I have been waiting for this one. Recruitment Process Outsourcing (or RPO) has been a topic of much debate for the last 5 years in Canada. I was first introduced to Human Resources and Recruitment Process Outsourcing just over 5 years ago now, having been very involved in one of North America’s largest HRO/RPO deals. I have worked on the client side, structuring the deal and managing the outsourced provider. I have also been on the vendor side, acting as an account manager and service delivery/operations leader. I definitely don’t know everything about RPO, but I am more than qualified to have some strong opinions on the topic! So.....what insight can I share with this community? Here are some broad strokes for consideration:

• The best RPO’s are partnerships. The most successful RPO deals I have seen are true partnerships, the vendor working as a specialized extension of the client. Think augmentation as opposed to replacement.

• The worst RPO ‘s are “take my recruitment problems away” RPO’s. The outsourcing organization’s hiring leaders and HR team don’t get a pass when a RPO vendor comes on board. They still need to be very active participants in the recruitment cycle - referring from their networks, interviewing, and onboarding

• The scope of the deal is critical. Give careful thought to what you outsource and what you retain. Big RPO’s become extremely complicated and dilute focus. Do you really want to give internal staffing and promotion to an outside vendor? Think about it.

• RPO is good for Recruitment Professionals and HR. RPO’s have brought great innovation to recruitment. They tend to look at the work like a business- financially focused, deep metrics and reporting, outcome driven. RPO’s have created career paths for recruitment professionals, and allowed HR professionals to focus on other priorities.

Next week – you pick the topic! Anything top of mind you would me to ramble on about?