What is Recruitment Processing Outsourcing (RPO)?

Businesses have started outsourcing many different tasks these days.  It seems like everything from human resources to technical support to billing can be outsources to another company, and if a business really wanted to, they might be able to outsource everything!  Well, it may not be quite possible, but there are many different departments that can be outsourced, including recruitment activities.  Recruitment processing outsourcing, or RPO, is the process of hiring an outside company to handle all recruitment of potential employees.

Basically, RPO firms handle all or portions of the internal and external recruitment tasks for a business.  This can mean that the business will handle all of your company's recruiting and hiring, including creating job descriptions, posting those descriptions, collecting and evaluating resumes, and even interviewing potential applicants if you want them to.  The company will also handle all record keeping and reporting related to recruitment.

There are a number of advantages to outsourcing your recruitment processing.  By finding the best RPO company to work with, you'll find that the hiring process is much easier and quicker, allowing you to bring new employees onboard faster than you previously did.  They may also have access to a larger pool of applicants, meaning you get more qualified candidates applying for your jobs.  Finally, these outsourcing companies can also provide you with better reports, reduce the amount of money you spend on recruiting, and make it easier for you to keep in compliance with the numerous government regulations.

Some companies choose to hire RPO companies on a temporary basis or outsource only a portion of their recruitment processes.  In this case, the company isn't truly outsourcing; instead, they're hiring a company to assist with staffing.  The process here is different.  With recruitment process outsourcing, the RPO company takes ownership of the recruitment process, while this isn't true if you are using a company for only staffing.  Your company still has ownership of the actual process—the staffing company is only a part of that process.

RPO has become more and more widely used over the years.  First, HR departments saw the benefit of RPO since it reduced company overhead while helping companies become more competitive.  As HR outsourcing became more accepted, companies also noted that in addition to outsourcing things like taxes, payroll, and benefits, they could also outsource hiring and recruitment, tasks that took up a large amount of time and resources.

The benefits of RPO include saving money, improving the hiring process, and gaining access to a more varied and experienced pool of applicants.  Recruitment processing outsourcing companies focus only on outsourcing, allowing them to keep up on the newest procedures and regulations regarding hiring.  They can also save companies money, especially since many offer different payment plans.  Companies may pay a RPO per transaction rather than per staff member, which avoids layoffs and payment for more than the tasks the RPO company performed.