RPO Solutions — What is it and why would companies need it?

Published on 08 October 2012

Written by Beth Smith

In 15+ years of Information Technology Recruiting, I have never seen a market deficit of great talent as large of the one of Fall 2012. Even in 1999, when a fresh college graduate with a few Java classes under his belt could command a nice salary as a software developer and even get a bonus car leased for joining a firm- but in 2012 the job market has changed. Gone are the “glory days” of software development, and welcome to the new Cloud Based Infrastructure, IaaS, SaaS and basically EVERYTHING IT “as a service” era.

Corporate recruiters can no longer “post jobs and pray that candidates apply” - everyone has to hunt and compete for the right talent. Agencies usually stay on the edge of this challenge, financially investing heavily in Recruiters with deep sourcing skills: Recruiters that spider the Internet, flip websites and write long Boolean streams. Recruiters that are technically savvy and charismatic. Recruiters that are not afraid to direct dial into companies and entice the best of the best to look for a richer opportunity.

With the talent deficient, the most innovative companies that need top talent are using an RPO Solution. An RPO - Recruitment Process Outsourcing is a form of business process outsourcing (BPO) where an employer outsources or transfers all or part of its recruitment activities to an external service provider. The advantage is that companies can leverage the hunters at an agency and gain an SME account manager that is heavily invested in growing the company’s talent pool. Often times the RPO Account/Engagement manager supports the corporation by being on site. This resource is available to meet internal hiring managers at a moment’s notice, and backed by a team of top notch recruiters that have already pipelined technologies specifically for the customer.

In this kind of market, organizations should look for an RPO Solution with lower costs because this will help economies of scale to offer recruitment processes at a lower cost while economies of scope will allow them to operate as high-quality specialists. Those economies of scale and scope arise from having an SME on each client’s technology and culture, along with providing a large staff of recruiters, databases of candidate resumes, and investing in recruitment tools and networks. RPO solutions change fixed investment costs into variable costs that flex with fluctuation in the recruitment activity.

It’s exciting times in IT Talent Acquisition! 

Beth Smith
Director of Professional Services