The 3rd Annual Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association (RPOA) Conference in Chicago on October 6th was a resounding success, bringing together leaders to discuss the evolving landscape of RPO amidst recessionary headwinds, stubborn inflation, and higher interest rates. Over the past two years, RPO business executives have demonstrated remarkable resilience in the face of these challenges. 

A Community of Peers Driving the Industry Forward 

As an RPOA advisory board member for the past six years, my “why” has always been about contributing to the growth and evolution of the RPO industry with remarkable business leaders and entrepreneurs. Yes, we’re fierce competitors on the playing field, but we look out for and learn from each other in this trusted industry community and association. It’s an invaluable platform to test ideas, talk shop, and benchmark, “Am I crazy or are you experiencing this too?” with my peers. The slowdown in hiring among customers has pushed companies to rethink their strategies, prioritizing cost reduction and efficiency. This shift is particularly noticeable in the RPO sector, where buyers are scrutinizing the value proposition more closely as they seek to cut costs. 

This year’s conference, the best so far, reaffirmed the importance of our work at the RPOA. Despite the downturn in hiring in 2024, the conference’s energy and optimism demonstrated that there is still significant upside for private equity investment and returns in 2025.  

Listening to their strategies and the path forward was inspiring – leveraging M&A to gain scale and competitive advantage, integrating AI, and building RPO delivery capabilities into new industries, were a testament to the industry’s adaptability. The value of RPO and its solutions are evolving, and so is the way we need to adapt. The five value drivers of RPO solutions have typically been: 

• Better 
• Cheaper 
• Faster  
• Scale 
• Risk Management 

The Imperative to Innovate 

Innovation was a common thread throughout the conference. Speakers and delivery leaders emphasized the importance of leveraging technology to stay competitive and scale. Kevin Wheeler’s session, “The Impact of AI on Recruiting,” explored how AI is transforming recruitment processes, and professing it could take out 80% of the manual work over the next five years by delivering better candidates faster and with less bureaucracy. He also discussed the implications of recent regulations, such as the EU AI Act, and the use of AI in recruitment.  

However, Wheeler noted a risk aversion from Fortune 1000 HR and Legal departments to invest and deploy in AI strategies, contrasting with the more innovative and less conservative approaches of small to midmarket organizations with less constraints. These smaller firms, driven by thinking differently, and the need to compete, are more likely to embrace AI and integrate into their talent acquisition function. 

The conference also highlighted the importance of having an agile tech stack. As technology continues to accelerate, RPO providers must stay ahead of the curve. A “set it and forget it” approach for your tech stack is no longer viable; continuous tinkering and adaptation are necessary to meet the changing needs of customers. The M&A panel shared advice on growing your RPO to sell it and defining a clear exit strategy now, will help to sharpen the business focus and ensure long-term success. RPO providers must identify where they succeed and why, moving away from a generalist, scrappy RPO provider to a more specialized, with deeper industry or functional expertise to deliver the desired outcomes for their customers and operating margins for their business. 

Defining and Delivering Value in Challenging Times 

The value proposition of RPO services was another critical focus. Maria Scarangella’s keynote, “A Proven Cost Analysis Model Every Talent Leader Needs in their Toolbelt,” provided attendees with practical tools to evaluate and optimize their talent strategies. Her insights into cost savings and efficiency improvements resonated with many, highlighting the need for data-driven decision-making in justifying investments in talent acquisition, outsourcing, or process enhancements.  

Based on the 2024 RPOA research report, buyers are very focused on taking costs out, while the value proposition of RPO is shifting. Scarangella’s presentation revealed that 95% of CEOs fear (PwC’s Global Risk Survey 2023) that their organizations are not innovating at a pace necessary to be competitive, and current cost pressures and risk avoidance challenges may hold innovation back.   

Insights and Trends: Shaping the Future of RPO 

Ben Eubanks, Chief Research Officer at Lighthouse Research and Advisory, shared the latest RPO trends research project, commissioned by the RPOA. His insights highlighted changes in RPO engagements, buyer considerations, and the evolving value of RPO and its ROI.  

Additionally, the legendary Kim Davis led an informative 90-minute interactive educational seminar on how to establish a profitable RPO practice for new entrants into the industry and business development. He covered a wide range of topics, including RPO service delivery structures, deal models, technology stacks, SLAs and OSLs, and ROI calculations. 

The iCoCo onstage forum enabled companies such as Gino Rooney from Classet, Zach Friedman Comrise, and Raleen Gagnon from TalentEdge AI companies to showcase their dazzling solutions. Many RPO leaders were scheduling follow up demos shortly after the conference, including our company, Broadleaf Results.  

Conclusion: A Bright Future for RPO 

Despite significant economic challenges, RPO executives have shown remarkable adaptability and a commitment to delivering value. The themes of innovation, value, and exit strategies were woven throughout the conference, providing attendees with valuable insights and practical tools to navigate the evolving landscape. As we look to the future, it is clear that the RPO industry will continue to play a crucial role in talent acquisition and helping companies scale to find and retain top talent, even in the face of economic uncertainty, and eventually growth. 

To learn more about the benefits of RPO, read this blog post from our partner Acara Solutions.

This blog was authored by Jason Krumwiede.

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Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) has become an attractive solution for improving employers’ talent acquisition strategies. Employers face numerous talent acquisition challenges. From navigating unpredictable market conditions to sourcing specialized skill sets, companies often struggle to meet their hiring needs with limited resources. In this context, by partnering with an RPO provider, businesses can gain access to top-notch candidates and right their hiring strategy.

In this Talent Leader Council feature, the RPOA sits down with Jason Krumwiede, Executive Vice President at Broadleaf Results, to delve into essential insights about today’s hiring landscape. Krumwiede shares invaluable perspectives on how RPO can significantly enhance companies’ hiring processes, ranging from in-depth labor market analysis to meticulous progress tracking at key intervals. Broadleaf is a certified women-owned business (WBE) that provides talent acquisition and management services, including managed service programs (MSP), recruitment process outsourcing (RPO), employer of record (EOR), direct sourcing, and independent contractor compliance (ICC.) 

Below is an AI-generated and human-edited version of their interview.

RPOA: What are employers’ current hiring conditions, market conditions, and challenges?

Krumwiede: It’s an interesting time in hiring, with the past eighteen months witnessing significant turbulence due to geopolitical factors, increasing interest rates to combat inflation, and general market uncertainty. These factors have deeply impacted hiring, leading to a cautious approach to hiring plans. Many talent acquisition departments have had to downsize based on their specific needs. Companies have become very wary of rising interest rates and their potential effects, leading to layoffs in various industries, as seen with Google, Amazon, Apple, and Meta, as well as smaller layoffs across other companies. The uncertain market conditions and lack of clarity on demand have dampened hiring.

Despite these challenges, organizations have shown resilience by adapting their talent acquisition strategies. Unemployment remains low, with three industries—government, hospitality, and healthcare—driving hiring growth and supporting solid job growth and unemployment numbers. However, companies struggle to meet their hiring needs with smaller talent acquisition departments and a shortage of specialized skill sets. Although certain skill sets remain in high demand, candidates are cautious and not always willing to take a leap of faith. Employers also have been affected by shrinking recruitment resources.

With that said, I’m optimistic about the second half of 2024. Strategically speaking, talent leaders will see RPO providers as integrated partners, particularly given the cost and time it takes to rebuild internal teams. 

Q: What makes RPO an attractive option versus rebuilding internal teams?

Krumwiede: In times of uncertainty, businesses face a tough choice: rebuild or buy solutions. As we hope for a lift in the economy, companies will have new business opportunities to react to. These new opportunities raise a critical question for HR leaders and talent acquisition teams: should they rebuild their internal departments to handle a spike in hiring or align with a strategic partner that can handle this and many more spikes in the future? Most leaders want to avoid rebuilding and incurring fixed costs, so they need a more innovative solution. Creating innovative solutions is where RPO becomes a strategic partner for talent acquisition teams. It’s a robust solution set that creates value by scaling up hiring, bringing in better talent, and doing it all at a lower cost. With RPO, businesses can meet their hiring needs more efficiently and effectively while freeing up resources to focus on their core business.

Q: What are the benefits of using RPO?

Krumwiede: As an RPO provider, we aim to provide employers with quality candidates that align with their hiring strategy. Our core focus is on using technology, market insight, and analysis to deliver top-notch candidates promptly. We understand that many employers already have an ATS or platform, which is why we bring ancillary tools to the table, such as sourcing tools, reporting tools, and analytics, to drive value and efficiencies. Our advisory services help companies elevate their hiring strategy by providing insights into the labor market and the supply and demand within their particular market. We also help them to differentiate themselves from their competitors and attract top talent in their industry. In a nutshell, RPO services are all about bringing employers consistent, top-quality candidates and helping them elevate their hiring strategy to achieve success.

Q: What are some best practices for ensuring a successful RPO partnership?

Krumwiede: As companies consider implementing RPO, it’s essential to understand that it can be challenging. However, our approach involves evaluating progress at specific intervals, including the first ninety days, year one, and year three.

In the first ninety days, our team helps employers transition from their current state to their future state. We start slowly to understand the organization better and identify any potential issues that may arise. An internal champion is critical during this time, as it can be a bumpy ride. Our role as coaches is to work closely with the business leader to address unrealistic expectations and identify areas where there may be more change management.

In year one, we evaluate progress using data, KPIs, and other metrics to determine actual performance against benchmarks. This is also when we conduct the first annual business review, discussing the entire program, identifying improvement areas, and driving things forward.

By year three, we’ve been working together for a while, and it’s important to reset the partnership, realign it with the business, and ensure that everyone is on the same page. We work closely with new stakeholders during this time to ensure the partnership continues evolving and improving. With this partnership philosophy and methodology, RPO providers and employers can achieve partnership success together.

Q: How do RPOs help build trust with clients?

Trust is critical in an RPO partnership; the data must show that RPO is better, cheaper, faster, and scalable. We focus on providing a positive experience for all stakeholders, including hiring managers, by using innovative recruiting strategies and providing data on job descriptions, pay ranges, and competitor salaries. We aim to be easy to work with and represent our client’s brand as ours. We build trust by providing consultative advice and partnering with our clients to change their hiring practices when necessary. For example, we may encourage employers to focus on communication skills and competencies rather than rigid experience requirements that may limit the talent pool.

It’s also important to take a thoughtful approach tailored to the organization’s needs to create the best experience and drive value. What matters most is the company’s requirements. Our reporting is accessible through a dashboard that is updated in real-time and can be customized based on their cost center, department, and function. As a result, we’re able to meet those specific requirements. Employers can see current job openings, candidate pipelines, and past hires and drill down to specific information. We refresh our dashboard every 24 hours, but employers can adjust the frequency based on their needs. We use the dashboard in our weekly meetings to discuss key priorities, bottlenecks, KPIs, and themes and align them with the employer’s business strategy. A good dashboard provides visibility into all requisitions, all the time, for everyone from senior leaders to recruiters. Training employers to access and export their data to Excel is a good practice, making it a quasi-self-service tool.

Conclusion

Various factors have affected the current hiring environment, leading to challenges for talent acquisition departments. Despite these challenges, organizations have shown resilience by adapting their talent acquisition strategies. RPO services have become attractive for businesses looking to meet their hiring needs more efficiently and effectively while freeing up resources to focus on their core business.  Using technology, market insight, and analysis, RPO providers promptly deliver top-notch candidates to employers aligning with their hiring strategy. By following best practices for ensuring a successful RPO partnership, businesses can elevate their hiring strategy to achieve success.

The post Jason Krumwiede on the Value of Recruitment Process Outsourcing in Navigating Volatile Talent Markets appeared first on Broadleaf Results.

The same is true globally, where there is an increased demand for qualified technology talent and a shortage of workers. This spans all IT sectors—from computing infrastructure to security—and affects business growth and organizations’ ability to remain competitive. While most companies want to adopt new tech, the talent shortage affects 64 percent—up from just 4 percent in 2020—of new and emerging technologies. The worldwide labor skills shortage is predicted to reach 4.3 million workers by 2030 and roughly $450 billion in unrealized output in the technology, media, and telecommunications industries alone.

So, what’s contributing to the heightened demand for tech candidates, and how can your organization find the talent you need to grow and remain competitive?

The changing tech hiring landscape

The tech industry grew steadily in the five years leading up to the pandemic, adding 1.3 million workers. In August 2020, tech unemployment peaked at 4.6 percent due to pandemic-forced layoffs.

Then in the fall of 2020, tech employers ramped up their hiring to meet increased consumer demand and their need to accelerate their digital transformation programs and take a more strategic and innovative approach to solve problems and create process efficiencies. The Great Resignation generated significant wage discrepancies between new hires and existing employees within tech giants such as Google and Amazon, causing strain within teams and creating a chain of resignations.

In response to the pandemic hiring surge and economic uncertainty, big tech laid off workers at the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023. However, these layoffs negated just 10 percent of the jobs created by the same firms. And 79 percent of laid-off tech workers found a new position within three months of starting their search. However, the 2023 tech hiring landscape has changed because available jobs have moved from big tech organizations to small and medium-sized companies and non-profits.

• Related blog from Aleron Group partner Acara Solutions: The Tech Talent War of 2023

Shortage of qualified IT candidates

While the demand for employees with digital skillsets is high, the number of workers that possess the required abilities is low. In fact, 86 percent of technology managers believe finding skilled professionals in software and applications development, technology process automation, and cloud architecture and operations is challenging. The IT field requires years of training, and organizations are struggling to keep pace with the new technology methods and languages that continue to be introduced. There’s been an increased focus on cloud and automation skills. Myke Miller—dean of the Deloitte Cloud Institute—has found that workers with deep cloud engineering and architecture skills in general, and cloud engineering abilities in industrial IoT specifically, are becoming more difficult to find.

Ongoing talent challenges

As the demand for tech talent continues to grow in the months ahead, companies will undoubtedly face challenges in recruiting new candidates. With a widening gap between the supply and demand of qualified workers, organizations must focus not only on their talent attraction efforts but on their retention strategies. Why? Turnover amplifies the skills gaps, creates additional positions to fill, and overworks current employees. What strategies should your organization focus on?

Related E-book from Aleron Group partner TalentRise: 10 Best-Practice Tips to Attract, Recruit, and Retain Strong Tech Teams for Your Startup Business

• Identify your target job candidate: To attract and recruit top tech talent, it’s essential to understand your target job candidate and use your job posting to sell a potential job applicant on your organization and all the benefits that make it a great place to work. What should you focus on? Know how your target candidate typically finds open positions, what motivates them to change jobs, and what they have to gain by working for your organization.
• Create a high-touch candidate experience: A high-touch experience reduces the number of candidates dropping out of the interview process. To facilitate a consistent recruiting process, create a high-touch candidate experience using self-scheduling and video interviewing tools and AI chatbots. Streamline processes by scheduling automated emails, outline the hiring process timeline and expectations, and specify a date, after which the candidate should follow up to check the status.
• Promote flexibility and autonomy: Offering flexible work options impacts 65 percent of tech workers’ decisions to stay at their company. A large percentage of the tech population is comprised of millennials that are looking for perks and incentives that are meaningful to them, such as increased autonomy, flexibility to work when and where they want, and time to work on projects they are passionate about.

Related: Is Work-Life Integration Replacing Work-Life Balance

• Focus on employee engagement: To effectively engage tech professionals, employ strategies tailored to their needs and ambitions. These include providing challenging projects matching their expertise and encouraging problem-solving and innovation, fostering career growth through advancement paths, mentorship, and skill-building opportunities.

• Skills enhancement: Enhancing the skills and knowledge of employees through upskilling and reskilling initiatives improve staff retention and tech professionals’ capability to advance within your company or transition to fill in-demand roles. Engage in collaborative discussions with employees to identify skill areas of interest that align with company objectives. Determine training needs to address skills gaps and communicate how acquiring new proficiencies can propel workers’ careers. These conversations lay the foundation for offering resources and opportunities, such as internal training programs or technology boot camp stipends, directly benefiting employees and your business.

Related: A Skills-Based Approach to Attracting, Retaining, and Developing Talent

Summary

As new technologies dominate all aspects of our lives, the need for advanced tech talent will only continue to grow. Prospective tech candidates with highly sought-after skills are heavily courted. With heightened competition to secure premier tech talent, traditional recruitment methods are no longer sufficient.

Consider partnering with an RPO provider

Quality tech talent is available—it’s just becoming more difficult to find. A capable RPO program can provide a customized, consultative, and flexible recruitment solution—one that can seamlessly adapt to your organization’s ever-changing tech talent needs. Whether providing front-end sourcing and screening support to an in-house recruiting team or owning full-cycle recruiting for assigned geographies, groups of positions, or business units, your RPO provider can tailor its levels of service to enable maximum scalability. If your company is struggling with finding qualified tech talent, leveraging RPO services can bring value and generate proven results for your organization.

The post The Growing Demand for Tech Talent appeared first on Broadleaf Results.

Even the most experienced recruiters can find it challenging to find the right people to fill entirely new roles in new locations. As an example, take a seasoned recruiter in a manufacturing environment—she is used to hiring line engineers and shift production workers—but now she’s being asked to recruit an entire e-commerce team. Making the shift from hiring traditional industrial roles to hiring technical and creative digital experts is a giant leap, to say the least. Without prior experience, developing sourcing strategies, building talent pools, developing an attractive employer brand, writing job requisitions, and screening viable applications for an entirely new talent profile can be both challenging and time-consuming.

A real-life case study

That’s exactly why our RPO team was asked to help our client, a $1.3 billion manufacturing and distribution business with 100+ years of experience. The manufacturer was launching a strategy to leverage its online wholesale/retail business—currently representing only 3% of total revenue—as its engine for future growth. To make such a significant change meant hiring the best, most dedicated digital talent as an accelerant. As such, our client needed to source a dedicated team of e-commerce pros in a market where the demand for such candidates far exceeded the supply. Adding to the challenge, our client’s employment brand was virtually non-existent among digital talent pools. Broadleaf was brought in to help find 15 qualified candidates, ranging from Director to Analyst, who possessed both technical and creative talents.

Our team hit the ground running, combining our experiences recruiting digital talent for manufacturing businesses with our client’s strong presence in the industry. We also tapped into our toolbox of social media recruiting tools to source candidates, and once the top candidates were identified, we used structured interviews to pre-screen and present them to the client.

Three months later…

The results speak for themselves. Within 90 days of initial engagement, our client hired 15 technology and digital professionals, ranging from Director-level to Developers and Analysts. In all cases, candidates met or exceeded requirements. The average time-to-hire was 27 days, roughly 51% faster than the industry average of 55 days. Additionally, a 42% cost saving was realized by our client.

Does your organization need assistance hiring digital talent? Get in touch with the Broadleaf team today.

Find out how your company can benefit from a well-designed RPO solution by downloading our E-Book, “A Common Sense Guide to RPO for Digital Talent Acquisition.”

Originally published on April 10, 2019 

The post No Previous Experience? No Problem. How to Hire Digital Talent. appeared first on Broadleaf Results.

What should leaders in the retail and e-commerce space expect in the months ahead? How will this hiring season be different than those in years past? Here are three current trends that will shape seasonal retail and e-commerce hiring this year.

1. Seasonal hiring: What’s to come?

According to Mastercard SpendingPulse, “Consumers and brands alike are gearing up for what’s anticipated to be the most wonderful holiday retail season on record.” In the eyes of Deloitte, holiday sales will increase by three point five to four point six percent to reach between $1.28 trillion and $1.3 trillion from November to January. E-commerce sales are also expected to see a rise of between 11 and 15 percent to reach more than $210 billion.

If pundits are anticipating a consumer spending extravaganza during the 2021 holiday season, why are businesses so concerned? The answer lies in finding workers. Due to the tight labor market, retailers and e-commerce businesses are experiencing widespread difficulties in finding candidates that want to work. These companies are having to get creative to successfully recruit candidates that can serve the needs of their customers.

Within the retail and e-commerce industry, organizations have been forced to up the ante when it comes to attracting job seekers. From sign-on bonuses and increased hourly wages to comprehensive benefits packages and more, companies are doing whatever they can to more effectively entice workers. Expect more of the same to continue throughout the retail hiring season.

2. Retail giants see a rise in hiring needs

Which big-name retail and e-commerce companies are ramping up their hiring needs before the holiday season push? Let’s take a look:

• Amazon is expected to hire over 125,000 workers in full- and part-time fulfillment and transportation roles;
• Kohl’s is planning to add more than 90,000 employees to its retail stores and warehouses;
• Michael’s craft store is looking to hire around 20,000 workers for its stores and distribution centers, marking a 25 percent increase from 2020;
• DICK’s Sporting Goods is planning to recruit about 10,000 seasonal employees for retail positions—the highest in company history.

As online ordering has become an increasingly popular shopping option for millions of consumers nationwide, retailers are preparing their warehouses and distribution centers accordingly. While it remains to be seen how potential supply chain bottlenecks and rising freight costs caused by the pandemic will impact these businesses, retail companies are doing their best to prepare for tasks like shelf replenishment and transportation of inventory to brick-and-mortar locations.

For retailers that are planning to hire tens of thousands of retail workers to support their operations, HR experts believe that a rise in recruitment automation will help to expedite the hiring process. By utilizing sophisticated tools like resume parsers, recruiters can accelerate recruiting and onboarding initiatives to more easily find qualified candidates and bring them up to speed in less time.

3. Increase in curbside pickup and doorstep delivery

As concerns about the Delta variant continue to impact everyday life throughout the United States, consumers are growing wary of in-store shopping. This will almost certainly cause a significant rise in the number of online retail orders that are placed—putting a greater strain on transportation and shipping companies like FedEx, UPS, and USPS to fulfill doorstep deliveries.

Online retailers have also begun offering “curbside pickup” options for their customers. This is a purchasing choice that has colossal implications on retail businesses. Not only will it help to control the spread of the coronavirus, but it will also force retailers to hire greater numbers of in-store associates to support these curbside orders.

As retail businesses prepare for the influx of shopping activity this holiday season, they must also make suitable investments in their digital technology. From the development of comprehensive retail apps to the utilization of complex software to track in-store inventory, companies need to ensure that their tech platforms are fully functional to avoid problems during the hiring season.

Summary

As retailers and e-commerce businesses prepare for the upcoming holiday season, the next several weeks will be critical as these companies ramp up the size of their workforces. Winning the war for retail talent will be a challenge, so organizations will have to formulate new and inventive ideas to attract and retain candidates. If companies are serious about capitalizing on significant financial opportunity throughout the holidays, they must properly scale their workforces with qualified retail workers to effectively service the needs of their customers. Without enough employees, retailers run the risk of dissatisfying their customers and losing out on precious revenue.

The post 3 Seasonal Hiring Trends in Retail and E-Commerce appeared first on Broadleaf Results.

Preventing Job Turnover by Prioritizing Top Talent

If your organization is seeking to accelerate your recruiting efforts and expedite your hiring timeline, consider a recruiting partner that offers recruitment process outsourcing (RPO). A popular staffing method, RPO is “a form of business process outsourcing (BPO) where an employer transfers all or part of its recruitment processes to an external service provider” who assumes ownership of the design, management of the recruiting process, and responsibility for the results.

Leveraging RPO services can bring value and generate proven results for your organization in these five ways:

1. Scalability

Rapid expansion is usually a good problem to have for almost any organization. But when business needs are growing, you will need ample staff on hand to support these demands. RPO can help your organization meet hiring deadlines without sacrificing productivity, as most RPO services can be scaled up or pared down. The ebbs and flows of business should dictate how often — and for which services — you engage your partner, whether you are looking to fill several niche roles or need robust recruiting resources for a considerable ramp-up.

2. Customizability

Let’s say that your organization is faced with an unexpected hiring spike to fill over 100 customer service specialist roles within a 10-week timeframe. Is your TA team equipped to handle this large-scale recruitment initiative? Do they understand the market for this type of talent? RPO allows you to customize the hiring process to align the most effective recruiting tools for the specific skill sets you need while meeting that tight deadline.

3. Cost-Effectiveness

Companies that choose to streamline their recruiting processes with help from RPO providers often benefit from increased cost savings. Not only can the hiring lifecycle be made more efficient, but metrics like time-to-hire and cost-per-hire ultimately decrease. A targeted recruiting process should generate higher quality hires who will have a more positive impact on your organization and reduce turnover rates. Cost-effective pricing models for volume placements can often be tailored to decrease your company’s overall hiring costs.

4. Technology

Recruiting methods today utilize a myriad of sophisticated tools that can enhance candidate quality, from integrated applicant tracking systems to AI-based recruiting platforms. Unfortunately, most organizations don’t have the ongoing volume of open jobs to justify the expense of some of these technologies on their own. These platforms will typically be included in your RPO recruitment package, significantly increasing the quality, alignment, and size of your potential candidate pool.

5. Support

The chances are high that your internal recruitment teams are stretched pretty thin at the moment and would welcome additional support to help with hiring searches. Partnering with an RPO provider allows your TA team to redirect its recruiting strategy, perhaps to focus on fewer hard-to-fill or strategic searches while the RPO concentrates more on high volume repetitive openings.

Maximize Your RPO Investment

If you’re interested in deploying an RPO solution to address your organization’s talent needs, here are some best practices to maximize your investment.

1. Fully integrate RPO with your talent acquisition department.

The RPO provider must be viewed as a strategic partner. This means setting up RPO recruiters with a company email address and granting them the authority to act as a representative of your TA team. Candidates should not know that they’re dealing with an RPO recruiter. This differentiates the RPO from staffing companies and search firms, who may be contacting the same candidates for positions.

2. Divide and conquer.

Your TA team and your RPO provider should not be fishing in the same pond. It doesn’t make sense to compete with each other and duplicate efforts. At the outset of a project, determine the specific positions that the RPO provider will be recruiting for. These should be totally separate from what your TA team is working on. Otherwise, you will get in each other’s way and be far less productive. Your RPO provider acts as an extension of your TA department, so a collaborative approach that leverages all resources most efficiently will yield the best hiring results.

3. Agree on the rules of engagement.

It’s important to have full executive-level support from the company, with appropriate resources allocated to the project. Any concerns from resisters should be addressed at the outset. Also, the RPO provider must commit sufficient staff and recruiting tools to the program while adhering to agreed-upon metrics to measure performance.

RPO providers should have some skin in the game. It’s common to establish a pricing model with an open req fee and close or fulfillment fee, rather than one based on time and materials. Both parties should set realistic expectations and manage them appropriately. Occasional level-setting can take place as needed.

4. View your RPO provider as a subject matter expert.

Your RPO provider should be engaged for their recruiting expertise, so take full advantage of this. Let them examine your current processes and determine how you can acquire talent better, faster, and cheaper. Maximize the experience by being open to receiving feedback on your recruiting processes without being defensive. In this way, your company will reap the benefits of RPO long after the project has ended.

Summary

As organizations continue to face an onslaught of internal hiring needs, partnering with a dedicated RPO provider could be the difference between staying on top of potential business opportunities and letting them slip through your grasp.

Looking to learn more about recruitment process outsourcing? Check out this blog post that discusses 10 facts about RPO from our partner Acara Solutions.

This blog was originally featured on Forbes.com and written by Broadleaf’s President and CEO, Lynne Marie Finn. 

The post How Recruitment Process Outsourcing Can Help Businesses Address The Great Rehire appeared first on Broadleaf Results.

Ready for one of the worst-kept secrets of 2020? Silicon Valley is crumbling. Yes, the demise of the global hub for technological innovation and evolution may officially be upon us. Not only are thousands of Ivy League-educated, high-profile employees fleeing the confines of northern California, but some of their employers are departing with them.

Don’t believe me? Take a look at the following stats:

• Rental prices in San Francisco, Menlo Park, and Mountain View – some of the most high-profile residence areas within the Silicon Valley region – have tumbled by up to 15%, according to national rent reports from Zumper.
• Housing inventory in San Francisco witnessed a 96% year-over-year increase while listing prices dropped by 5%, according to Zillow.
• Since the declaration of the pandemic, San Francisco saw 80% more people depart the area than move in, according to Hire A Helper.
• Almost 4 in 10 urbanites were debating relocating to a more rural place of residence, according to CBS News.

Although Silicon Valley looks to now be a shell of its pre-pandemic self, the mass exodus of high-quality talent out of California represents a positive sign for the labor market around the U.S. Residents choosing to relocate outside of Silicon Valley could look to seize employment opportunities in other parts of the country, while companies who have abandoned the region in search of greener pastures will be able to set up operations in more affordable and economically practical locations.

If your organization is looking to attract top-tier talent from the Silicon Valley area, it’s time to consider RPO as your solution. It won’t matter if your company is based on the east coast but your employees work on the west coast – with a well-thought-out remote work strategy, project collaboration and teamwork will be more effective than ever before. RPO programs will help to maximize your access to unique talent pools and equip your organization with the approach it needs to take advantage of these highly sought-after workers that are now available on the candidate market.

If your organization is considering a move to a different state, it’s inevitable that valued employees will be lost along the way. It’s quite possible that – upon relocation – you’ll be entering a completely different talent market with entirely new talent pools. To atone for these workforce departures, leveraging a strategic RPO solution can help your company to hire premier talent to replace them. By structuring a well-designed recruitment plan, you’ll be able to discover even the hardest-to-reach candidates to augment your bench of talent and enhance your organization’s performance.

Although the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic has been a pure detriment to millions of Americans, it appears the migration out of Silicon Valley will prove to be a silver lining for some employees and employers alike. While our world awaits the long-term ramifications of COVID-19, this relocation trend is shaping up to be a positive development that impacts the future of the workplace for years to come.

Interested in learning more about Broadleaf’s talent acquisition solutions? Contact us to learn more!

The post The Downfall of Silicon Valley and Its Impact on Hiring appeared first on Broadleaf Results.

When asked about the transformation of recruiting since the outbreak of COVID-19, Jason stated that the process has become more fluid as recruiters have taken on greater responsibility.

“Our recruiters are now making selection decisions for high-volume workers and gaining accountability throughout the process,” said Jason. “This has allowed supervisors to focus more on coaching and developing existing employees rather than spending their time and energy in recruiting new ones.”

While tens of millions of Americans lost their jobs due to furloughs and layoffs over the past several months, not all companies were looking to cut their workforces during the pandemic. According to Jason, about 80% of Broadleaf’s client base was deemed as “essential” businesses. These organizations continued to hire front-line production and retail workers despite the prevalence of COVID-19.

“A lot of our conversations have been positive with our clients on how they can alter their recruiting process to work through these new challenges,” continued Jason. “Things like video interviewing are here to stay. It’s been amazing to observe recruiting’s rapid shift to an entirely virtual, online setting.”

As government aid through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) provision of the CARES Act is set to expire at the end of July, talent pools will be teeming with high-quality candidates who are itching to return to work. According to Jason, he advised his recruiting teams in early July to begin constructing their pipelines to discover talent that could be quickly hired and onboarded in support of Broadleaf’s clients – and urges talent acquisition leaders to do the same.

To learn more about Jason, you can connect with him on LinkedIn. You can also read his most recent article, “What is RPO? Recruitment Process Outsourcing: Explained.”

For more workforce management tips from Jason and our experts at Broadleaf, check out our blog.

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Broadleaf’s Director of Client Delivery Ryan Schaal offered his thoughts on candidate screening in a recent article published by the Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association.

“Once this assessment takes place, the methods that have been evaluated as ‘best practice’ will remain, while some other less effective processes may go back to the way they were,” said Schaal.

As work-from-home models have become increasingly prevalent since the coronavirus outbreak, many expect this arrangement to dominate the workplace in years to come. Schaal commented that he believes employers will continue to invest in this remote work approach and slowly drift away from physical office locations.

To read more from Schaal and learn about the changes to strategic RPO recruiting during COVID-19, view the full article on the RPOA website.

Looking to learn more about Broadleaf? Get a glimpse of our comprehensive total talent management solutions here.

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What did we learn? What are HR and procurement pros talking about? Well, we already know that total talent management (TTM) solutions are dominating the conversation as a holistic workforce solution—but when it comes to specific services that teams are looking for, here are three that people are talking about.

1. Direct Sourcing
Take a bite out of traditional recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) and you get direct sourcing services: a third-party solution with an in-house feel. Direct sourcing is when the client, or the MSP, uses its ATS and various talent pools to find temporary labor.  That labor is then routed to a payroll provider, which acts as the employer of record. To paraphrase a perspective from our CWS panel: “We have no internal recruiting organization. That’s why we needed RPO and admin capabilities.”

With Broadleaf, we customize RPO according to your needs—we work alongside your team to customize talent solutions that help you recruit the people you need, when you need them. With proven adaptive sourcing models, we’ll manage all of, half of, or just some of your internal sourcing functions. It’s your call.

2. Payrolling
A good number of exhibitors at the conference were dishing out payrolling services as a standalone service to HR and procurement teams. While this is a reasonable strategy, it fails to acknowledge the cohesion needed between both departments. As we heard from our panel, “We had a highly decentralized organization, but MSPs allowed us to develop a relationship between Procurement and HR.”

Broadleaf’s MSPs (managed service programs) are specially designed to help you source candidates, consolidate invoicing, manage contracts, and more—all as a single service. With all your HR and procurement needs in the same place, you can reach peak efficiencies.

3. IC Compliance
IC compliance was another hot topic among vendors wheeling and dealing at the CWS Summit, and for good reason. Keeping tabs on your independent contractors can save you thousands of dollars come tax time—but sometimes a more flexible statement of work (SOW) and procurement management solution is the better option.

Why? How? With SOW services, you get a standard process for tracking and managing independent contractors and suppliers. That means unlimited visibility of all your contract developments in real time, a single system of record for all non-direct employees, and a standardized approval process at your disposal. Paired with a vendor management system (VMS), SOW is more than just IC compliance—it’s a symbiotic, streamlined solution.

One of our panelists said it best: “Moving ICC to SOW model has allowed us to reduce the number of invoices—our PO process is more streamlined. Down 60% in volume of POs.”

Sure, these three services can be effective on their own. But when you put them under the same umbrella, or TTM strategy, they are even more effective. Why take one or two management services from this company or that? Instead, get your hands on a complete suite of total talent management solutions from Broadleaf Results.

For more insights about the global workforce and how to manage it, check out our Resource Center. And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram!

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