The European Union’s (EU) largest employers have changed their approach to hiring in the last decade, according to ManpowerGroup’s Optimising Talent report. Previously, talent solutions; such as managed service programs (MSP) and recruitment process outsourcing (RPO), were executed by separate business functions.

Forward thinking companies are now moving away from out-of-date systems that implement human resources solutions in silos. Instead, many have started to adopt an integrated approach which ManpowerGroup refer to as ‘blended solutions’.

The lingering effects of the global economic recession have been important drivers of this emerging trend. However, if this were the predominant motivation, blended solutions would likely be taking hold in other regions of the world at the same rate they are in the EU. This is not the case. A convergence of drivers, including demographic developments, employer demand for workforce agility and higher-quality talent, a culture of in-house collaboration across functions and a conducive legal framework has contributed to the rise in blended solutions.

According to ManpowerGroup’s report, the uptake of blended solutions is more pronounced in the EU than it is in other regions. In a select few European countries, the days of fixed term employment as the standard are gone. EU employers are seeing a significant increase in temporary-to-permanent arrangements and wide-spread increases in contingent arrangements.

According to the report, the benefits of using blended solutions include:

• Workforce agility
• Cross-border solutions
• Cost savings
• Risk Management
• Employer branding

To read the full report, please click here.