HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE RPO?

The general definition of an RPO is when a company outsources a portion or all of their full-time talent acquisition to an external vendor. The vendor effectively becomes an extension of the client and supports the entire recruiting process. At Evergreen and Insight Global, some of the ways we look at RPO include:

  • As a talent-focused, strategic partnership designed to drive business results.
  • As a relationship with our clients where we’re accountable for filling a number of exclusive roles and providing consultative results.
  • And as a service that goes beyond “filling the reqs.” For us, this means managing the actual process and providing reporting that’s tied to KPIs and SLAs.

WHEN YOU SAY, “A STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP,” WHAT DOES THAT LOOK LIKE IN ACTION?

Ultimately, it means that we’re working collaboratively with our clients to ensure business needs are being fulfilled.

The foundation for this partnership is laid out in our discovery phase, which is the first pillar of our implementation for RPO. We take this time to understand what our client’s current processes are, what their current tooling is, and any dependencies that we should be aware of. If they don’t have tooling we can recommend a software solution we use internally.

Then we help identify and develop what the client’s hiring requirements are and define what the recruiting workflow looks like, from our team handing off a candidate to a hiring manger, to the client interviewing and hiring a candidate after they’re screened by us.

The last thing we do during this foundational stage is provide our client with best practice recommendations such as crafting in-depth candidate profiles for each role. For example, some of our partners might inadvertently be writing non-inclusive job descriptions. That’s an opportunity for us to come in with our Insight Global DE&I partners and have their assistance in rewriting the job descriptions.

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO GET THE “STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP” PIECE RIGHT?

It’s critical.

A lot of the time what we see our partners dealing with is a protracted talent acquisition process. Maybe it’s their internal TA team, or maybe it’s another vendor, but the issue is often that the recruitment process isn’t moving quickly enough or offers aren’t being given fast enough. If both sides of the partnership, both the vendor and the client, aren’t on the same page about working together efficiently, then no improvements can be made.

WHAT ARE SOME THINGS CLIENTS CAN BE DOING TO BUILD UP THE PARTNERSHIP ON THEIR END?

Fully buying into the strategic partnership is really important. As I just mentioned, taking recommendations from the vendor and adjusting how candidates are handled at each stage in the recruitment process is what’s going to drive meaningful change.

Also, sticking to the communication plan set at the beginning of the partnership is imperative. And not only is it important to drive communication between the vendor and the client, but there’s also an organizational change perspective that needs to be considered. Employees are generally resistant to change, especially if they don’t understand the “why.” Being a consultative RPO vendor is helping everyone who touches the partnership on the client side understand the “why” behind the recruitment process changes and what the expected outcomes are going to be.