What is Recruitment Process Outsourcing?

Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), is a business process where a company outsources the recruitment function to the third party recruitment agencies. Recruitment is one of the HR department’s key functions that is initiated and overseen by the management of an organization. It is the process of searching and hiring the most competent candidate from within or outside an organization for a position, in a timely and economical manner. The process includes the analysis of a particular position’s requirements, the process of alerting qualified individuals to the opening of the position, the screening and selecting of qualified applicants, and the hiring and integration the new employee into the organizational structure.

The steps taken by management in an effective recruitment process outsourcing are:

Step 1: Recruitment Planning, the drafting of a comprehensive job specification and delineates the position’s responsibilities and the skills, experience, and qualifications required by the candidate and other information relevant to the position.

Step 2:  Development of an effective strategy to recruit candidates for the organization and considering aspects such as internal or external hires and method of recruitment to be used.

Step 3: Searching for potential candidates and the processes used to garner interest in individuals to apply for positions within the organization. Recruitment is done either by internal or external sources:

• Internal Sources: Promotions, former employees, internal advertisement, etc.
• External Sources: Press Advertisement, Employment Exchange, Campus walk-ins, etc.

Step 4: Screening of applicants for the position based on eligibility and criteria. These are made possible by providing information such as the job specification and conditions for a particular position.

Step 5: Is the process of selection and induction of a candidate into the organization.

Given the extensive costs and the efforts organizations undertake before, during, and after, the process of recruitment, the process is outsourced. This process is called Recruitment Process Outsourcing, and external providers that offer these services are called Recruitment Process Outsourcing Companies or Services. They can act as an addition to an organization’s HR team and aid them in coming up with effective recruitment strategies and solutions that help the company in selecting the best individuals for required positions.

Advantages of Recruitment Process Outsourcing Firm?

According to the Recruitment Process Outsourcing Organization, the practice of RPO  has provided a high hiring volume at a reduced cost to organizations. This process has evolved to a point where it is now accessible by Medium and small organizations for all their recruiting needs.

While staffing and recruitment are at times used synonymously, staffing is a term used when individuals must be hired more swiftly at short notice. Staffing is used to fill specific positions either or a temporary or a contract basis, is called Flexi Staffing. Recruitment connotes the filling or selection of a candidate for a permanent role and is usually more strategic. Both of these processes are outsourced with the help of staffing agencies and recruitment firms, respectively.

In the case of top managerial positions, Executive Search Recruitment is used by organizations to fill those positions. It may exist as a specialized service of a recruitment firm but in some instances, Executive Recruitment companies and Services, informally known as headhunters, provide these services to an organization. They understand an organization’s needs in terms of the managerial capacity and responsibilities and strive to find a suitable candidate.

Recruitment process outsourcing firms offer a variety of benefits to the organization, most importantly, cost reduction. Since they spend all their resources to finding the right hire, there is more scrutiny on the candidates to find the best hires. They also cut down the amount of time taken by an organization to find the right candidate and offer detailed data on the candidates.

According to the World Economic Report, 2018, the Employment Industry Garnered close to USD 560 Billion Dollars (491 Billion Euro). At this rate, a constantly evolving industry like RPO, in a country ranking fourth in the number of Billion-dollar start-ups as of 2019, the RPO industry offers unmitigated growth in the years to come.