Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) providers can drive efficiencies for your talent acquisition process while lowering your costs. However, before you can reap the benefits of an RPO partnership, you’ll need to get your leadership team on board.
So, how do you get the support and buy-in from your executive team or stakeholders? Below, we review three steps that you can leverage to help you build the business case for RPO.
1. What problem (or problems) does RPO solve for your company?
Conduct an audit of your current recruitment process, metrics, and performance. Figure out what’s working, what can be improved, and what must be improved before it becomes a problem. Some of the most common talent acquisition problems organizations experience when they decide to invest in an RPO partner include the following:
- Difficulty attracting top talent
- Lack of internal recruiting resources
- Inefficient hiring process
- Difficulty scaling recruitment resources
- Inadequate employer branding
- High turnover rates
Take an honest look at your recruitment efforts and identify places where RPO can save you money and time. Start by figuring out how much your company is currently spending on recruitment, including rent, technology licensing, and wages. Don't overlook opportunity costs like the time your HR team spends on recruitment instead of their core tasks.
Present your findings in a clear manner to highlight how an RPO partner can alleviate the talent acquisition challenges your business is experiencing.
See how we helped our partner achieve an ROI of 294% in ten months!
2. How does RPO solve existing recruitment problem(s)?
Develop a list of RPO benefits that are specific to your organization and compare them to your current recruitment efforts. This is a good opportunity to show how an RPO partnership will create meaningful and measurable business impacts across your organization.
Decision makers likely have varied priorities, so consider how RPO services will benefit their respective areas of work.
Here are some examples of problems that recruitment process outsourcing can help your business overcome:
- Our in-house recruitment efforts are too expensive. Although the cost of RPO depends on talent needs, it is typically more cost-efficient than building an in-house team with the same resources. RPO providers typically charge a flat fee that encompasses all recruitment-related expenses, including advertising costs, software, technology, office spaces, and recruiter salaries. Plus, organizations that partner with an RPO typically experience indirect cost savings such as decreased turnover, cost-per-hire, and better quality candidates.
- Our candidate experience is cumbersome and timely. An RPO partner can enhance the experience for candidates and hiring managers by optimizing the application process and providing timely communication. In addition, with most RPO partners, you will have a dedicated recruitment team that will correspond with candidates as if they work directly for your company—eliminating the awkward handoffs that can occur when staffing and recruiting agencies are involved.
- Sometimes the candidates we receive are less than stellar. RPO providers are constantly building their talent pipeline with pre-vetted candidates, making filling positions quickly with top talent easy. They also have the time, expertise, and tools to source high-quality candidates across multiple target personas.
For example, if the requirements for your company’s job openings vary drastically, your RPO provider will segment the candidate experience. They can present unique value propositions to different candidate sets, creating multiple customized candidate journeys. - Our recruitment technology costs are sky-high! An RPO provider offers access to a comprehensive and flexible suite of the latest talent acquisition technologies. Additionally, their agile approach enables them to quickly add and incorporate new technologies into their talent acquisition ecosystems.
- Our current recruitment needs may not be the same in the future. When markets are fluctuating, it’s essential to be able to adjust resources quickly and cost-effectively. An RPO enables you to increase or decrease resources according to your changing demands without impacting internal resources. Additionally, a dedicated RPO partner monitors and forecasts talent trends to help you proactively plan for future recruitment needs.
- It takes our organization forever to make a hire. RPO providers streamline technology, marketing techniques, and a dedicated team of recruiters to quickly source and screen large numbers of candidates, which reduces time-to-hire. An RPO can also leverage market insights to forecast and prepare for future needs.
- The people we hire don't stick around. RPO providers take the time to get to know your organization's culture and values so they understand who will be a good fit. Hiring candidates who align with your values typically results in stronger, happier, and more engaged teams who stay for the long run.
3. How will you measure success?
Now that you've defined the problems in your company and how RPO can help you overcome them, the final step is to prove the ROI of the investment by defining your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), such as:
- Cost-per-hire: This metric measures the cost of each hire, including advertising, job board fees, and agency fees.
- Time-to-fill: This measures the time it takes to fill open positions, from when it's posted to when the offer is accepted.
- Quality of hire: This metric measures the effectiveness of the RPO partner in identifying and hiring top talent. Quality of hire can be evaluated based on factors like retention rates, job performance, and employee engagement.
- Diversity hiring: This metric measures the effectiveness of attracting and hiring a diverse pool of candidates. This can be evaluated based on the percentage of diverse candidates hired and the effectiveness of diversity recruitment strategies.
As long as you can demonstrate the potential to recoup or even generate a significant amount of money, you'll have the attention of your key decision-makers.
Remember, when making a business case for RPO, it's essential to prove that it is a must-have for your company. There is no better way to show the value of an RPO partnership than by showing how it will solve your organization's recruitment challenges, create efficiencies, and save money.
