Whether with the advent of open-source application development, just-in-time supply chain, recruiting process outsourcing (RPO), or for that matter any new business discipline, companies have struggled with business innovation and implementation in the absence of solid, proven best practices. In this absence we are left to invent and take a decidedly more trial and error, or perhaps more accurately trial by fire approach as we conceptualize, justify and execute new business practices to spirit our companies ahead of the competition or in some cases initiate as a means of survival.

The cycle usually begins with a whisper, a clue buried within an article, a spark, and voila, our careers take new paths into unchartered territory. And indeed, this may be how you’ve come upon this article, as you’ve either just taken initial steps or maybe have already blazed down the trail in pursuit of recruiting nirvana. What have you found?

With labor constraints, profit constraints, market demand, client demands, centralized vendor programs, and more all conspiring to challenge the very way you conduct business often forcing you to re-think hallowed business practices that have been effective for years, RPO may provide some answers. Many have thoroughly researched the space and have found less substantive data than hoped, have found a wrath of RPO providers all offering different opinions, services, and perspectives, and have spoken with and maybe even trialed a vendor or two or three… Trialing is common and even consistent and necessary should you desire to remain ahead of the curve.

That said, we are quickly reaching a point in the industry where different types of RPO are emerging, a sort of intra-discipline banding of companies that at last will make evaluation and selection more manageable.

At a high level, these bands could be characterized as:

a) Full RPO whereby clients recognize their internal recruiting function is fundamentally broken or underperforming requiring nothing less than open heart surgery

b) RPO firms that seek to not displace but optimize clients’ current internal operations whether through process, technology, or geographic advantages The former are often but not always delivered from within a larger HRO or HCM context where recruiting is but one dimension of the larger HR spectrum. The latter emanates from many areas whether pure process consulting, HR or performance software, staffing, or BPO often delivered via global centers, primarily
India.

So based on the current industry phase, let’s address a few concepts and better yet, practices that may help you accelerate and in effect de-risk your approach to RPO.

1. Definition - As there are as many differing types of RPO company as there are of [fill in any industry] company, you would best be served to define your company, just as you seek to define your provider. Meaning that with the range of variables at hand, no one solution is right for every company. For example, it may sound attractive to completely outsource a broken recruiting function but in practice the target company may not have the outsourcing tolerance necessary to ultimately make it work. This is why you often read of boomerang outsourcing deals that go away, flail, fail, and come back at no insignificant cost. And while the reasons for possible failure are many, it may be found later that in actuality recruiting worked fine, but there were larger corporate integration, communications, alignment issues that were the real culprits to the initial problem state. In other cases, where process discipline and documentation exist and the politics are in order, full, metric-driven outsourcing may be the absolute right choice.

2. Presence - One of the best ways to learn is to observe others, in some cases this may mean talking to your peers and trusted advisors (be careful not to divulge too much), doing the research, and certainly talking with providers who in many cases are learning the space along with you and are genuinely interested in learning more about how you envision leveraging the model and can share real-world anecdotes of what works and why and how. By exercising your critical listening skills you will quickly develop a composite picture of the space and providers, form opinions or a mental framework of the space, as well as sense which providers truly have something to show, or…something to hide. Conferences and seminars in and around the subject are taking place with greater frequency and can be an outstanding venue to take in varying data and viewpoints.

3. Move - While you may no longer have a first-mover advantage, the last thing you want to be is a laggard relative to your competitors. By not leveraging the many advantages - quickly - of RPO, you could find your competitors lapping you in critical deals based on a fundamentally different ability to both find candidates and accelerate response times. We may quickly see a time when not only will you recognize RPO as a business imperative, but your customers will too, and not having this capability may begin to restrict your strategic options.

A trend to be aware of is the plight of the serial trial-ist… While learning by trial is generally recommended, we’re seeing more and more companies burn through multiple providers in a short period of time which comes at a direct cost to your sanity and profitability, and frankly to the industry. While the potential reasons for this are many, it likely gets to choosing providers that don’t understand the space, don’t understand or have mature delivery capabilities and expertise, or don’t properly set expectations with clients. At the end of the day, when delivering services via people, we have nothing if not our reputations to uphold. The long-term providers will have an acute sense of this and make sure, together with you that they can deliver to your expectations in a reasonable timeframe. They will also have the capacity to work through delivery hurdles quickly and efficiently. Because in this world, there will always be hurdles, and the prize goes to those who manage them effectively.

4. Long term - In the tension between delivery expertise and cost, it’s recommended you steer toward companies that possess sophistication in their cost projections and financial business justifications. This could also be read as, cheaper is not always better, and in fact rarely is. Legitimate companies in this space are investing in experienced people, infrastructure, and management and are not looking to short-circuit the true costs of doing reputable business. Again, through investigation, the companies that ‘get it’ will become apparent to you. So while preferring not to use the over-used ‘marriage’ metaphor, it’s suggested to look at your RPO provider relationship through the lens of medium to long term value, business growth, and compatibility.

It reminds me of an interaction I had with a chef a couple years ago. Not any chef mind you, but one of those superstar chefs who transcends his space going places others have never envisioned. When asked, ‘how do you strive for…a level of excellence when there are no visible markers to guide you…?’ He went deep and out of his industry, and said, ‘…it’s like Jerry Garcia, who ceased one day to ask himself how he could be the best guitar player in the world, but rather how he could be the best Jerry Garcia…’ Look and evaluate companies that know exactly what they are, what they can achieve, and leverage that to your best absolute advantage.