There are arguments pro and contra outsourcing of all recruitment tasks to an external RPO partner.
This question doesn´t arise if there is no HR department in your company. In this case you need a RPO partner, anyway. But, if you run an own HR department, how to decide: "Make or buy?
This article describes the main aspects for both target groups: Companies with or without an own HR team and their own recruiting specialists and managers.
1. Costs
Nothing is more expensive than not being able to fill vacancies!
This is why we are always looking for staff, often at considerable expense. Direct costs arise for the recruiting of employees for
- job advertisements
- database licenses (Xing Talent Manager, CV DBs from Stepstone, Monster, VDI, GULP, ...)
- software licenses for application management systems, maintenance fees
- for headhunters when their own measures reach their limits.
- salaries of the employees involved in the search
Your RPO partner has a wide portfolio of know-how, tools and software licenses to implement the most effective recruiting methods.
2. Know-How
HR experts are personnel specialists and not IT, advertising or marketing specialists!
Finding suitable employees requires up-to-date know-how for
- Marketing and advertising management
- IT-based recruiting methods and tools
- Use of search engine optimizing technologies (SEO, Analytics, ...)
- Evaluation of the relevance and costs of hundreds of general and specific advertising markets
- The use of of Big-Data Tools (Talent Wonder, TalentBin, Entelo, Text Kernel ...)
- Application management and job advertisement software
Your RPO partner is familiar with and uses all of this! He is independent and uses the latest software technology to ensure recruiting success.
3. Flexibility
The need for new staff is variable
Finding employees is time-consuming. Search projects are both cost-intensive and personnel-intensive. High personnel requirements often require a multiple of the existing recruiting capacities. Once the resources for growth have been built up, it is not possible to quickly adapt to declining personnel requirements. Purchased software continues to cost maintenance fees and employees receive salaries until they are otherwise assigned or released (severance payments).
Your RPO partner can react to the demand and increase his capacities almost arbitrarily with the shortest lead time!
4. Time to start
Implementation of new software tools is time consuming
If software should be implemented for recruiting automation, a selection process comes first, followed by an evaluation and test phases as well as an introduction phases. The entire process must be accompanied by a highly qualified staff to ensure effective use. During the training period, the employees beeing involved are not available for their daily work.
There is only a few days gap between a decision pro RPO and going live.
5. Investment
The acquisition and operation of an application management system is expensive and involves risks.
In addition to costs for evaluation, selection and acquisition, licenses per workstation, customizing and costs for training employees, maintenance costs are accumulated permanently. Since the implementation of software is often one of the trend-setting decisions in companies, a risk of failure is of some consequence.
Your RPO partner owns and uses a huge set of tools. There is no need to invest!
6. Head-Count
Does it make sense to employ staff who cannot act to add value?
Recruiting has always been time- and cost-intensive, and it´s often unloved as well. Any HR generalist in any HR department knows it, because it too often prevents them from doing important things such as hr development and support, payroll, accounting, compensation and benefits or employer representation in court. Recruiting is an ideal environment to strengthen the own hr department with external partners without increasing the companie's own team.
With RPO, you increase the effectiveness of your HR department without having to increase your own team.
7. Vulnarability of IT-systems
Is your IT fully protected against computer viruses hidden in applications?
In 2016 nearly 1,5 % of all incoming email applications at FEL were infected by viruses. What is the rate in your company?
Any company is targeted by hackers, hiding their viruses in applications. Some made their way through the firewalls and infected internal computer systems, which had to be restored with an huge input of time and money.
FEL deploys three virus protection systems working independently in a chain. Any email attachment will get deep inspected and afterwards converted to one PDF document. This prevents any FEL customer's systems from being infected.
RPO customers are fully protected against computer viruses by application and application attachments, because all applications would be treated by a chain of multiple deep inspection tests.
8. Data protection
Is your recruiting legally compliant in accordance with GDPR?
In May 2018, a new EU data protection regulation was introduced. It regulates the handling of personal data in a binding manner. Applicant data require special treatment:
- They must allow applicants access to their data.
- They must make their data "available" to the applicants on request.
- Applicants have the right to be "forgotten" and their data must be completely erased.
- Applicant data must be kept until their purpose ceases to apply
- Applicants have the right to correct and adapt their data.
- The applicant must be explicitly attuned to data processing.
- The data processing can be contradicted
- You must make the application process transparent to the applicants.
ATTENTION: The in-house distribution of applications by e-mail, undocumented sighting, non-deletion and "feral" Excel lists are vulnarabilities that can result in sensitive fines.
Your RPO partner assures you that all recruiting projects will be handled in accordance with the law by handing over an order processing agreement in accordance with Art. 28 GDPR.
9. Process acceleration
How long is your time-to-hire and what are the time-eaters?
Centralising application management and accelerating the application process are immediate benefits of RPO. An application management system is online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Applicants, process decision-makers and agents have round-the-clock access. SLAs (Service Level Agreements) make the entire process transparent and comprehensible. Statistics and reports help to improve the effectiveness of staffing projects in a continuous improvement process.
Your RPO partner accelerates the recruiting process and implements a CIP in your recruiting.
10. Transparency
How do you rate the success of your recruiting?
Estimation is the most questionable of all methods to evaluate recruitment objectively. Who is involved, which costs are incurred, which methods are the best, how does your own recruiting compare to the competition, which tools bring success?
Very few companies have answers to the above questions. Some simply don't know, others don't want to know.
If you are looking for comprehensible answers, your RPO partner has comprehensive reporting methods to give you a real picture and a reliable factual basis for decisions.
We would like to discuss further benefits for your company. Please drop a note. contact
