How to Choose the Right Recruiting Outsourcing Provider

That's not a valid work email account. Please enter your work email (e.g. you@yourcompany.com)
Please enter your work email
(e.g. you@yourcompany.com)

One of the biggest recruiting challenges employers and hiring managers face today is recruiting the right talent pool for their organization. Per Aberdeen Strategy and Research, 84 percent of the top companies struggle to recruit quality talent. 

Poor hiring choices can often result in an unsatisfied employer and low ROI. Hence, consider hiring a Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) service provider for recruiting the right talent.

Must-Ask Questions to Determine the Right RPO Service Provider

Here are a set of six questions to ask an RPO service provider to determine whether they will positively contribute toward augmenting your recruiting processes and are the right fit for your company.

1. How much time does it take to fill an open position?

According to one study, the average time to fill positions in the US is around 42 days. Look for an RPO service provider who can maintain the timeline and fill positions with the right talent. 

Candidates seek quick responses on their job applications and recruitment processes, especially during the pandemic where civilian employment declined by 8.8 million . Ensure your RPO service provider uses an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to avoid delays in filling positions. 

2. What’s the timeline in the recruiting process required to make an offer?

Select an RPO provider who understands your hiring timeline and tries to finish interviews quickly, leaving you with enough time to make the offer to the right candidate. 

RPO providers with standard submission services attract interviewees to accept offers. Analyzing the number of good hires and the duration of each interview helps to make a proactive decision. 

According to onestudy , the average interview lasts for about 21 to 23 days, and each employer spends two to three days with one individual. Therefore, considering these aspects, one best practice would be to choose an RPO service provider who is aware of all that goes into making offers to the right candidates.

3. Is your RPO provider as committed as you are?

As the company head or HR manager, you need to ensure that the RPO service provider you choose is as invested in your recruitment process as your internal talent acquisition team.

You’ll want a provider who has an excellent track record and is willing to know about your company, your goals, and growth trajectories. 

“RPO is not a contingency model but a commitment model,” said Ryan Baca, Vice President of About Talent. “An RPO incorporation requires involvement in the hiring process, selecting technologies, and defining services. It connects the outside world with your organization.”

Hence, determining whether your RPO service provider is fully committed to serving you in their best potential before bringing them on board will take you a long way in ensuring your talent acquisition strategy gets you the results you want to see. 

4. What’s the average duration taken by a candidate to accept an offer?

The current average rate of an offer to acceptance for jobs stands at 65.7% , indicating that around 66 of every 100 offers get accepted. While assessing which RPO solution to move ahead with, try to scrutinize the number of interviews and hires made by the corresponding providers over a fixed span.  

Per a survey, 29% of candidates reject offers when compensation and benefits don’t match candidates’ expectations.

Ensure that your RPO provider is listing out clear expectations to shortlisted candidates. This will help reduce the number of offer rejections at a later time.

5. Does the RPO provider match your company culture?

Company culture includes values, work ethics, attitudes, personalities preferred, diversity, or ethnicity.

Choosing a provider who understands your company and what you stand for will help you build a strong work relationship with them where they know each of your requirements in a better light and work toward achieving positive results. 

Ryan Baca, Vice President of About Talent, says, “When you’re working with a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) company, you want to make sure that they’re aware of your company culture and ready to find candidates who are a good fit.

Your RPO provider should start talking about culture from the very beginning. Your provider should be asking culture questions from the very onset, whether from an initial sales call or an RFP concept. They need to understand the culture they’ll be recruiting for, and if they don’t ask those questions at the onset, it’s going to be difficult to craft the right solution.”

Now that you have a brief idea about what goes into deciding which service provider will be the best fit for your company’s unique requirements let us move on to the next section –

Crucial Considerations for Hiring an RPO Service Provider

1. Experience

Evaluate the right RPO provider based on their existing experience gained by working with various clients across different verticals. Check whether the RPO recruiter has experience in your domain or field. 

Check the people skills of their recruiters, some of which include relationship management, interpersonal communication skills, critical thinking, and the ability to sell. 

Before hiring an RPO provider, ensure that the recruiters take follow-ups from potential candidates. 

2. Advertising and Marketing Tactics

Observe the RPO firm’s advertising and marketing strategies for hires. Some factors to look out for are social media marketing, proficient use of multiple hiring platforms such as LinkedIn, and Google Ads. 

If the RPO service provider also tries to augment your employer branding strategy, that will be an advantage. 

“Employer branding has the potential to differentiate us at a time when it is still so hard to find talent. What I do know and see is that job seekers are smarter than ever. They are seeking jobs in the same way they are buying things on Amazon,” said Katie Theroux, Executive Vice President for MCI Building Systems.

3. Technology and Process Used

Kim Pope, Executive Vice President of Global Client Solutions, said , “Agnostic RPOs have the experience implementing multiple technologies and optimizing them for a variety of businesses.”

He further added that the benefits of AI-based sourcing tools, recruitment marketing automation, employee engagement platforms, and automated scheduling bots, for example, create a differentiator between organizations and drive candidate engagement.

Consider aspects such as data storage platforms, security restrictions for data, or the duration of technical support required for the hiring. A clear tech roadmap will help you get a clear picture to opt for the right provider. 

4. Candidate Care

The RPO service provider you choose will be the first touchpoint your potential employees have with your company. Therefore, how the recruitment firm treats candidates build a strong image of your organizational values. 

Check whether your RPO provider prefers an easy application process as candidates often skip lengthy or complex processes. According to SHRM, 60% of the applicants quit while filling out applications due to their length and complexity.   

People will apply if they have a positive impression of your company and you, hence it’s essential to offer a good candidate experience. 

5. Domain Knowledge

Ensure that the service provider you choose has sound knowledge of your field. It helps shortlist the desired candidates for the position and ask the right interview questions. 

Domain knowledge is a qualification of experience which is irreplaceable. An RPO service provider with domain expertise knows about the types of skillset to hunt for in the talent market.

6. Expenses and Partnerships

You might want to consider the following points while evaluating the expenses of an RPO service provider – 

  • Management fee model: Charges paid to the service provider for working on a specific number of positions. 
  • Cost per slate: Fees paid for the number of screened, sources, and qualified applicants for each role.
  • Cost per hire: Expenses for every candidate hired through the RPO service provider. 
  • Cost per transaction: Charges for completing processes such as reference checks and screenings by the RPO provider. 

Think about aspects like contract hire and the duration of the partnership while hiring an RPO provider.

Before agreeing to an agreement, make sure that both parties are willing to work together to meet the business’ needs. You also need to iron out the requirements and traceability.

7. Value-Added Services

When assessing an RPO, you should look for services that will enhance your recruiting process. Some services you should look for include:

  • Advanced analytics
  • Talent community management
  • Employer branding tactics
  • Workforce planning
  • Process engineering 

These are some of the essential aspects you can consider while determining the right RPO service provider for your company. Choose the one that ticks the maximum number of checkboxes.

To know more about another competitive advantage of outsourced recruiting services, get in touch with us at  Recruiter.com  – an organization built on years of recruiting expertise gained across different industries.

We will be happy to solve all your recruitment-related problems, and help you attract top talent, build a result-centric workplace, and create a good employer brand in the process of doing so.

 

Get the top recruiting news and insights delivered to your inbox every week. Sign up for the Recruiter Today newsletter.

By Recruiter.com