Magna Global HR – 2015

Recruitment Process Outsourcing offers many benefits – when it is set up correctly. In a true RPO partnership between client and provider, RPO includes the total management and ownership of the recruitment function.
In fact, more and more organizations are using RPO as a long-term strategic initiative especially to help identify critical talent for positions which are tied to organizational performance and productivity. RPO is not seen just as a “quick fix” for organizing or improving the recruitment process any more. The strategic benefit of using a Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) partner is to extend talent acquisition beyond the existing channels like job boards or social media marketing through a strong sourcing approach. This results in better quality of candidates, and helps organizations to gain a competitive edge in the marketplace.
Whether companies need support for parts of their hiring process, or choose to outsource the whole recruitment process to allow their HR professionals to focus on the core business, recruitment process outsourcing results in the following:

improvement of the quality of hires and presented candidates
reduction of the cost of hire
increase in speed of hire
creation of a larger talent pool for future recruitment
improvement of tracking, reporting and auditing the recruitment function
provides a scalable recruitment process

Through strong Service Levels Agreements (SLAs) the performance of an RPO provider can be measured against an organization’s internal targets and expectations. SLAs can be aligned to the improvements of what a company wants to achieve in the talent acquisition function and normally include a measure of time to hire, cost per hire (i.e. compared to external agencies), and hiring manager satisfaction.
The better an RPO provider is integrated in the HR organization and the less the provider is seen as an outside vendor, the better the results are. The RPO partner takes the time to learn and adapt their client company’s culture and values – as their own employees would.

The Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association defines RPO as follows: “When a provider acts as a company’s internal recruitment function for a portion or all of its jobs. RPO providers manage the entire recruiting/hiring process from job profiling through to the onboarding of the new hire, including staff, technology, and method and reporting. A properly managed RPO solution will improve a company’s time to hire, increase the quality of the candidate pool, provide verifiable metrics, reduce cost and improve governmental compliance”

Outsourced activities range from strategic (workforce planning) to the administrative (generating offer letters) and nearly always involve sourcing candidates. The services firm may be responsible for all hiring of a certain class of worker, such as non-exempt positions. Contract recruiters may be located at a client site, but often service the client remotely. Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) services firms may help a company re-engineer its recruiting department by standardizing processes; they may write job descriptions; they may facilitate the transition from candidate to new hire. Whatever the flavor, they are expected to enhance the quality of the candidates delivered to hiring managers, and they are expected to demonstrate the effectiveness of their sourcing methods.

A Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) provider can reduce recruiting costs by streamlining the recruiting process for the client. In addition, they can also help them discover how best to source strong candidates for their available roles for less money and in a shorter period of time. RPO providers achieve this so well because it is one of their primary capabilities and of course it is their core business.

The RPO process provides a number of other key benefits to businesses; it provides room for scalability and flexibility to the needs of the client along with a streamlined talent pipeline. Not only does it offer an efficient staff sourcing and time to hire function, but it also greatly simplifies the exiting of staff. The onboarding facility of the service ensures that a steady flow of knowledgeable and high-quality, skilled candidates are constantly being developed as needed by the business. Additionally, the improved efficiency can be managed through verifiable metrics and tightly integrated quality control.

With Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), businesses have peace of mind that their recruitment partner has an intimate knowledge of their needs and understand exactly how best to save client time and money.
Recruitment process outsourcing is still new for a lot of companies. Some may not realize that there are options in how to outsource or to improve their recruiting process, while others may stick with other solutions because that’s the way it’s always done and that’s the way the boss likes to do things. However, if you’re serious about RPO and really want to know what it could do for your organization, then here are the awesome benefits of RPO.

Today corporate’s pay an Executive Search Professional anything up to USD 200K to search a right professional for their enterprise. Quite often people ask me why one would pay so much for finding an employee when there’s so much unemployment around. Answer is that unemployment is at lower level or at entry level due to skill mismatch or lack of information. At senior/top level there is an acute shortage of talent. Not only that, at senior level professionals do have their choices and apprehensions that makes match making very difficult. There’s saying “Executive Search Professional does not hunt those who hunt jobs”.

One of the most important roles of an Executive Search Professional is to develop a communication without exaggeration to entice the person to take career decision in favor of the opportunity presented. We have heard how Steve job convinced John Sculley from Pepsi to join Apple by asking Sculley “Do you want to sell sugared water for the rest of your life? Or do you want to come with me and change the world?” Above statement by Steve jobs depicts an art to entice an unwilling individual. Sculley proved to be most successful CEO later on. Believe me it is no easy to attract good talent when prospective employer is small and does have the matching brand equity. In early 2001 , one of my clients, a most reputed Real Estate Conglomerate at Mumbai, wanted to diversify in IT/ ITEs and was willing to invest USD 20 million in cash capital apart from lending Real Estate but no established IT CEO was willing to join them, due to obvious apprehensions. We released a half page camouflaged Advert in India & , USA, spending close to USD 100K ,mentioning Mid/ senior level positions to announce seriousness of their intent and willingness to spend. Then we identified 14 successful CEOs from IT Industry whom I had known otherwise and sent them the advert cutting requesting them to refer someone from their network for CEO position for this company. Seven of them reverted asking golden question “Who are the promoters?” and search story begins. Five of them were eventually presented to our client and one out of them joined. Some time you need to show intent in action to shake their apprehensions.

Foundation of Executive Search is research & knowledge on the DNAs of the Companies & Professionals operating in the sector of one’s specialization. It is all about reading the undercurrents of the industry and understanding professional whims and fancies of the individuals. Many confuse Executive Search Consultancy with low end recruitment Agency. Lower level recruiting is more mechanical process & number game coupled with filtering skills. One should not expect from a contingent recruiter to develop such communications strategies.

Executive Search is used by all but it is boon for SMEs who need good talent to grow their business but does not have requisite size and brand equity. At the time when Steve Job proposed John Sculley, Pepsi was global giant and Apple a pygmy. How does one convince a professional to join a small upcoming company with low paying capability is both science & art that Executive Search Professional need to exercise. Recently I was introduced to one Mid-size industrialist whose company was not doing well and wanted a Professional to turn around. But industrialist reacted sharply & negatively to my poking questions to understand the reasons for his company’s sickness. Guess what, meeting lasted just five minutes and I have to decline the mandate. If you are a Promoter / Businessman wanting to hire the services of an Executive Search Professional, my advice to you is to find a good Executive Search Professional through validated references and be transparent with that Professional to get the best out of him/her. Do not hesitate to share with them inner woes. Because an Executive Search Professional needs to understand clearly the type of person needed to do your assignment successfully. He/she needs to be clear on “must have” strengths and ill-affordable Limitations of the prospective individual if he has to do a good job. As such all of us are under the oath of secrecy & Non Disclosures. Many of the seasoned industrialists spend few minutes extra with their trusted Head Hunter because Executive Search Professionals are supposed to be very authentic source to find or validate the undercurrents of Industry or to know new good practices. Executive Search Professionals interacts with many successful Executives in the industry and are privy to many happenings & analytics in the industry

And if you are a talented individual, then best is to network with an Executive Search Professional much before you need them. Best time is when you are just getting out of middle management getting into general management roles. And if you are already at senior level looking for a change, then do connect with ones you had networked in past but don’t solely depend upon them. The reason is that an Executive Search Professional is driven solely by the needs of its clients and has very limited wherewithal to push someone through unless his/her mandate warrant it. It would be only a coincidence if Executive Search Professional happened to place you when you connected for a change. Of course one specializing in your sector will have better access and better chance to place you. But do keep in mind that an Executive Search is a very low volume business; they place not more than 1% of people they meet or know. You can use your relations to take their inputs to make better career decisions or to get deep insight on a company of your interest. A knowledgeable Executive Search Professional can prove to be a good sounding board. Executive Search Professional will invest his time in you if he/ she see a potential in you and you had maintained relationships. But don’t expect them to share beyond a limit as most of us are bound by our ethics and Non-Disclosure commitments.

Executive Search is all about relationship. Most of us have relationships with our customers & candidates that go back more than a decade. Two years ago, I placed a person, for the position of Managing Director with one of my old European clients, whom I had known for over a decade but never placed him before. During this period, this gentleman conferred with me for 3 to 4 times regarding his career moves. Thanks to this I understood that he thrives in chaos. All his successful innings were in troubled companies and he turned out to be virtual status quo manager in a stable company. So this time I have to really impress upon my client to push hard his candidature because the said company was in all sorts of troubles including the treason by local JV partner. In Last two years, this gentleman had sorted out all problems and put the company on comeback trail. You must have guessed it already; soon it is going to be the time to hand over company to someone else.

It would make a sense to keep in touch with Head Hunter just the way you connect with your doctor even when healthy. But refrain from asking oft asked question “How’s the job market these days? “ as there exists no such market. And if you consider your talent a commodity then you are not worth a search by Executive Search Professional.

Monthly Archives: February 2015

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