We have been made aware that someone using the name ‘Scarlett from Hudson RPO’ has been contacting individuals about job opportunities.  This is a scam and does not emanate from any employee within our company.  Please refer to Scam Warning – Hudson RPO to learn more.

Content Team

Matthew De Salvo: Finding a fulfilling career

Matthew De Salvo: Finding a fulfilling career

Content Team

Matthew is a prime example of the calibre of professionals you find in an RPO business. With over 17 years in the recruitment industry, he has a wealth of knowledge and skills to support our clients, his team, and many other departments in our business. His extensive experience in RPO, agency and in-house makes him an invaluable resource for those looking to learn more about the industry and what it means to work for an RPO.

The road to RPO

Matthew has worked in recruitment since the very beginning of his career. After working for a recruitment agency for the first 18 months, he realised he was predominantly upselling rather than spending time understanding clients and helping them succeed.

“I didn’t want to be a salesperson. I wanted to work in an HR environment. I was looking to meet with clients, fully understand their needs, and identify people that would best fit those needs.”

After doing some research, he discovered RPO – which at the time was a relatively new business model in Australia. He loved it from day one. It meant having all the aspects of recruitment he enjoyed most without any other sales, allowing him to focus entirely on matching clients and job seekers and driving their recruitment strategy forward. 

team members in protective gear
“Working in an RPO, I know there is expertise I can rely on. If I bump into a contractual issue, need marketing support, an IT or ATS specialist, I know I can pick up the phone and ask for help.”

More support, more success

After three years in RPO, he took on an opportunity to work for an internal, fully integrated team. He explains that even though it offered him broader HR and Internal Recruitment experience, something was missing.

“I missed the support and the expertise I could turn to at an RPO, even though our team was quite sizeable. There was little career trajectory, training, and ongoing support, which encouraged me to apply to a role at Hudson RPO,” explains Matt. 

At Hudson RPO, we know talent when we see it, and we were lucky to welcome Matthew back to our team. And it’s not just recruitment that Matthew excels at in our business. Matthew has successfully launched new accounts across different industries and has been involved in many projects to help improve our business and how we support our clients. 

“Working in an RPO, I know there is expertise I can rely on. If I bump into a contractual issue, need marketing support, an IT or ATS specialist, I know I can pick up the phone and ask for help. It’s all at my fingertips, allowing me to focus on what I am passionate about,” he says.

The benefits of an RPO career

There are many benefits to working for an RPO. RPO professionals often mention the support, career growth and exposure to different clients. Another one is job security. Matthew explains that he’s often seen internal and agency teams downsize when the market has been slow. But in an RPO environment the first port of call has always been to look for opportunities for our employees across our various solutions. With clients across all industries and of all sizes, our business is accustom to finding internal opportunities for our people, when and if the need arises. 

And let’s not forget about culture. Being part of an RPO means that you will be fully embedded in your client’s team, but you also have the foundation of Hudson RPO.

“I could list more than 20 people who I think are amazing within the broader Hudson RPO team, but what it comes down to is I haven’t found a better group of people to work with. Having two teams might sound like a lot, but it really means a wealth of expertise and support surrounds me at all times,” explains Matthew.  

Another highlight for Matthew is the focus on the quality of service above all else. This means there is always something to get involved in such as projects and initiatives. For Matthew, this was largely getting to launch new solutions for new clients.

“In the last five years, I have been involved in two solutions. Even in challenging times like COVID-19 and rising interest rates, our focus has remained on quality, partnering and adding value over anything else. It’s not about revenue; it’s about delivery,” he says. 

Finally, the benefit of flexibility can’t be understated. For Matthew, this means making his work fit into his broarder lifestyle and the things that are most important to him.

“Hudson RPO doesn’t just offer flexible working; it is encouraged. I can now drop my son off at school or have lunch with my wife for the first time in my career. If you deliver your work requirements, you can make your work-life balance work for your lifestyle,” says Matthew.  

An RPO solution allows your organization to flex talent acquisition headcount up and down as hiring needs change.

Is RPO your next move?

Are you interested in a career in RPO? Click here to read more about life at Hudson RPO or find all our open roles here.

Hudson RPO

Content Team

The Hudson RPO Content Team is made up of experts within the Talent Acquisition industry across the Americas, EMEA and APAC regions. They provide educational and critical business insights in the form of research reports, articles, news, videos, podcasts, and more. The team ensures high-quality content that helps all readers make talent decisions with confidence.

Related articles

Meet Stephen Fitzgerald – Director of Technology & Innovation, APAC

Meet Stephen Fitzgerald – Director of Technology & Innovation, APAC

Content Team

We know recruitment technology plays an increasingly vital role in any talent acquisition strategy. When woven into the end-to-end recruitment lifecycle, it has the potential to influence brand perceptions, elevate candidate experience and deliver efficiencies in the process.

However, deciding on what technology is suitable for your organization can be challenging. In addition, the tech market is ever-changing, with new vendors entering the market. So how do you keep abreast of what is happening?

Meet Stephen Fitzgerald, responsible for designing and leading the technology functions across our Asia Pacific operations. He keeps our clients informed of the latest technology and supports them in deciding what technology is best for their needs. In this two-part series, we ask Steve about his role, how he keeps ahead of the Recruitment technology market and what the future holds.

What do you love most about your role?

There are so many elements of my role that I love. First, there’s exposure to a whole range of interesting and passionate clients and helping them understand their needs and deliver a solution. 

I enjoy the operational elements, the change and complexity and thinking through and diagnosing what someone needs and how to link it to a solution. Then there is the vendor side which is such a complex world. There is a vast network of vendors and learning about their research and development journey is fascinating.

It is a great feeling knowing you are part of this movement, shifting how we approach talent acquisition, enabling change, and seeing it come to life. 

What piece of technology or a specific project you worked on in the past year has significantly impacted our clients?

We supported many clients with the implementation of several systems spanning the various touch points in the recruitment process. Most of these focused on automation and using AI to find the right people and upskill their talent programs. 

Many of our clients upgraded their ATS to enable them to benefit from automation and AI for candidate matching and attraction. Other clients used similar technology to automate reference checking and interview scheduling. And finally, we supported a number of clients who renewed their assessment platforms, leveraging technologies like predictive assessments or automated screening to measure the likeliness that someone is the right hire for the role.

Our focus is on ensuring the technology is current and delivering to what our clients need. The pandemic forced many of them to modernize their technology and recruitment processes. For some, this occurred several times throughout the year with us, with minimal disruption to their recruitment activity, allowing them to modernize technology and systems across all touchpoints of the recruitment process. 

What is your process when you are implementing technology to support the client?

One of the most critical elements of a technology program is defining what success looks like right from the get-go. What are the pain points for the client right now? What are the results they would want to see? Defining these is part of the transformation process. It anchors our conversations throughout the implementation in terms of how things are going, how we can improve candidate satisfaction, and how we measure success.  

We also conduct a post-implementation review where we look at the goals we set and the improvements so we can put a program of continuous improvement in place. It is not a typical system implementation; it is a series of transformative steps of which system implementation is just one. 

Stephen at the Aspire Awards
"One of the most critical elements of a technology program is defining what success looks like right from the get-go."

And how do you go about evaluating and selecting what technology becomes part of the tools that we recommend to our clients?

Our methodology looks at the core elements that form part of that technology category. There are about 16 different technology categories relevant to resourcing for talent acquisition. Within those core areas, we believe certain features are essential; we evaluate those against the products and assess how well they can deliver benefits against each of these categories. 

When we provide recommendations to our clients, we take the time to help them define what they are looking for and what the quantification is of what they hope to achieve. What works for graduate recruitment may not work for high touch senior and executive search recruitment. We help the client develop the business case and then evaluate the market for the right technology solution. 

There is not just one product that we recommend every time. Each client and situation are unique, so we look at the scenario and what the client wants to achieve. We then circle back to our research to determine what technology can best deliver against that. Finally, we invite the vendor to come in and demonstrate their case to the client, after which we work on a concrete recommendation on the best product to deploy.

What advice would you give to people looking at recruitment technology?

Be prepared to spend a lot of time in product demos and talking to users about their experiences. Then, separate the sales pitch from the actual benefits realized in the user experience. The system might be fantastic and have all the bells and whistles, but will it deliver against your needs? Is it going to be engaged with and is user adoption going to be high? The system you adopt is only ever as good as the user adoption. So, talk to as many people as you can to get a clear picture of what is essential, and do not get too caught up in endless feature offerings.

In part two of our series, Steve talks about technology trends and what the future might look like for talent acquisition. 

Hudson RPO

Content Team

The Hudson RPO Content Team is made up of experts within the Talent Acquisition industry across the Americas, EMEA and APAC regions. They provide educational and critical business insights in the form of research reports, articles, news, videos, podcasts, and more. The team ensures high-quality content that helps all readers make talent decisions with confidence.

Related articles

This year’s recruitment technology trends according to our tech expert Stephen

This year’s recruitment technology trends according to our tech expert Stephen

Content Team

Deciding on the right technology for a recruitment process can be challenging. The technology market is ever changing, and new vendors are continually entering the market. Every development in the tech space has implications for recruitment processes, candidate expectations, and how we can optimize our talent processes. How to keep up with changes in an already rapidly evolving world of work?

Stephen Fitzgerald, our Technology Director in Asia Pacific, shares his insights on what the future holds for recruitment technology. Curious about his role and how helps our clients? Read the first part of our series here.

How do you keep abreast of technology in the HR space, and how does Hudson RPO manage innovation and technology as a global organisation?

Together with the technology experts from our other regions, we are continuously researching products on the market. This is an exciting but challenging journey, as every quarter new products are launched, and existing products are launching new features. We take demos of different products and compare them all the time, ranging from interview scheduling technology to internal mobility platforms and everything in between.

There are so many great technology products out there, so it is not just about understanding the technology. It is about understanding our clients, their challenges, and what technology would best fit the results they are looking to achieve.

When you look back on the last 2 years, what changes have you seen in technology?

I think of the changes the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about in the world of technology as an acceleration, rather than a change. Technological programs and processes became more focussed on automation, self-service, and workflow scenarios. The pandemic has increased an awareness that there are different ways of working, and that the technology enabling that is accelerating and adapting. As a result, processes can become more agile, remote, and less dependent on human interactions. Automation and AI are the biggest technologies that underpin that development.

Stephen at conference
“I think of the changes the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about in the world of technology as an acceleration, rather than a change.”

And what are your insights on the trends that you are seeing in HR technology at the moment?

Currently there is a big shift towards enterprise-wide human capital management (HCM) platforms, which include recruitment modules. We have seen clients move towards such systems in search for a solution in which recruitment functions, like an ATS, are fully integrated into workforce management and insights. This allows them to forego expensive and complicated integrations while seamlessly integrating recruitment systems.

What does the future look like?

I am excited about several things in the future. Firstly, as talent acquisition evolves, I believe we will start looking more at holistic workforce technologies, involving components of external markets and labour market quantification, brining workforce planning to a new level.

Secondly, I see an opportunity in contingent workforce planning technologies. We are only just at the beginning of contingent workforce systems, and as we move towards a gig-based economy, there is a big future in that area. Other elements of the recruitment process will continue to be automated, improving candidate experience while freeing up time and capacity for recruiters and business leaders to spend meaningful time with candidates.

Hudson RPO

Content Team

The Hudson RPO Content Team is made up of experts within the Talent Acquisition industry across the Americas, EMEA and APAC regions. They provide educational and critical business insights in the form of research reports, articles, news, videos, podcasts, and more. The team ensures high-quality content that helps all readers make talent decisions with confidence.

Related articles

How to overcome talent shortages in the Medical Device Industry

How to overcome talent shortages in the Medical Device Industry

Content Team

The rapidly evolving Medical Device Industry, spurred by developments in technology and the global pandemic, is facing an all-familiar challenge: a talent shortage. The pool of highly specialized talent to fill positions in the Medical Device industry has always been slim, but hiring managers are now finding themselves competing for talent from other industries too.

Plan development and succession to utilize niche medical expertise

Take for example the shortage of regulatory affairs specialists. Since the introduction of the EU MDR – a set of regulations for companies that want to sell their devices on the European market – US companies have had to rethink their approval and compliance procedures, causing a surge in the need for regulatory affairs and quality assurance experts.

Traditionally, many regulatory affairs specialists were recruited via competitors and persuaded with competitive salary packages. But now that more senior specialists approach retirement, the group of available graduates interested in a regulatory affairs career seems increasingly small. This presents a problem that stretches far beyond the medical device industry, as the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation have linked the regulatory affairs shortage directly to obstructions in timely access of medical supplies to the market.

Only a handful of universities offer programs that train students directly for entry into regulatory affairs. Students in other relevant degree programs often progress into academic careers. Additionally, many advertised opportunities in regulatory affairs in the medical device industry are advertised as mid- to senior level, and in doing so miss the few skilled graduates that are available.

Learning and development programs are a worthy investment to attract and retain talent for the long haul. A graduate, through learning, development, and succession planning, could fill senior talent gaps later. With the help of an RPO partner, organizations can choose to partner strategically with universities to make graduate recruitment and succession planning a success

Rethink your benefits to compete for talent in the medical device industry

A common challenge in the race for talent in the medical device industry is location. Located in large metropolitan or ‘medical alley,’ recruiters often have to offer relocation packages that reflect the location. Other financial incentives like sign-on bonuses and stock options are common ways to entice talent to accept an offer.

Although competitive salary packages are a great way to win a candidate’s attention, it might not be what brings them in anymore. Across all industries, organizations have had to rethink their wellbeing offerings, work-from-anywhere policies, and other benefits.

Job fulfilment is a key differentiator between the medical device industry and other, non-medical industries. The medical industry can offer candidates benefits that include working on innovative technologies, cooperation with renowned scientists, and driving positive change in health care and health care outcomes.

Benefits like these are best communicated in a strong EVP (Employer Value Proposition). A compelling EVP alongside the expert recruitment strategies an RPO can offer, positions your organization as an employer of choice in the market. Hudson RPO has partnered with industry leaders in medical device, health care and life science industries. Together, we have reduced time to fill by more than 40%, and saved millions of dollars in agency spend. Find more information on our expertise in medical devices here or get in touch for a chat with a talent expert.

Sources:

Medtechintelligence, Growth in Medical Devices Spurs Recruitment Challenges, accessed May 2022

Eastridge, 5 Ways to Overcome the MedTech Talent Shortage, accessed May 2022

Research Features, Talent shortage in regulatory affairs is cause for concern, accessed May 2022

Michael Page, The Growing Need for Regulatory Talent in the Medical Device Industry, accessed May 2022

Hudson RPO

Content Team

The Hudson RPO Content Team is made up of experts within the Talent Acquisition industry across the Americas, EMEA and APAC regions. They provide educational and critical business insights in the form of research reports, articles, news, videos, podcasts, and more. The team ensures high-quality content that helps all readers make talent decisions with confidence.

Related articles

Everything you need to know about hiring in the Medical Device industry

Everything you need to know about hiring in the Medical Device industry

Content Team

While the medical device industry traditionally focused on preventative and urgent care and diagnostics, the pandemic has accelerated its adaptation of other categories like wearable devices and remote monitoring and diagnostics. Functions that monitor temperature and other vitals, fitness, activity and irregularities that could precede health risks are evolving rapidly, bringing about changes in the hiring needs within the industry. We spoke to our talent experts about the market and the trends they are seeing in the hiring landscape.

What are the trends in the medical device industry and how do they impact hiring?

  • Wearable and point-of-care devices

    With connected medical devices becoming the increasing norm, we are seeing the need for technology and IT experts grow. The adaptation of microelectronics, wearable devices, display capabilities and long-distance and remote communication between devices and users, introduces risks and challenges in the areas of security, privacy, malware, and hacking.

    However, the acceleration of these products is not only asking for technology experts. The pandemic has put enormous pressure on manufacturers to increase production, but also to accelerate the entire product development process, especially for point-of-care testing devices. Medical device manufacturers will need product experts who can accelerate the entire product development and market processes to position themselves to handle the ongoing global health crisis, and the next.

  • Minimally Invasive Surgery

    Particularly in the Asian market, minimally invasive surgery (MIS) is on the rise. Continual innovations in this area make MIS useful for an expanding list of procedures, while allowing surgeons more precision and patients a faster recovery time. Despite its growth potential, MIS is restricted in its development by a lack of skilled healthcare professionals in this area, which will see key players in the industry compete for a small pool of available talent.

  • Chipocalypse

    The global chip shortage is affecting nearly every industry, with experts believing that catching up with the current backlog will last through 2022 and into 2023. For the medical device supply chain, the shortage also includes raw materials and part shortages, that will see proactive supply chain solutions become a top priority for medical device manufacturers.

    This makes room for a range of experts that healthcare and life science managers will have to make decisions about. Who have the skills to predict and analyze the next shortages, who is able to redesign our products to leverage the materials we can access, and who can act as a reliable global supply chain partner?

  • AI, AR and Robotics

    The market size for AI in health care is expected to grow from $10.4 billion to $120.2 billion by 2028. Medical technologies like robotic-assisted surgery are a significant driver in the projected growth, as well as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).

    The combination of technologies like AR and VR have benefits for the training of much needed health care professionals, whereas robotics can alleviate human staff with automated tasks, surgical assistance, and general monitoring of patience statistics.

How to find talent in the medical device industry?

Back in 2017, we already found the demand for talent outstripped the supply in the industry. The pool of candidates with highly specialized skills that meet the industry’s demands have always been slim. Now, hiring managers are faced with the challenge of bringing in expertise from outside their industry like engineers, quality assurance, IT experts and product developers, to keep up with everchanging trends and developments in a competitive market.

A common challenge in the process of attracting new candidates is the issue of location. Medical device companies tend to be concentrated in large metropolitan areas. For example, the US medical device market is primarily based in San Francisco, Boston, Minneapolis and St Paul – also known as Medical Alley. The small candidate pool often means having to convince talent to relocate. Relocation packages and other financial incentives like sign on bonuses and stock option arrangements are common ways to compete for talent.

More unique to the medical device industry are dual technical and managerial career paths, and job fulfilment. The highly skilled medical device industry can offer candidates benefits like working on innovative technologies alongside renowned scientists and engineers. Being part of a change for good, patient wellbeing and improving healthcare outcomes are usually common drivers for those working in healthcare and medical device industries, presenting a competitive opportunity for employers to compete with industries that focus on commercial and monetary outcomes.

More and more companies in the medical device industry have started to recruit talent from other industries that demand relating skillsets, and as such spending more on training, developing, and onboarding these newcomers, rather than recruitment and unfilled vacancies.

How can an RPO partner help?

Hudson RPO has partnered with industry leaders in medical device, health care and life science industries. Together, we have reduced time to fill by more than 40%, and saved millions of dollars in agency spend.

An RPO partner can help you predict needs and focus your efforts on the right pool of talent at the right time via predictive analysis and market expertise. The partnership will help you focus your hiring efforts on the right pool of talent, at the right time. As your hiring needs scale up and down, your RPO partner scales with you. Find more information on our expertise in medical device here, or get in touch for a chat with a talent expert.

Sources

Plexus, Roundtable: Medical Device Industry Trends 2022, accessed May 2022

DKSH Group, Top Three Emerging Medical Device Trends in Asia in 2022, accessed May 2022

Medical Device & Diagnostic Industry Online, Successful Recruiting in the Medical Device Industry, accessed May 2022

Hudson RPO

Content Team

The Hudson RPO Content Team is made up of experts within the Talent Acquisition industry across the Americas, EMEA and APAC regions. They provide educational and critical business insights in the form of research reports, articles, news, videos, podcasts, and more. The team ensures high-quality content that helps all readers make talent decisions with confidence.

Related articles

Our Top 3 questions to assess if your contingent workforce is operating efficiently

Our Top 3 questions to assess if your contingent workforce is operating efficiently

Content Team

When uncertainty looms, a robust contingent workforce empowering your business means you have the ability to pursue steady and sustainable growth. To be sure your business can scale up and down as needed for this uncertain economy, you can choose to rely in part or whole on a managed service provider (MSP) to hire and/or manage your contingent workforce. When managed well with a quality provider, an MSP can deliver on average, cost savings between 10-20% in the first year.

In our experience, the most successful contingent workforce programs are led by procurement teams, in conjunction with strongly aligned partners from both HR and the business. In addition, we’ve seen that robust processes and complementary technology underpin effective and efficient programs.

So how do you know if you need help with your contingent workforce program? Here are our top 3 critical questions to help you assess whether your contingent workforce is operating efficiently:

1. What is the true cost of your contingent workforce?

Understanding the true cost of your contingent workforce is critical to understanding whether there are opportunities to save costs. First, you need to assess how many contingent workers are working for your organization today and the cost, including what they are earning and the other costs you are being charged, such as supplier markups and statutory on-costs. Don’t forget to compare their salaries to equivalent permanent roles and the external market.

2. How are you managing your contingent workforce?

The benefit of a contingent workforce is the ability to scale up and down as your organizational needs change. However, the key is to have robust processes for hiring, on-boarding, managing and off-boarding your contingent workers. Contractors need to be correctly classified as PAYG, Independent and SOW, while the right checks must be in place to ensure compliance with all legislations which can vary per region. Having the right technology can be an advantage in streamlining these processes.

3. How is your contingent workforce performing?

Performance metrics vary per organization and industry, and it’s essential to keep track of the indicators and targets you have set for your organization. For example, understanding how often contract periods and reutilization dates run over and why, are valuable insights into helping you optimize your contingent workforce. Additionally, having the necessary processes in place to offer high performers permanent positions is another.

Have these questions highlighted any challenges or areas for improvement? Now is the time to revisit your contingent workforce program strategy by getting in touch with an expert.

The right MSP provider can offer:

  • Flexible talent vendor and budget oversight to help you control costs and mitigate contingent talent risks;
  • Contingent workforce recruitment, onboarding, off-boarding, tracking, and engagement and process improvements when you urgently require them; and
  • Flexible talent compliance expertise to ensure legal compliance at all levels.

Hudson RPO‘s Managed Service Provider (MSP) Solution helps companies make the smartest, most effective use of their contingent workforce spend. Click here to read how we helped our clients, or get in touch for a confidential discussion with one of our Talent Experts.

Hudson RPO

Content Team

The Hudson RPO Content Team is made up of experts within the Talent Acquisition industry across the Americas, EMEA and APAC regions. They provide educational and critical business insights in the form of research reports, articles, news, videos, podcasts, and more. The team ensures high-quality content that helps all readers make talent decisions with confidence.

Related articles

Download our Latest Guide