Talent Acquisition: Why Outsourcing is the Best Solution

The most successful companies understand the importance of selectivity in their hiring decisions – as well as the costly retributions of bad hires. Savvy shareholders know that an organization’s competitive advantage is intrinsically linked to talent. They realize that in today’s recovering economy, top performers have their choice of employers.

HR departments can become overwhelmed when faced with urgent hiring needs in key positions, in addition to their day-to-day responsibilities. The solution is to outsource mission-critical recruiting needs to a qualified, proven and capable partner.

Strategic Talent Optimization

With talent scarcity a growing risk, companies are increasingly turning to recruitment partners with the vision to move their business forward. This involves optimizing the strength of the entire hiring process, from strategic planning through execution and achievement of measurable results. Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) empowers an organization to adjust its hiring options in alignment with fluctuating needs and customer demands.

RPO is a rapidly evolving business solution. Research shows that 57 percent of companies have outsourced or planned to outsource recruitment activities this year. This is up from 53 percent in 2012 and 43 percent in 2011.

As noted by Jane C. Linder of the MIT Sloan Management Review, “when executives began outsourcing substantial portions of their operations (in the 1990s), they did it to offload activities they declared to be non-core, in order to cut costs and improve their strategic focus. Today, however, companies are looking outside for help for more fundamental reasons – to facilitate rapid organizational change, launch new strategies, and reshape company boundaries. In doing so, they are engaging in transformational outsourcing, partnering with another company to achieve a rapid, substantial and sustainable improvement in enterprise-level performance.”

Benefits of RPO

Outsourcing talent acquisition enables your organization to access best-in-class resources that bolster your business goals and maximize your ROI.

• Success is based on the relentless recruitment of high performers. Foremost among these are passive job seekers. These individuals are currently employed and conduct confidential searches based on personal networking.
• The right recruitment partner is a specialist. Their expertise lies in niche talent marketing, sourcing and closing deals with candidates.
• RPO drives efficiency. The best recruitment solutions are those that scale up and down depending on current hiring needs. Value is added as plans are customized to meet both short and long-term goals unique to each position.
• Market intelligence is invaluable. Your recruiter can provide and apply information related to demographic and competitive changes in your workforce and industry. They can develop modules to educate staff, tap you into their networks, and capture the effectiveness of specific hiring strategies.

Measuring Recruitment Success

Like any support function, HR is continually challenged to define, measure and communicate the value it brings to an organization. By using an outsourcing methodology to create your performance metrics, this value can be clearly articulated to executive leadership and stakeholders.

The Importance of Attracting Passive Candidates

Passive job seekers are superstars. They consistently rank in the top five to ten percent of their professions in terms of market value. Seventy-three percent of passive job seekers rely primarily on their personal networks to gain information on potential future employers.

A successful recruiting firm has a robust candidate network and knows who the passive candidates are and where to find them. There’s a good possibility they already represent them. Your hiring partner supports you with A-level candidates who are prescreened and ready for hire. At the same time, your anonymity is preserved.

To learn more about strategic talent optimization and how outsourcing can be the best business move for you, read our related posts or contact the expert recruiting team at BrainWorks today.