Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)

Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) means that you outsource all, or part, of your recruitment activities of your permanent staff to an external party.  

Unlike traditional recruitment services, this covers far more than just the sourcing of candidates and scheduling interviews and sees them act as an extension of your internal team for all or some of your jobs. From workforce planning through to onboarding and development, an RPO will work as an extension of your organization. This typically means working under your brand, on your systems and sometimes even onsite with your team.

An RPO could cover:  

• Workforce planning and market forecasting 
• Talent attraction and candidate sourcing (including employer branding, referrals and internal mobility programs) 
• Screening, assessment and selection 
• Interview co-ordination 
• Offer management 
• Compliance and background checks 
• Onboarding 
• Metrics and reporting 
• Technology management 

Find out more by downloading our introductory guide to RPO.

Outsourcing your recruitment offers many benefits, due to the optimized processes, access to advanced technology and insights it brings, predominately:  

• Scalability and flexibility
• Cost savings 
• Improved access to the skills  
• Reduced time to hire  
• Improved hiring manager and candidate experience / satisfaction 
• Improved retention  
• Improved compliance with local labor laws

Deciding you want to outsource your recruitment is a big decision, as these deals typically span multiple years. Therefore, the decision to outsource usually follows a typical bids and tender process, where multiple providers submit responses to a request for information you have developed based on why you want to outsource, before progressing through to a final round of presentations from your top three preferred suppliers. A good provider will work with you to define the final solution.   

Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) typically involves several key steps: 

• Initial Consultation/Diagnostics: Understanding your goals, culture, current approach to talent acquisition (including technology used), and your current processes 
• Research and Planning: Based on previous experience and the analysis from the consultation your RPO provider will create a tailored plan for the coming year 
• Sourcing: The sourcing team will then develop target-group specific sourcing strategies to find and engage the right talent, and get them excited about working for your company 
• Shortlisting and Selection: Like working with traditional recruitment companies, here an RPO provider ensures candidates meet your criteria and schedules the relevant screening processes, such as interviews.  
• Hiring and Onboarding: Once candidates have been chosen the candidate and hiring manager are supported through the onboarding process. 
• Retention and Development: Your RPO partner will also support with guidance on salary benchmarking, DE&I, and succession planning to ensure your workforce planning isn’t solely reliant on constantly hiring in new talent.  
• Offboarding and Outplacement: A recruitment outsourcing program may also include processes for departing candidates and employees to inform and evolve your EVP.  

This will also be underpinned by continuous improvement, where the RPO provider monitors and optimizes the recruitment process, typically providing updates on progress and opportunities in a quarterly review.

Organizations outsource HR experts for several reasons: 

• Cost Savings: Reducing the costs associated with maintaining an in-house HR team. 
• Access to Expertise: Gaining access to specialized knowledge and skills. 
• Scalability: Easily scaling HR operations up or down based on business needs. 
• Focus on Core Activities: Allowing the organization to focus on its core business functions.

Many organizations turn to RPO providers when existing recruitment processes become inefficient, reliant on external agencies, when they need to downsize, or in-house teams struggle to scale to meet business requirements.  

Various types of companies benefit from outsourcing hiring, including: 

• Those who needing to quickly scale their workforce, for example those who have a high volume hiring needs or project based needs, such as opening a new office, establishing a new team, or perhaps just those who have big variations in hiring demand around certain troughs and peaks, such as staffing up new projects after winning a client.  
• HR teams under cost pressures lacking the resources for a full-time Talent Acquisition team 
• Corporations seeking to streamline their recruitment processes due to issues with time to hire preventing projects or work being completed on time, for example because their current TA team doesn’t have the required expertise and database in that area 
• Organizations who find they are relying frequently on recruitment agencies

Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) is a subset of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), tailored to meet recruitment needs. RPO focuses specifically on managing the recruitment process, while BPO is a term used to refer to outsourcing entire business functions, which could include recruitment and HR, but equally could be used to refer to customer service or IT support.  

Outsourcing hiring can save money by: 

• Reducing Overhead Costs: Eliminating the need for in-house recruitment staff. 
• Improving Efficiency: Leveraging the expertise of specialized recruitment firms. 
• Minimizing Turnover: Ensuring better candidate matches and reducing turnover costs.

Whereas recruitment and staffing agencies focus on sourcing candidates, RPO providers design and implement strategies across the full recruitment process, supporting your business to make better buying decisions. From workforce planning through to onboarding and development, an RPO will work as an extension of your organization