you have a one-off role to fill, it’s likely that the contingency agency model will be most suitable for your business. The same goes for if you’re looking for temporary recruitment to cover maternity or for short-term contracts.
3. Is RPO only for bigger, established companies?
Although it seems like RPO is a big undertaking which is only suitable for large companies looking to hire at scale, it is in fact a great option for growing businesses too. Scaleups who do not have the advantage of in-house recruitment teams can benefit from RPO. It means expert recruiters are on hand to offer strategic advice as well as utilise their existing network of candidates. RPO frees up your senior team to focus on growing other elements of business and ensures that your recruitment is in safe hands.
At Talent Works we offer an agile approach to RPO which means our services can be scaled along with your needs, making it an affordable and appropriate option for startups, scaleups and beyond. We understand that businesses of any kind experience peaks and troughs, therefore, we offer the option to scale up and down recruitment activity and resource when required
4. Is RPO an expensive way to outsource recruitment?
RPO is often thought of as an expensive way to outsource the hiring process but the truth is, it’s often much cheaper. Although it depends on the tech recruitment project you’re undertaking, forming a talent partnership with an RPO agency often makes recruitment less expensive in the long-term. If you’re looking for a single hire, then RPO will not be for you but if you’re looking for an affordable way to scale your businesses rapidly or become an employer of choice in your industry then, this talent partnership could work to your financial advantage. RPO recruiters are able to pipeline talent, build your employer brand and work on strategic ways of reducing hiring costs rather than just hiring for one available vacancy.
Often, RPO providers provide better quality hires and reduce employee turnover which reduces costs in the long run. Plus, with faster more precise sourcing capabilities, the cost to advertise for specific vacancies will be significantly reduced. RPO recruiters can reduce time to hire and ensure your business remains as productive as possible throughout the hiring process.
5. Is RPO a fixed process that I’ll be tied into for a long time?
Forming talent partnerships with an RPO provider sounds daunting and like a long-term commitment but with agile RPO, you can scale and flex the recruitment resource along with your needs. Project RPO means that you can set a start and end date for your services and work on a project by project basis, however, for longer-term talent partners we offer the option to scale our services and resource as and when it’s required. Therefore, working with RPO agencies can often be less risk and less financial commitment than building an in-house team.
6. Will an RPO agency be able to understand our company culture?
A good RPO provider embeds their recruiters into your organisation, getting a feel for your culture and employer brand before they begin the search for talent. They take the time to learn the ins and outs of your organisation, briefing their recruitment staff accordingly. To ensure the best quality hires, it’s vital that an RPO agency understands the lifeblood of a business from culture and mission to the individuals on a team. It is only then that they can find talent which is not only a good cultural fit but can enhance your culture and offering.
7. How can RPO help my business?
Depending on the circumstances of your business, an RPO provider can help in many ways. It can help you to hire the talent you need to scale rapidly or form a more strategic partnership, paving the way for future hires.
Some advantages are:
- You can expand your recruitment search beyond your network of peers, improving your organisations diversity and bringing unsuspected candidates.
- Give you access to expertise and knowledge you may not otherwise have.
- Help deliver creative recruitment campaigns and employer brands which stand out from the crowd.
- Deliver better quality hires quickly.
8. What sort of roles can RPO providers help to fill?
An RPO provider can help to fill a range of roles from high-volume hiring or temporary positions to senior executives. Using a range of talent attraction techniques including social media and digital attracting through to executive search, an RPO provider and their recruiters can amend their services to suit any business need.
You may want to find an RPO agency which has sector specific expertise, particularly if you’re looking for niche roles like technical talent. At Talent Works we specialise in helping tech businesses to scale and are experts in hiring data scientists, software developers and other technical talent. Our sourcing team are also experts in executive search and can help businesses to fill difficult and complex senior roles.
9. How can I choose an RPO provider that suits me?
There are many things to consider when choosing an RPO provider, and often the cheapest option will not suffice. Look for industry experience and sector expertise as well as sourcing capabilities, as RPO providers who work with similar clientele are likely to have existing talent pools and knowledge of what the roles entail. Also identify RPO providers who care about your company culture and mission, chances are they’ll deliver a better quality of candidate.
Depending on your needs you may benefit from an RPO provider who has digital, creative and insight teams in house as well as recruiters, so that you can expand your tech recruitment strategy as and when required.
Finally, get to know as many people as possible within the business, if they are going to become an embedded part of your team you need to ensure you can work well together. As much as we recommend considering cultural fit for your hires, it’s also a good to take it into account when forming talent partnerships.
10. How can I measure the success of RPO?
There are many metrics which can help you measure the success of the RPO all of which depend on the project specifics and your goals. KPIS often include number of candidates, quality of candidates, time to hire, cost per hire and hiring manager satisfaction. However, the success of an RPO should be clear within an organisation if you’re receiving extraordinary candidates and managing to retain them. It’s clear if your tech recruitment efforts aren’t working, and if this is the case you may need to work with your RPO provider to rethink your recruitment strategies. Whichever metrics you choose to base the success of your RPO on, you must inform the agency so that they can align their targets and mission.
Talent Works are an RPO agency with offices in Manchester and Northampton as well as Boston in the US, giving us truly global reach. We help businesses of all sizes to surround themselves with talent. If you’d like to learn more about our flexible approach to talent acquisition and how it can work for your business, get in touch with our team and start your conversation.
