5 Benefits of RPO Services You Didn’t Know About
In this era of outsourcing, Recruitment Process Outsourcing is yet another feather in the cap. In this form of business process outsourcing, the entire gamut of activities related to recruiting is outsourced by an employer to a third party service provider. The erstwhile system of providing need-based recruitment support or temporary and role specific support is being fast replaced by RPO services. Globally, corporate houses, are finding it easier to assign the dedicated task of recruitment to an external source who in turn handles the job with much more flair and focus, the area being their forte.
The age of specialization calls for services to be handled by skilled personnel or service providers. Hence RPO is finding more and more acceptance in the present business and economic milieu and defining the labor market from a new perspective.
Another close concept is HRO or Human Resources Outsourcing, which refers to outsourcing of the various HR activities which include the jobs of HR system management, benefits and compensation management, performance management etcetera. Therefore, RPO can be called a subset of HRO.
The following is attempted to summarize the benefits of RPO:
- RPOs reduce cost by virtue of economies of scale and economies of scope. Simply put, the parent company saves on cost because the third party source is able to operate at a lower cost with maximum specialization.
- The parent company or the employer can realize better performance in its core activities by outsourcing the recruitment process to a third party. By not having to involve in activities that are outside the scope of their core job, they can focus better, invest more time and achieve improved performance on the main activity which brings them business.
- RPOs deliver better quality because of the manifest reason that their job is focused primarily on one activity, that is, recruitment. Specific SLAs or Service Level Agreements are formed between the employer and the RPO. Most RPOs, in order to uphold their reputation, will go the extra mile to strictly adhere to such SLAs thereby ensuring quality in performance.
- RPO ensures tapping of the best resources. Since the recruitment companies are expert agents, they have at their tips the best sources and the best methods to bring in quality human resources in today’s competitive labor market. They invest their time and skill to find out where to look for the best candidate for a job and also how to provide the best suited job to an aspiring candidate.
- RPO services can effectively convert fixed investment costs to variable costs which can be adjusted according to the variations in the recruitment activities. Very often the activity is based on cost per transaction rather than cost per staff to avoid layoffs when business is dull.
While the new buzz of RPO is creating hullabaloo in the Corporate Industry, it is advisable to check credentials of the third party before assigning a contract. New players are joining the market almost daily with claims of success. Further, important is to assess whether the goals and ideologies of the company are in sync with the employer and whether both would be able to work in tandem. It would pay off to have a look at their past experiences and clientele before dispensing a job that is crucial to a company’s growth and perhaps existence.
