Agile Talent Acquisition with RPO

Achieving Talent Acquisition Agility with RPO

A modern talent acquisition team must be agile and resilient in the face of increasing business disruption and volatile hiring needs. Recruitment process outsourcing is the ideal route to agile talent acquisition, empowering teams to simplify their processes and handle change while keeping pace with organisational needs.

Change Is the Only Constant

Few businesses could have planned for the pandemic or the subsequent volatility in the economy and labour market.

The future promises more change. 2024 sees the ongoing war in Ukraine, increasing tensions in the Middle East, and looming UK and US elections. With the economic and political climate remaining unclear, no organisation can predict the future.

What is certain is that the trend is leaning towards more disruption, not less. Last year, research from Gartner revealed that 2023 had nearly five times as many business disruptions as 2014

Change Creates Hiring Volatility

A changing business environment creates hiring volatility, both in terms of the volume of roles and skillsets required. Recent disruptions have led to hiring freezes and surges, sometimes affecting different areas of a business at the same time.

In such situations, even the best-laid annual hiring plans go out the window. Talent teams find themselves under immense pressure from decision-makers to respond quickly, reducing costs in response to a hiring freeze or sourcing talent at scale during a hiring surge.

This constant, changing pressure inevitably has a detrimental effect on talent team morale. Being asked to quickly switch between periods of very low and very high activity leads to burnout and demoralisation.

So, what is the answer?

Avoiding The Common Pitfalls

Many organisations will already be aware of the pitfalls of growing their talent acquisition headcount in response to a sudden increase in requirements.

New recruiters need to be sourced, onboarded, and trained. Meanwhile, vacancies continue to stack up. The team is fighting a losing battle – and if further disruption impacts hiring volumes, those new recruiters may find their roles at risk.

Another option is to engage local recruitment agencies on an ad hoc basis. This is a viable solution for lower volume requirements, as local recruiters can do much of the heavy lifting – sourcing, pre-screening, and managing communication with candidates to free up the talent team’s time.

The downside of this approach is that it doesn’t work at scale. Beyond a certain point, there are more cost-effective and strategic ways to engage an external partner.

The Benefits of RPO

In times of volatility, it is important to be agile. Agility means the ability to change direction and adapt to a rapidly changing environment.

Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) offers a route to agile talent acquisition by equipping organisations with the resources and expertise to achieve a truly flexible approach.

Agile talent acquisition welcomes change

Agility means being able to handle changing requirements while keeping pace. It requires resilient teams to work sustainably – in other words, at a pace that can be maintained indefinitely.

Simply asking your existing talent team to absorb additional workload without extra resource is not sustainable. Teams may be able to handle an increase in vacancy numbers in the short term, but other work – usually planning and analysis for longer-term needs – will start to pile up. Eventually, the backlog must be dealt with – and something has to give.

RPO can support short-term workload increases. Recruiter-on-demand services allow you to bring in experienced recruiters for several weeks or months as an additional resource within your team. Alternatively, project RPO allows you to outsource a specific campaign or project to an expert partner.

Agile talent acquisition works daily to become more effective

Agile teams maintain close working relationships and regularly adjust their approach to be more effective.

Talent professionals struggle to find the time to reflect on what is working and implement changes while under pressure. While engaging a local recruitment agency on an ad hoc basis can support a low volume of roles, it does not typically lead to overall improvements in the wider talent acquisition approach.

An RPO provider develops a close relationship with the hiring business, often placing staff on-site to enable greater proximity and ease of contact. KPIs, SLAs, and regular reviews ensure continual improvement in recruitment activity effectiveness.

Agile talent acquisition empowers talent teams

Agility requires motivated individuals working in an environment that sets them up to succeed.

Asking talent teams to constantly adapt to changing requirements leads to demoralisation and burnout. Switching between high and low activity without additional support is not a recipe for success.

An RPO provider offers additional support to manage busy periods while imparting valuable skills, insights, and knowledge gained from handling similar projects for other organisations. In addition to maintaining a more sustainable workload, your talent team can develop their skills alongside RPO colleagues for the good of the business.

Agile talent acquisition simplifies processes

A key tenet of an agile approach is to simplify processes and maintain the best technical solutions.

This is a tall ask for a talent team under pressure to deliver against an increased volume of roles. Likewise, local recruitment agencies will support recruitment activity but are not there to alter your recruitment processes or technology.

RPO takes a holistic overview of immediate hiring needs and the broader context, including processes, data, and recruitment technology. Your partner can review your existing set-up, recommend improvements, and drive positive change to enable long-term cost and time savings.

Adecco RPO In Action

Adecco’s approach to RPO is designed with flexibility in mind. Here are a couple of examples where we assisted organisations with their permanent recruitment needs:

Case Study:

Challenge:

Adecco were employed on a three-month trial to improve the acquisition process for London bus drivers at the company’s Rainham garage.

Solution:

Working with the client, we reduced candidate drop-offs by speeding up all aspects of the end-to-end process and driving efficiencies to avoid losing candidates to rival companies.

Result:

We successfully managed the attraction and selection of over 220 FTE staff. The RPO contract was also expanded to include four additional garages.

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Case Study:

Challenge:

Adecco supported a UK manufacturing giant across a three-year evolving RPO contract, incorporating cost reductions, streamlined processes and EVP enhancements.

Solution:

We created bespoke attraction materials across multiple platforms and introduced the latest ATS technology to move the client away from inefficient processes and improve their approach to interviewing.

Result:

We supplied over 540 staff across a three-year contract, reduced the average time to hire, and achieved industry-leading satisfaction and NPS scores.

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Discuss Your Organisational Needs with Adecco

Maintaining 360-degree visibility is essential to understanding how external events will influence your talent needs. Businesses must build and maintain an agile talent acquisition function, equipped to hire at scale when needed.

Adecco are ready to support your organisation with your hiring needs, future-proofing your talent team against volatility in unprecedented times.

Talk to us today.