8 minute read
RPO – customer support tailored for current times
The Recruitment Process Outsourcing service has been so far associated mainly with new investors on the market. However, is it true that RPO is dedicated only to big organizations entering Polish market? What about smaller companies that are in the growth phase? Is the recruitment process outsourcing service profitable for the client?
...WHAT IS RPO?
Advertisement
Recruitment Process Outsourcing is a service of transferring responsibility for some or all the recruitment process to an external company. In the case of such processes, a dedicated external consultant or the entire project team becomes client's internal HR team. As part of the RPO, the client can expect a comprehensive HR service – from creating job descriptions, through establishing a search and selection strategy, to guiding the candidate through all planned stages of the recruitment process, up to the onboarding of future employees. An extremely important aspect of the entire process is the standardization and unification of the entire process. RPO team supporting the project works according to established rules and has the necessary knowledge about the client's company in order to communicate with candidates on the market with the highest efficiency.
...IS IT RIGHT TIME FOR RPO?
The external supplier services are mainly used by companies that have a high demand of new employees. This solution is most often chosen by new investors on the market, companies in the phase of growth or intensive development. On the other hand, there is also a large group of organizations with many years of experience on the specific market that decide to implement the RPO service. Reasons for that might be for example lack of an internal recruiter or shortage of HR team staff. Decision to involve an external supplier is often made when there is no or little knowledge about the local labour market or lack of tools to efficiently carry out the process in a given sector. The RPO process can be introduced in the case of not only building structures from the scratch, but also volume employment in a short period of time or building a completely new team in existing structures. What’s more, it’s possible to use the RPO vendor team as a temporary inhouse HR team – available upon request at fixed time slots. In this case, the team of the external supplier remains ready for the client, e.g. during the year, according to the calendar of new employees’ start dates, transfers of processes, etc.
…WHAT WILL I GAIN BY OUTSOURCING THE ENTIRE RECRUITMENT PROCESS?
The biggest advantage of delegating the recruitment process to an external company is the comprehensiveness of the service – from creating a job description, through recruitment and selection to onboarding stage. An external company specialized in recruitment can also adapt flexible solutions and tools, according to the specifics of a given industry. Added value of the cooperation with the provider of such service is gaining unlimited access to expert knowledge. Thanks to experience and access to a wide database of candidates, the external supplier can significantly shorten time to hire and adjust the activities to the employment calendar. Employer branding activities carried out by the external supplier as part of the RPO service also deserve attention. These can be communication activities as part of the recruitment process, as well as large-scale outdoor campaigns. However, the most important impact of the RPO process on any organization will be the cost reduction and time savings, in combination with high level of effectiveness.
...RPO IN PRACTICE CASE STUDY A
Our Client was an American software company who decided to open a centre of excellence in southern part of Poland. In the first 12 months after launch, the company planned to hire over 200 people in the areas such as product support & development, finance, and administration. The employees not only had to be professionals in their fields, but also were required to speak foreign languages.
Some of the challenges in attracting desired candidates were: • High volume in short period of time.
As a new player on the market, with a new and empty office, the Client needed employees for all type of positions quickly. More than 200 FTEs were supposed to be recruited within short period of time (12 months). • Language skills. The company needed specialists in variety of fields, but also number of them was required to speak foreign languages in high demand – e.g. Dutch, German, French, Spanish and Portuguese. • Competitive environment. Location was one of the most attractive locations in Poland for IT investors, while at the same time there is a limited number of qualified professionals, as most of companies target similar candidate profiles. • Rare positions on the Polish market.
Some of the positions that needed to be filled were unique on Polish market and required know how from abroad – there were serious limitations for employees with such a skill set. • New brand. Even though our Client is a big, international company, it has been just launching its’ office in Poland.
For many people it was an unknown brand and therefore could be perceived as less attractive future employer. Added value of the cooperation with the provider of such service is gaining unlimited access to expert knowledge. Thanks to experience and access to a wide database of candidates, the external supplier can significantly shorten time to hire and adjust the activities to the employment calendar.
EXAMPLES OF ACTIVITIES CARRIED OVER BY Cpl:
• For a new employer, it was important to create brand awareness within the local market. Brainstorming sessions with Cpl’s dedicated project team and
Client took place around recruitment marketing and talent acquisition strategy incl. creation of consistent messaging and an attractive Employer
Value Proposition. • Dedicated on-site Cpl consultants were placed at Client’s office and were acting as a temporary Client’s employees.
This helped to reduce time to hire and significantly improved communication and KPI/SLA’s performance. centre. The project assumed to recruit a team of 30 people from the scratch. What was interesting in this project, the Client's brand is very well known on the Polish market, however on the IT job market, Client was unknown as potential employer of choice to the candidates. Therefore, the project required not only recruitment of IT structures in Poland, but also building awareness and creating the image of our client as an advanced technology company and a stable employer for IT candidates. An additional challenge was the 5-stages recruitment process carried out according to agreed schedule and company policies. Recruitment days were supposed to be
• Our on-site experts were then supported with an on-going talent pipeline coming from Cpl offsite project team. • Cpl marketing team was delivering employer branding and recruitment marketing services both to the Client and our internal teams to boost the effectiveness of sourcing efforts, at the same time providing exceptional candidate experience.
Employer branding activities included outdoor campaigns, targeted social media campaigns on Facebook and LinkedIn, company open days and other meetings dedicated to the candidates, as well as employee referral scheme.
THIS RPO PROJECT RESULTED IN:
• 200+ placements in less than a year • reduced time to hire during the process • established brand recognition • set up of effective sourcing strategy
CASE STUDY B
Our client was an international technology company from the e-commerce area established on Polish market. Client decided to build a completely new team within their structure: international IT scheduled no more than once a month, due to requirement of presence of people involved in the project, who came from several locations around the world and whose schedules had to be agreed. Such narrow recruitment process created the risk of candidates' resignation due to the dynamic market of IT candidates on the Polish market.
As a solution, we’ve offered to our client the Recruitment Process Outsourcing service for which we’ve dedicated a team of recruitment consultants and a Project Manager. Knowing the local market and the specifics of the process on the client's side, we have defined a timeframe for the project and weekly KPIs / SLAs plan has been established. As part of the project, we’ve also implemented operational reporting – daily, weekly and monthly progress report for the Client.
Taking responsibility for the efficient execution of the entire process, we’ve implemented and coordinated the entire plan of monthly recruitment days, considering needs and capabilities of the hiring managers. As part of a dedicated employer branding campaign, we’ve implemented, among others: dedicated campaigns on social networking sites, video presentations of our client, etc. Our consultants had the opportunity to speak during conferences and meet-ups in order to present our Client. It was also great opportunity for candidates’ attraction for the Client.
PROJECT RESULTED IN:
• 27 accepted job offers • 93% of recommended candidates were invited to client’s meetings • shortening the duration of the recruitment process (from approx. 1.5 months to approx. 3 weeks) • strengthening the Client's position as an interesting employer for IT candidates on the Polish market
When considering RPO as part of your recruitment strategy, there are several key benefits to consider: • cost reduction – including costs of tools such as candidate’s database, advertisements, dedicated campaigns on social media, as well as no requirement to maintain a permanent recruiter's headcount, • access to a wide base of ready candidates – supplier base as well as consultants' networks, • time saving, • team rotation reduction – the external company cares about the best match of candidates in the created team.
As the above examples show, Recruitment Process Outsourcing is an advanced solution that comprehensively supports the company's development in the current talent shortage. The RPO process can be used by any entrepreneur who is looking for employees – especially nowadays, when the acquisition and development of the best specialists often determines the success of organization on the market.
Author:
Katarzyna Piotrowska,
Senior Commercial Manager, Cpl Poland
Work With Us. Work The Future.
Our customised & human-centred solutions are constantly evolving to the needs of you, our clients –for now, and for the future.
