Why outsource your recruitment?

When recruiting for new talent, finding the right person for the right role is vitally important. Failure to do so can be time-consuming and costly. If the candidate doesn't work out, the whole process has to begin again, with still no guarantee that prospect number two will be the right one. Placing your recruitment in the hands of a professional company is known as Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO). More and more businesses are recognising it as the best and most cost-effective solution, and here are five reasons why.

The cost of recruitment

On the face of it, finding candidates for a vacancy doesn't sound expensive. But it could end up costing you a lot more than you think. Advertising costs alone can quickly escalate, particularly if the first hire is a bad one and the process has to be repeated. If the workload can't be covered by existing personnel, you may need to hire temporary staff until the vacancy is filled. The process also involves background checks, interviews and initial training, which could take existing employees away from their core tasks. This in turn could result in reduced efficiency and further financial repercussions.

When you outsource recruitment to a professional company, you hand these responsibilities to the experts. The cost of doing so is likely to be considerably less than keeping them in-house.

Finding the right candidates

We know that finding the right candidates is key, and this is at the heart of what recruitment companies do. A professional recruitment service will have the knowledge, expertise and network required to find the right person for a particular role. A hiring manager may only look for applicants when a vacancy arises. A recruitment company, on the other hand, has access to a regular turnover of talented candidates. Recruiters know exactly where to look, and understand the specific individual qualities they're searching for. That in-depth data on both employers and potential employees make the task of finding the perfect fit much smoother. They are also well practised in the best way to approach a candidate, all of which adds up to a faster, more efficient process.

In short, RPO will not only improve your recruitment process but also the quality of the candidates.

Getting on with business

The amount of time and effort required to find new employees can have a detrimental effect on how a business runs. Apart from diverting employees from their regular tasks, it can also put a strain on office morale. This can be especially damaging if a high volume of vacancies need to be filled on a seasonal basis. That can have a knock-on effect on company efficiency, which in turn can affect sales and reputation. RPO providers, however, are ideally placed to handle such situations quickly and effectively. This leaves company managers free to focus on the important task of running the business.

Why waste time and personnel on searching for new recruits, when there are specialist companies out there dedicated to that task?

Lowering your turnover rate

A high turnover rate can be a problem, both strategically and financially. Having to constantly train new employees will inevitably affect the productivity of existing ones. High turnover doesn't mean you're a bad company to work for, and may simply be due to the difficulty of finding the right people. Unfortunately, this can have a damaging effect on future projects and prevent your business from moving forward as planned. Many of these issues can be traced back to the recruitment process. As we've already established, it takes time, knowledge and resources, and this is precisely what an RPO provider will offer. They understand company culture and have the experience to identify the most suitable candidates for their clients.

Keeping your employees happy isn't all about incentive bonuses and free lunches. It's more about finding the right people in the first place, and the best way to do that is to use a professional recruiter.

Using the data

RPO providers work with businesses rather than for them. This involves the constant gathering of data throughout what may be multiple recruitment processes. Analysis of this data allows a recruitment company to identify areas where improvements can be made. Real-time reporting and analytics is resulting in greater efficiency and better success rates for recruiters and their clients. Basing decisions on previous scenarios can make the whole process faster and less fraught with uncertainty. This ongoing learning process is an integral element of the relationship between a business and a recruitment company, and its value to the business is easy to underestimate. That could be a mistake.

So why outsource recruitment? The simple answer is, it makes sense.