A Quick Guide to Understanding

RECRUITMENT PROCESS
OUTSOURCING
A Quick Guide to Recruitment Process Outsourcing

CONTENTS

2 About the Author

3 Introduction
4 The Core Function of RPO
5 Hiring Volatility on the Rise
6 Why Consider RPO?
7 Metrics for Measuring RPO Performance
8 Fears of Adopting RPO
9 A More Capable HR Department
10 The 3 Basic Types of RPO Engagements
11 The 3 Main Reasons RPO Relationships Fail
12 The 6 Do’s and Don’ts in an RPO Relationship
13 Watch the Webinar
14 About Us
15 References
 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Younger is the Chairman and Founder of Accolo, a Dallas-

based recruitment process outsourcing company, and the co-
founder of the Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association
(RPOA). John is a frequent speaker for RPOA and other top
industry organizations.

Self-described as a “recovering” software developer, John came

to recruitment from a systems engineering and programming
background. As a VP of human resources for Bank of America,
John led technical recruitment for an organization of 16,000
people. He also designed and implemented the first on-site
facilitator program with Olsten Corporation for the delivery of
temporary services.

ABOUT THIS E-BOOK

The information presented here was authored by John Younger,

founder of Accolo, Inc.

The contents of this document were produced and published

by the Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association.

© All rights reserved 2016. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the expressed written
permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by
copyright law.

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A Quick Guide to RPO Introduction

SUMMARY

Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) is a form of business process

outsourcing (BPO) where an employer transfers all or part of its
recruitment process to an external service provider. Though it has been
around for 20 years, yet there is still misconception and lack of
understanding of what RPO is.

When implemented correctly, RPO enhances recruiting effectiveness and

gives an organization a competitive advantage. By improving recruiting and
hiring, an organization places the right people in the right positions,
creating an environment where everybody wins: employees are happier,
management is more effective, executives hit their numbers and the
organization overall is better positioned for success.

This book presents recruitment process outsourcing as a viable solution to

present-day hiring challenges. We explore reasons to consider RPO,
metrics for measuring performance, keys for RPO success and pitfalls that
lead to failure. This book is a quick guide for anybody interested in
understanding recruitment process outsourcing. For more resources on
RPO, including a webinar presented by the author, please visit the
Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association at www.rpoassociation.org,
and Accolo at www.accolo.com.

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A Quick Guide to RPO The Core Function of RPO

WAY BACK IN 55 BC…

What do you get when you mix an insatiable desire to conquer

things with the need for a bigger army?

You get the birth of contingency search.

It actually started with Julius Caesar in 55 BC. When he wanted to

conquer more worlds, he needed more men in his army. So he
offered 30% of the annual compensation as a reward to any
member of his army who referred someone else and was
successfully recruited.

He understood something that people only understand on the

fringes even today.

The number one reason companies succeed, struggle or fail is

directly related to who they hire. From the CEO to entry level,
success is invariably one hundred percent tied to who you hire.

And that’s really the core of recruitment process outsourcing as

an industry: managing a company’s process of finding the best
people for the job.

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 A Quick Guide to RPO Hiring Volatility on the Rise

HIRING IS GETTING MORE VOLATILE

Hiring these days is becoming increasingly more volatile, making it

more difficult for employers to consistently fill jobs. A 2014 Jobvite
Job Seeker Nation Study reported that 51% of workers who
currently have a job are either actively seeking, or entertaining a
new job. In January 2016, the median number of years that wage
and salary workers had been with their current employer was 4.2
A Challenging years (down from 4.6 years in January 2014), according to the U.S.
Recruiting
Landscape Bureau of Labor Statistics. Hiring managers and recruiters are
➢ In the 2015 Manpower
Group Talent Shortage finding themselves in an endless cycle of recruiting, filling positions,
Survey, 38% of employers
reported difficulty filling jobs and onboarding new team members.
globally.

➢ According to Glassdoor,
84% of candidates would If hiring is more volatile and elastic, then efficient and effective
consider leaving their current recruiting wins.
company if another company
with an excellent reputation
offered them a job
In today’s hiring landscape, organizations need to be able to:
➢ According to a Harris Poll,
52% of hiring decision makers • Quickly scale to meet dynamic hiring trends.
say passive candidate
sourcing has been less • Ramp down as needs decrease using different engagement
effective for their company. models.
• Replace capital intensive models for ones with predictable
variable costs.

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A Quick Guide to RPO Why Consider RPO?

Rogers’ bell curve 4 REASONS TO CONSIDER RECRUITMENT PROCESS

The technology adoption OUTSOURCING
lifecycle is a sociological
model that describes the 1) Who you hire is KEY
adoption or acceptance of a
new product or innovation, We know that hiring is essential to an organization’s success. RPO’s
according to the
demographic and sole purpose is to enhance and strengthen the effectiveness of that
psychological characteristics
of defined adopter groups. process in order to improve the quality of hire.
The model indicates that the
first group of people to use a
new product is called 2) HR is already stretched pretty thin
"innovators," followed by
"early adopters". Next come Resources are scarce. It’s hard for most internal functions to have
the early majority and late
majority, and the last group the required depth and breath of resources available to support the
to eventually adopt a product
organization.
are called "laggards". -
Wikipedia

3) RPO can function as a natural extension of your team

Your RPO partner operates as an extension of your organization’s
Recommended Reading
resources, expanding your technical capabilities and team capacity.

4) RPO is beginning to become more mainstream

Recruitment process outsourcing is beginning to grow more rapidly
as more organizations begin to adopt RPO as a talent acquisition
strategy. Looking at RPO on an adoption curve, it is likely that RPO
has crossed the adoption chasm into early majority in the
marketplace.

RPO

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A Quick Guide to RPO Metrics for Measuring RPO Performance

Key Metrics for Measuring RPO Performance

How do you measure the performance of an RPO solution? Accolo has done
research across four key recruiting metrics to determine whether RPO has been
Recruiting Cost Ratio effective for their clients.
Here are four metrics used by Accolo to measure the results before and after RPO.
This metric was developed in
cooperation between Accolo
and Staffing.org.
Hiring Manager Satisfaction
It takes the total costs of
recruiting – from the staffing, A measurement of hiring managers’ satisfaction with results.
overhead, job boards, etc –
Before RPO After RPO
divided by the total base
compensation recruited. 43% 88%
Check out the free Recruiting
Cost Ratio Calculator on
Accolo.com
Recruiting Cost Ratio
The total costs of recruiting – from the staffing, overhead, job boards, etc –
Recruiting Cost-Ratio (RCR)
Calculator divided by the total base compensation recruited.
Before RPO After RPO

11.9% 6.5%

USE THE CALCULATOR

Days to Present
The number of days between when the job goes live and when the candidate who
is actually hired is presented to the hiring manager.

Before RPO After RPO

25 days 8 days

Days to Accept
The number of days between when the job goes live to when the candidate
accepts the offer.

Before RPO After RPO

60 days 45 days

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A Quick Guide to RPO Fears of Adopting RPO

What is Recruitment
Process Outsourcing?
WHY ARE COMPANIES AFRAID TO TRY RPO?

Recruitment Process 1) Lack of Understanding

Outsourcing (RPO) is a form of
business process outsourcing As recruitment process outsourcing was gaining popularity, many
(BPO) where an employer
transfers all or part of its staffing agencies started using the label of RPO whilst continuing
recruitment processes to an
external service provider. An to offer essentially the same services they provided as contingent
RPO provider can provide its
own or may assume the search firms, while others claiming to be RPO were nothing more
company’s staff, technology, than the providers of contract recruiters. This caused noise in the
methodologies and reporting.
In all cases, RPO differs marketplace and confusion on the customer side.
greatly from providers such as
staffing companies and
contingent/retained search
providers in that it assumes
ownership of the design and The Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association (RPOA)
management of the
recruitment process and the recognized that RPO is a unique industry requiring a common set of
responsibility of results.
requirements and standards, and was founded in 2005 with the
Formal definition by the mission of educating the market about recruitment process
Recruitment Process
Outsourcing Association outsourcing. In addition to the formal definition of RPO (see side
note), the association provides vast wealth of resources and tools
on its website at www.rpoassociation.org.

What RPO Is NOT

❑ Contingent Search 2) Losing Control
❑ Retained Search Another reason hiring managers and executives are hesitant to
❑ Contract Recruiters
adopt RPO is a fear of losing control.
❑ Staff Augmentation
❑ Candidate Research “I’m not going to let anyone take control of my recruiting function.
Recruiting is way too important.”

In fact, with RPO, HR has more control, more

flexibility, and more resources at their
disposal.

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A Quick Guide to RPO A More Capable HR Department

IMAGINE AN HR LEADER WITH

A Former Hiring
Manager’s Tale

When John Younger was VP of THESE SUPER POWERS

Human Resources at Bank of
America, he tried to create an
internal recruiting agency
inside of their Technology and
CABAPILITIES RESOURCES
Support divisions.

He quickly discovered that he The skills and Human Resource The resources at your disposal to
couldn’t pull enough
resources together. He just expertise to successfully recruit be effective and make the best
didn’t have the structure in talent. use of your time.
place.

The people who were really

good at recruiting didn’t want
to work at Bank of America METRICS ACCOUNTABILITY
because they could be more
successful in that field
somewhere else. The right measurement tools and The goals and direction to ensure
tracking systems to evaluate the everyone is held accountable.
He found that successful
recruiting really boils down to job as it’s done.
three key pieces.

1) Management Hierarchy MANAGEMENT

that supports the
HIERARCHY
implementation of the
process.
The right leaders involved in
2) Appropriate metrics for the execution of RPO.
success that keep everyone
accountable.

3) Capabilities and resources

at your disposal to allow
people to best do their jobs.

RPO provides all these keys of

success.
THAT’S THE POWER OF RPO!

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A Quick Guide to RPO The 3 Basic Types of RPO Engagements

SO YOU’RE READY TO CONSIDER RPO?

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

There are three basic types of RPO engagements
Recruitment process outsourcing offers different engagement
models; RPO is not one-size-fits-all. Below are the three main RPO
engagement types (on-demand, function-based, and full RPO) and
examples of each.

3 BASIC TYPES OF
RPO ENGAGEMENTS
An Overview An Example

A contract-based
engagement with a qualified
If hiring needs suddenly rises,
provider that knows the
you can pick up the phone
company, their messaging,
On- and have the RPO’s recruiters
their processes and the
Demand results they need. The
on the job as if they were
simply an extension of the
contract specifies a defined
hiring manager’s own team.
number of roles within a
defined period of time.
The RPO provider takes a
The company’s internal
piece of the company’s
resources are meeting the
recruiting needs entirely off
Function- company’s recruiting needs,
the company’s plate (e.g.,
Are you looking for Vetted Based the IT department or an
but have one specific division
RPO Providers? that requires more aggressive
entire division of the
and complicated hiring.
organization).
Search and connect with
vetted RPO providers for When the RPO vendor
Every piece of the company’s
your specific recruiting needs provides a company’s entire
recruiting process, such as
in the RPO Discover Center. internal recruiting function
Full RPO sourcing, marketing,
including access to the
interviewing, etc. is included
provider’s full breadth of
in the RPO contract.
resources.

BUT NOTHING IS PERFECT EVERY TIME.

WHEN PARTNERSHIPS DON’T WORK OUT, WHY DO

RPO RELATIONSHIPS FAIL?

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A Quick Guide to RPO The 3 Reasons RPO Relationships Fail

THE 3 PRIMARY REASONS

RPO RELATIONSHIPS FAIL
When RPO relationships go poorly there is usually a failure in one of
these three areas:
Structural – Lacking the necessary support from upper management
when implementing RPO, or taking shortcuts with implementation.
Procedural – When a company has a process for recruiting that was
designed around the process first, and not the hiring first.
Contractual – The agreement doesn’t properly outline the goals and
objectives for the engagement, setting both parties up for failure.

THE 2 PEOPLE THAT MATTER MOST IN AN RPO

RELATIONSHIP
The two most important people in the hiring process are the hiring
manager and the best-fit candidate. The process, resources and
measurement should be designed around those two people. We
can’t just pave over the old process and expect a different result.

HIRING MANAGER BEST CANDIDATE

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A Quick Guide to RPO The 6 Do’s & Don’ts in an RPO Relationship

PREPARING FOR SUCCESS IN AN

RPO RELATIONSHIP

Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) can be great for your company’s

recruiting and human resource functions, but both the company and the RPO
provider need to do the work up front to avoid potential pitfalls that can
contribute to failure.

THE 6 DO’S & DON’TS IN AN RPO RELATIONSHIP

DOS DON’T’S
Focus on the hires first Get sidetracked with process

1 You have to center your recruiting process

around the candidate first.
Resist the urge to focus on process for the sake of
process. It only slows down the RPO
implementation.
Get executive buy-in Miss executive support and visibility

2 Getting key leaders on board with your

mission is essential to getting the results
You need an Executive Sponsor who can oversee and
adopt processes and changes necessary for the RPO
you want. implementation.
Determine the metrics up front Unclearly define success

3 Work with your provider to determine how

you plan to measure your progress during
Failure to define measures of success up front
results in tough conversations down the road if
the engagement. things aren’t perfectly rosy.
Listen to the RPO Force inappropriate or inefficient technologies into

4 While you determine the goals and results,

you’ve outsourced the “how.” They’re the
the process
Don't force your RPO provider to adopt a technology
experts. Let the pros do their jobs. that they don’t need or that won’t help the process.
Use pre-implementation hiring manager Mis-engage hiring managers and interview teams
surveys You have to involve the right people in the process
5 Use these to have a baseline for where you
started and show the progress you’ve
and make sure the level of engagement is
communicated up front.
made.
Build in quarterly results incentives Go for the lowest bidder
Give your RPO provider and internal The lowest bidder doesn’t always get the job done.
6 resources a reason to work hard to reach
their goals. The results for your company
You may save initially, but lose when the results
aren’t up to par.
will be worth it.

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A Quick Guide to RPO Watch Webinar

Time to Consider RPO

TURN YOUR HR FUNCTION
INTO A STRATEGIC
EXECUTIVE RESOURCE

Learn how to establish

an RPO relationship
that lasts and what to
avoid

Watch Webinar

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A Quick Guide to RPO Download eBook

Learn about RPO for smaller organizations.

Download eBook Now

- 14 -
 About Us

Recruitment Process Outsourcing Accolo

Association
The Recruitment Process Outsourcing Accolo is a US-focused recruitment process
Association is the only professional association outsourcing (RPP) company that was founded
serving the global RPO community. Our upon a simple premise: there had to be a better
members are talent acquisition professionals way to connect the two people who matter the
passionate about the impact recruitment most in the recruit-to-hire process — the hiring
process outsourcing has on individuals' manager and the best-fit candidate.
satisfaction and organizations' business success.
Given the unpredictable nature of hiring and the
Our great purpose is to advance, elevate, and rise of web-based applicant tracking systems,
promote recruitment process outsourcing as a job aggregation sites and social networks, we
strategic hiring solution for organizations set out to develop a unified and stream-lined
seeking to reach their highest potential through recruiting platform to identify, recruit and hire
their people. your most critical asset — high performing
employees.
We nurture a collaborative community where
thought leadership can be created and curated Since our inception in 2000, Accolo has refined
to educate the marketplace about recruitment our data-driven, patented recruiting process to
process outsourcing. We strive to be a globally now offer our clients full service, scalable
recognized authority whose leadership, recruitment process outsourcing solutions for
perspective, resources and expertise people small, mid-size and enterprise businesses.
turn to in order to best navigate the critical
emerging and present talent acquisition issues
affecting their business.

14621 Charter Walk Place 3130 Maple Loop Drive Ste. 204
Midlothian, VA 23114 Lehi, UT 84043

Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]

Web: www.rpoassociation.org Toll free: +1 877.422.2656

Ph: 804-897-1310 Direct: +1 415.785.7833

/rpoassociation @rpoassociation /accolo @AccoloRPO

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 References

1 Jobvite (2014). Jobvite Job Seeker Nation Study

2 ManpowerGroup (2015). Talent Shortage Survey

3 Corporate Responsibility Magazine (2012). Employment Cost of a Bad

Reputation Survey

4 Glassdoor (2015). Talent Wars Heating Up: Glassdoor Survey

5 Wikipedia. Technology adoption life cycle

6 Moore, Geoffrey. (2014). Crossing the Chasm, 3rd Edition: Marketing

and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers

Last updated: December, 2018

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