RPO Challenges In China

You are hearing a lot about Recruitment Processing Outsourcing (RPO), especially from us, but obviously there are many people who remain unconvinced.

Otherwise everyone in China would be doing it. Right?. So why exactly is it that you consider RPO as a solution?

Here are a few thoughts that we pulled from a very heated round table event with HR Managers in China:

- Whether you like it or not your internal Recruiting Specialist or Supervisor is likely to leave you in the next 6-12 months. No one disagreed with this prediction. But in addition, it was noted that if the recruiter has been with you for more than 18 months his departure date is likely to be less than 6 months.

- While he is gone the hiring process will just stop. Virtually all the HRMs agreed that this was likely. All of the information is in his hands and it takes time for the new person to find it, and restart the process.

- Whether you like it or not, the HR Manager in your company likely to leave you in the next 6-12 months as well. When they do the company will find it difficult to complete the hiring process because HRMs normally take responsibility for the first interview for mid-senior level positions. This will last during the time when you are seeking a new HR Manager and for another month afterwards.

- RPO gives you íinstant processí. If you currently do not have a properly defined hiring process you can piggyback on the RPO companyís experience and knowledge. They define and run it, so it is in their interest to ensure an effective hiring process.

- Your favourite headhunter also works for your competitor. If he finds more opportunity with the competitor he will happily drop you as a client and hunt in you instead. Hey, itís only business!. Your RPO partner works with and for you, and wants to keep you as a client indefinitely.

- Every advertisement that you put on a recruitment portal in China brings in candidates into the portalís database. These candidates are sold by that portal to your competitors. (This is one issue that really got some people going.)

-If you decide not to go the RPO route immediately, an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is a very good start and it will allow you to take control of the hiring process eventually. Some people went this route first before doing RPO. Note that this means you have to wait and the time necessary to build up your skills is not always clear.

- Massive skills shortages will continue in China for at least another 5 years. RPO companies specialise in the hiring process and aggregate the knowledge from a wide variety of clients. This is difficult to replicate inhouse.

- RPO is proven to save money but for most HRMs in China this does not seem to be the main reason for choosing this method. The main reason was the RPOís ability to identify and screen suitable candidates.

Frank Mulligan is the Managing Director of Talent Software, which is based in Shanghai, China. The company is a producer of Talent Management Systems (TMS) for a broad variety of industries. The flagship product is simply called Talent and is a fully featured, bi-lingual English/Chinese Applicant Tracking System (ATS)

Talent offers support for Skills Testing, Phone Screening, Job Interviewing, Psychometric Profiling, Reference Checking, Exit Interviewing, Job Offers, Background Checks and Recruitment Metrics & Analytics.

This article first appeared in Talent China