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Benefits of RPO: discover 3 ways your HR team can reduce costs

Benefits of RPO: discover 3 ways your HR team can reduce costs

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For most businesses, recessionary periods tend to trigger significant changes in hiring demand and requirements.

These trends spur many companies to reevaluate their recruitment processes and cost structures, particularly as they pertain to talent acquisition.

Of course, it doesn’t take a recession, or even signs of one, for a business to evaluate talent models.

APAC Group at table
Discover the benefits of RPO. The right strategy can reduce costs while freeing resources for other key initiatives.

High-performing HR leaders regularly consider the pros and cons of all possible hiring strategies. They are keen observers of workplace signals for outsourced recruitment, in-house, or a blend of both.

Each strategy is worthy of review, but cost is always a driving factor.

How much financial risk does your business want to accept? How much long-term investment can it reasonably support?

Let’s talk more about cost, and how recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) helps manage it.

Discover three benefits of RPO, in terms of business cost management.

1. Cost reduction through shared risk

When a business downturn hits and recruiting needs suddenly drop, so does a company’s need for recruiting staff.

Likewise, when the business is expanding into another product category or region of the world, recruiting needs may suddenly spike.

Outsourcing the recruitment function allows a company to pass along the cost risk of those resources to the business partner. Recruitment outsourcing partners accept the responsibility of efficiently adjusting resource levels when hiring fluctuations happen. As a result, the client does not bear the burden of carrying unnecessary staff.

Similarly, the client faces a lesser chance of being short-staffed when greater resources are required.

2. Faster time to hire

Time is money and hiring new professional level employees takes a lot of both. From sourcing resumes to conducting interviews and negotiating offers, acquiring a new employee taxes your internal resources.

Plus, each day a job requisition remains unfilled, your business loses the benefit of that employee’s contribution. Recruiting and budgetary resources are pulled away from other high-value initiatives.

Outsourcing all or part of your internal recruitment function can dramatically reduce your time to hire.

3. Streamlined recruitment processes

One of the most common problems we see with the recruitment life cycle is that it’s a disjointed and uncoordinated multitude of practices—good and bad—across organizational functions, departments, divisions and regions.

Often, this causes overlap in advertising purchases, training and on-boarding procedures. It leads to poorer hiring decisions and higher operational costs.

Piloting an RPO project gives you the opportunity to rethink these processes. The RPO vendor will help examine your recruitment process workflow(s) to determine where overlap, excessive cost, and inefficient practices may exist.

Then, an outsourced model can be custom designed, providing you with service levels and success metrics that exceed the status quo.

These practices yield increased efficiency and satisfaction with the recruitment life cycle, resulting in overall cost reduction for your company.

All of these factors contribute to achieving lower cost per hire – your ultimate goal.

There are many reasons to consider the benefits of RPO. Among those reasons, greater operational cost efficiency is always an organizational imperative.

In sum, a collaborative RPO partnership provides:

  • A global database of thousands of screened, specially skilled professionals and sourcing channels that significantly increases your talent pipeline.
  • Access to a greater amount of recruiting and screening professionals than you can carry on your own staff, who can scale their volume of work with the requisition load.
  • Vendor and process management that allows you to focus on making hiring decisions while leaving the less strategic administrative duties to your RPO partner.

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.

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Weighing outsourced recruitment, versus in-house or blended models

Weighing outsourced recruitment, versus in-house or blended models

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Outsourced recruitment vs. in-house recruitment, or indeed even a blend of both: what makes the best sense for your business?

In some cases, the answer lies somewhere in between, via a blended talent model.

There isn’t one right answer. What we can probably all agree on, however, is that attracting the best talent certainly requires an agile approach.

Recruitment must be as flexible as any other business function, if not more so.

Three Hudson RPO team members
Considering outsourced recruitment as part of your talent strategy? Look out for workplace signals that can help reveal what’s best for your business.

Perhaps your business has found itself at a hiring crossroads. Or, perhaps HR is undertaking a cyclical review of the wider talent acquisition and management functions.

Notably, more business leaders are incorporating outsourced recruitment (also known as recruitment process outsourcing, or RPO) into their talent strategy. The global RPO market is expected to produce a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29.1% from 2019-2027, according to industry reports. (See note 1.)

Market trends are worth considering. But, on a more local level, how do you know whether outsourced recruitment could benefit your talent strategy?

We’d like to help you launch a healthy conversation with your fellow business partners. Let’s start with something relatively simple, a snapshot of the conditions that can help justify each talent strategy:

Outsourced recruitment (RPO)

  • Hiring niche roles beyond the core competency of your business
  • Moving into new global territories
  • High agency costs because of low retention
  • Facing compliance issues
  • Sudden, high-volume hiring
  • Recruitment tech implementation challenges

In-house

  • Steady recruiting needs across your organization
  • Primarily recruiting for roles in your company’s wheelhouse
  • Sudden recruiting demands don’t disrupt essential HR functions
  • Geographically contained hiring

Blended (RPO and in-house)

  • Short-term volume hiring to launch a new location
  • New hiring projects that disrupt HR’s daily activities
  • Growing use of a contingent workforce
  • Compliance knowledge shortfall
  • Recruiting for a mission-critical job category is falling behind (sourcing can help)
  • Need to re-envision your employer brand
  • Existing in-house team or RPO partner lacks industry expertise for role category

Evaluating outsourced recruitment and all options

Of course, the line between each of these models is dotted. They’re never hard and fast.

Best practice reveals that the ability to pivot between them at any point is essential. And, from what we see, the most powerful recruitment benefits from open collaboration across your business and often between multiple providers.

In today’s fast-changing marketplace, many companies are re-envisioning their talent strategy. There are many reasons for this, from the rise of remote working to the proliferation of uncertain political environments.

When it comes to designing a talent strategy that suits your long-term goals while meeting your current needs, the best path forward isn’t always obvious.

Outsourced recruitment, in-house recruitment, or a blended strategy?

What works for one enterprise, may not suit another.

There will be many internal and market-wide factors to consider. The decision will ultimately depend on much more than a snapshot list of factors, but the bullet points can help spark a healthy debate with business stakeholders.

Want more insights on how to evaluate talent models? Be sure to read Mark Rogers’ views on how to select the best talent delivery model. With a track record that includes client-side recruitment, Mark knows well what it’s like to sit in the HR decision-maker’s hot seat!

Notes

1.) The Insight Partners: Recruitment Process Outsourcing Market to 2027 – Global Analysis and Forecasts by Type and Industry. Accessed 20 August 2019. https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/4762285/recruitment-process-outsourcing-market-to-2027

 

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.

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HRD Summit 2020: join us in harnessing human creativity

HRD Summit 2020 has been announced, and we are proud to join Europe’s top HR leaders at the annual event.

The summit takes place this February, in Birmingham, UK. This year’s theme invites HR leaders to ‘harness human creativity’ on a deeper level throughout the workplace.

HRD Summit logo

HRD Summit offers a great opportunity for talent leaders to discuss a range of current HR topics, from multilingual talent sourcing, to AI and recruitment.

The event will also feature a range of sessions and keynotes, including one from Eric Hutcherson, Chief Human Resources Officer for the National Basketball Association (NBA). Eric will discuss how to create lasting cultural transformation.

With such a range of exciting topics at HRD Summit UK, we look forward to seeing you there! Be sure to say hello at Stand No. 52.

Don’t miss the Talent Acquisition talks at HRD Summit

Our very own Justin Somerville-Cotton, Head of Sales and Solutions, will be chairing the Talent Acquisition stream.

The stream will include a masterclass presented by Lynne Burns, HR Director (UK) for HSBC, with a focus on tapping into new avenues for talent.

The stream also includes a masterclass on recruitment technology, led by talent directors at Mitie facility management company.

“We’re looking forward to exploring what it means for business leaders to push the realms of human creativity,” Justin said.

Justin Sommerville-Cotton Headshot
Justin Somerville-Cotton looks forward to chairing a stream at HRD Summit 2020

Hudson RPO will also be facilitating a masterclass on the subject of talent acquisition, offering unique insights and actionable tips for on-site and off-site recruitment strategies.

Celebrating a welcome return to the HRD Summit UK

Hudson RPO is a longtime partner of the HRD Summit.

Darren Lancaster, CEO for Hudson RPO EMEA, said: “Last year’s event initiated many exciting conversations about the role that HR leaders play in the new business landscape,” Darren said.

“We can’t wait to rekindle that same energy and explore more opportunities for HR to champion creativity. As partners of HRD Summit 2020, we look forward to helping organisations discover how they can tap into deeper benefits of workplace creativity.”

Darren Lancaster
Darren Lancaster says the theme of human creativity will spark many conversations.

Karl Ghamsari, Commercial Director of event organiser Contentive, said: “We are delighted to welcome Hudson RPO as a returning partner at HRD Summit UK. The team will once again be facilitating a fascinating talent stream. We’re grateful for the Hudson RPO talent experts who continue to add value to this phenomenal event.”

Click through to explore some of our previous HRD Summit coverage:

  • Building a conscious organisation: views from Justin-Somerville Cotton
  • Business engagement: discover how to motivate stakeholders, with advice from Lori Hock
  • At HRD and beyond, in pursuit of the ‘conscious organization’: an inside-look at Hudson RPO values
HRD Summit logo

Graduate recruitment schemes: what many HR leaders don’t know

Graduate recruitment schemes: what many HR leaders don’t know

Content Team

High-performing graduate recruitment schemes address skills shortages. They also build a talent pipeline.

In this environment, candidates not only gain a foothold into employment, but often accelerate their skills development through specialist training.

Employers, meanwhile, can readily develop and shape early-career talent. Because these candidates are likely to be more junior, they tend to be highly teachable and less likely to be ingrained with ‘bad habits’ from previous environments.

But what should HR leaders consider when designing a successful graduate programme? We spoke with RPO operations manager Jared Massey about how to design a successful graduate scheme.

Jared and his team have helped manage the development of new grad programmes for key clients, including one of the world’s leading food manufacturers, 2 Sisters Food Group.

Impressively, the 2 Sisters Food Group account has been nominated a finalist in the In-house Recruitment Awards 2019, in the Apprenticeship or School Leaver Campaign category. So, there’s much to take away from this team’s advice on how to create a successful graduate recruitment scheme.

Designing a top graduate recruitment scheme

From the start, says Jared, it’s important to recognise that a grad programme should not just be led by HR. The programme is designed to nurture talent throughout the business. With that in mind, all business units should help shape and define the project’s end goal.

However, the recruitment team should help inform and advise the process.

“That is why an RPO is so beneficial,” Jared says. “Generally speaking, we can reach out to all sorts of expertise, helping ensure the business has relevant, specialist knowledge at each step.”

Business leaders should also establish which job functions show the biggest need for graduate talent.

Jared Massey
Jared Massey, Hudson RPO operations manager, reveals how to design a high-performing graduate scheme.

A strong grad programme will also offer:

  • A clear career path
  • Slick, appealing application processes
  • Intellectually challenging opportunities
  • A compelling employer value proposition (EVP)

A strong EVP will serve as the foundation for your employer branding. Get this piece right, to keep candidates engaged throughout the process.

And don’t forget, selection criteria should always be fit for purpose.

Go about all these things in the right way, and you’re more likely to keep the right audience tuned in to the opportunity.

Measuring the success of a graduate programme

As your programme runs, observe the level of interest shown by your target market. To measure the success of a graduate scheme, Jared recommends you evaluate:

  • Process times and feedback on quality
  • Candidate satisfaction, from all applicants
  • Graduate career trajectories

These kinds of schemes represent investments for key business areas, as well as graduates themselves. So, as you report back on the programme’s performance, be prepared to provide ongoing reporting into future years of graduate development.

For example, Jared recommends you report on graduate career progression up to five years after graduates enter your programme.

Featured grad programme: 2 Sisters Food Group

One of our key clients, 2 Sisters Food Group, recently launched a new graduate recruitment scheme in Finance. Jared and his team are helping recruit talented grads into the programme.

Graduates rotate through three placements, each lasting a year. The placements include:

  • Management accounting and reporting
  • Business partnering
  • Financial planning and analysis
  • Group finance
  • Shared services
  • Internal audit
  • Tax and treasury
2 Sisters Food Group logo

Arsalan Khan is a group reporting systems accountant at 2 Sisters. As a grad scheme participant, Arsalan said he has felt “more like a member of the 2 Sisters family, rather than an employee”.

Arsalan explained: “The graduate scheme at 2 Sisters has opened so many doors for me. It has enabled me to not only work for a market leader but has supported me through my studies and personal life.”

Click here to learn more about the 2 Sisters Food Group graduate scheme.

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

HR shared service centre recruiting in Poland: top trends

HR shared service centre recruiting in Poland: top trends

Content Team

The time in which companies would have all their staff under one roof has changed.

Technology, costs, and talent pools have driven companies to adapt and change. We now find dedicated IT services, call centres, and customer care stations based all around the world.

But what is driving this transformation? Market research analyst Jacob Nevins digs into some of the key factors.

Fragmented offices, technology, and affordability

Shared service centres and business process outsourcing centres are increasing in popularity, largely because they can be based anywhere.

Well-known for its affordability, Poland is a hugely popular location for such centres. These centres tend to be located where there is demand for talent and value for office space.

Talent is becoming an increasingly influential factor in where these centres are incorporated, because they now provide services that go beyond call teams and customer services.

They now host a range of functions, including HR, finance, and sales.

Jacob Nevins
Jacob Nevins discusses HR shared service centre

That means education standards, language skills, and working culture play a growing importance. Poland delivers on all these fronts.

A range of global companies have based their shared services in Poland. These include Marsh, Pandora, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Standard Chartered, Bain & Company, and the global life science company Bayer, for whom we’ve achieved 100% candidate satisfaction. Grants and funds also provide key incentives for establishing business service centres in Poland.

Gdansh Poland waterfront
Poland is an appealing destination for shared services recruitment, thanks to its language skills and working culture.

Outside of Poland, there is a push for dedicated business function centres closer to or even within the UK. For example, Lloyds Banking Group are opening a new IT centre based in Edinburgh. This will create 500 new roles, boosting Lloyds’ ability to compete against the digital banks such as Monzo and Revolut.

Another example of how important costs are when it comes to offices now is Channel 4. The company has moved from its London headquarters to Leeds, causing much disruption to the workforce.

They join a number of companies leaving London. TalkTalk has also relocated from their London HQ to Greater Manchester.

Virtual communications power lean working models

Technology plays a fundamental role in the adoption of remote working environments. We’re inundated with technologies that allow us to communicate effectively via email and beyond. Teams, Slack, and Skype comprise a seemingly endless list. This plays a pivotal role in the shift towards remote working and different office locations.

The push for cloud technology in which large amounts of data and files can be stored effectively and securely has also really affected the perspective that everyone should be based in the same location.

RPO = flexibility for HR shared services recruitment

Even when we look at the recruitment sector, including RPO, we see the shift.

RPOs were once thought of as a full solution, the need to come in and take over every function within the business when it came to the need to source talent.

This has also changed significantly. There are all sorts of flexible models available now, including project work and complementary recruitment solutions.

These can work together with existing internal recruitment teams, or even other RPOs.

There are cases in which an RPO could be in place but at capacity. The need to have another solution in place for such things include office moves and new location openings. RPO projects are becoming increasingly common, with business leaders keen to minimise disruption to existing processes and business activity.

We’ve got plenty of space in this area. In the past year, we recruited nearly 200 employees for a major High Street chain launching in a new market.

We delivered the launch — their first store in Central and Eastern Europe — allowing the retailer to concentrate on running their wider business.

woman shopping for clothing
RPO can facilitate short-term hiring requirements, in Poland and beyond. We’re currently supporting a project to launch a retailer’s first store in the Polish market.

The hiring project worked so well that the retailer is now partnering with us to support more store openings in emerging markets, including one in Poland.

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

A Millennial job seeker turned recruiter reveals the challenges of going from contract to permanent

A Millennial job seeker turned recruiter reveals the challenges of going from contract to permanent

Content Team

Hudson RPO employee AJ Pasricha leads early talent and diversity and inclusion recruitment for a large pharmaceutical client in Canada.

Having been on both sides of the Millennial job hunt, Pasricha offers insights into the mindset of gig workers looking for permanent roles.

Read on to get a better understanding of what it’s like to transition from contract to permanent, and how the process can be smoothed by empathy and pragmatism.

AJ Pasricha headshot
AJ Pasricha, a Hudson RPO recruiter, talks about the transitional challenges facing gig workers moving from contract to permanent.

A well-run Early Talent program attracts high quality candidates, future leaders, and a more diverse talent pool. Since 2009, Hudson RPO has recruited for GSK Canada’s award-winning Early Talent program.

This is the kind of program that is designed to support new workers entering the workforce, as well as workers who have limited professional experience but great educational backgrounds and high potential.

Without the support of such programs, Millennial candidates often struggle to secure permanent work.

As recruiter Pasricha can relate, the challenge often affects candidates whose backgrounds consist largely of contract gigs.

Nearly 60 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds are part of the gig economy, according to a February 2019 Bank of Canada report.

“Often we have no choice but to jump from contract to contract. The permanent roles just aren’t there,” shared Pasricha. “Also keep in mind, not all contracts will be extended, so a lack of contract extension should not reflect poorly on the person’s abilities.”

Discover more of Pasricha’s insights into the journey from contract to permanent employment.

Overcoming objections at interview stage

Once, during an interview for a three-month contract, the interviewer wondered out loud why she should consider hiring Pasricha when his last three-month contract didn’t extend.

“I thought, you are interviewing me for a three-month role and wondering if something is wrong with me because my last three-month contract didn’t extend?” Pasricha marveled.

‘Budget’ is often cited when an employer doesn’t want to extend a contract, according to Pasricha. He also had a promising assignment that didn’t extend because the company was acquired by another.

four young people sitting together
Nearly 60 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds are part of Canada’s gig economy. Many of them struggle to secure permanent work.

“As a Millennial job seeker, you really start to question your abilities when you fail to get a permanent position. You start to believe something is wrong with you.”

It’s also a challenge for contract employees to demonstrate how they’ve added value in a short three- or six-month period.

“Expect gig workers to rely on achievements made while in school, because most of the short-term opportunities are for administrator or coordinator-level work. Companies aren’t likely to give a key project to someone who will only be there a short time,” Pasricha added.

Requesting an extended contract or permanent role

With bills to pay, an employee on a three-month contract will need to search for another role around the second month of an assignment. Pasricha believes that the stress and uncertainty can make a contract employee less engaged as the contract nears its end.

As a recruiter for GSK Canada’s Early Talent program, Pasricha uses empathy to improve the candidate experience. He liaises with hiring managers to discover opportunities for candidates and employers to meet their goals for development and growth.

“When I hire for graduate programs, the first question I’m asked is whether there is an opportunity for extension,” Pasricha explained.

“If a company wants to offer a six-month contract to ensure the employee is the right fit, that makes sense, but be transparent on the requirements for becoming permanent. What are the goals, KPIs, or other targets the employee needs to achieve?”

Pasricha admits that his contracts provided more exposure to industries and role-types and ultimately helped him figure out what he likes best. He likens his gig economy experience to a self-imposed rotational program.

“It’s something we Millennials have had to get used to. It’s just not the same experience my parents had to deal with.”

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