How Can You Measure Your RPO Service Provider’s Performance?

For most large multinational and international corporations around the world, Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) services are an integral component of the recruitment procedure. As time goes by, employers want to see a continuous improvement in the talent acquisition, recruitment and onboarding departments. And that’s why it becomes vital to measure your RPO services. Like with everything else, there should be goals and expectations set in place before outsourcing work to an external agency. Once you have done that, you can set expectations, analyse metrics and recommend changes to improve the process.

Long-term RPO services are highly involved in talent acquisition and hiring talent for open job positions, which can gain successful hires with excellent skills. Recruitment partnerships are mandatory for major business ventures, but you need to measure metrics and receive a return on investment. RPO services work further to gain insights into what works and what doesn’t, and develop innovative strategies and resources for better productivity. Strategies to measure RPO performance vary, as every business has different requirements. Here’s how you can start to measure your RPO services:

What are the responsibilities of an RPO services provider?

RPO services is an external outsourcing service where a firm outsources its recruitment procedures. It supplements the in-house Human Resources department in the following tasks:

• Creating recruitment strategies
• Handling critical processes and technology
• Consulting candidates and recruiters
• Shortlisting interviews for interviews
• Interviewing and assessing candidates
• Onboarding new hires

What are the advantages of hiring an RPO service provider?

Considering the scope of work involved in getting the right hire, it is always advisable to partner with an RPO service provider. Some of the benefits of an RPO service provider are:

1. Saves time, money and effort as they create a strategy in place to attract good talent across different platforms, along with all the paperwork and technology that you need. It works way better than traditional advertising that the in-house human resources team would fall back on as they spend time shortlisting, recruiting and onboarding candidates.
2. Ensures the recruitment of quality candidates, as they have a talent pool in place that selects candidates that fit best with your job description for the open position. They streamline the hiring procedure with analytics reporting and compliance regulations as they work with reliable data on labour laws and trade standards. Moreover, they maintain detailed records of the recruitment procedure that can be produced when needed – a sign of good RPO performance.

What should you look for when evaluating your RPO service provider?

How much time does it take to fill an open job position?

It’s imperative that your RPO service provider is efficient in filling open job positions. Candidates want quick responses on their application, interview and recruitment process as they are looking at multiple opportunities at a time. Ensure that the Application Tracking System (ATS) is proactive at every stage, and analyse the time taken to reach a decision. Find the causes of delay, if any, and ramp up your targets and deadlines. If not, check if prompt responses are sent to the candidates looking for an open position by the talent acquisition team. The time taken to recruit top-notch candidates shows the quality of the researchers, marketers and recruiters in your RPO team.

Where are your candidates coming from?

It is crucial to know the source of the candidates interested in your open positions so that RPO services will effectively engage with them. Responses on the ‘Careers’ section of your website or trustworthy job-seeking portals are great if you have your target set on a particular kind of audience. Ask your RPO services for insights on the kind of candidates that you are looking for, and what is the right sourcing ground for them.

How long does it take to make an offer?

RPO services ensure high-quality submittal services, which attract interviewees to accept your offers and indicate their success. Interviews take time and effort, even for the interviewer, and everybody wants to speak to people who share a common goal to better the company. If your RPO services bring in candidates who are genuinely qualified and interested to work with you, you can be sure your RPO team and hiring manager are doing their job well.

Good candidates are a great way to measure RPO engagement during and after the hiring process – ask your hiring manager if the RPO firms offer proactive and responsive solutions. Do they handle issues efficiently? Are the candidates of value? Making regular checks will help you understand ways in which your RPO firm’s efforts need to be lauded or improved.

Is your RPO service team as invested as you are?

As a company leader, it is understandable to be concerned about and committed to your company goals. Your RPO service team should be answerable to your queries, and establish a professional working relationship with you. The RPO team should aid you in anticipating needs, be aware of what is happening and develop a talented and trusted community of professionals.

How long does it take for the candidate to accept your offer?

Formally known as the Offer to Acceptance Ratio, it refers to the percentage of accepted offers from an organisation. If your offers are constantly rejected by candidates, there is a good chance that your RPO provider should focus more on administering clear-cut expectations to the shortlisted candidates. Ensure that you offer free salaries, perks and other benefits packages that would attract your candidates. Candidates should be thoroughly evaluated before making them a final offer, as many make different decisions at various stages of their career. Though a recruiter cannot always predict a candidate’s intentions, it is possible to screen out prospective hires.

Check the number of interviews and examinations taken before an employee is hired. There is nothing called a ‘perfect’ candidate, and there are unforeseen events that can disturb hiring efforts. However, many interviews but few hires can attest to the fact that your RPO providers need to step up their game.

What does your company culture say about you?

Your RPO team must align themselves with the company’s values, attitude, culture and personality and advertise the same in their initiatives. All of these matter in creating a positive synergy at work, and you must discuss relationships, impact and motivation with your team to see what works and what doesn’t.

Do metrics tell the truth?

RPO teams are smart, but so are you. Prepare the Human Resources team to check on meaningful sections and help them with the data to be communicated. Not just the RPO services, even you, the client, are responsible for the success of the hiring efforts, and hence, you should provide them with accessible data to work upon.

RPO services hold their value in most large workplaces and for good reasons. It’s time that employers invest in them to create efficient sourcing, shortlisting and recruiting processes for candidates.