RPO naysayers take a second look

For years, there have been those who dismissed recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) as vaporware. No longer. Much to their surprise, RPO is poised to grow as the offering has matured.

There are a number of reasons for this. The recession has tightened company budgets. Increasing headcount is no longer an easy option. What RPO in this ecosystem has going for it is that it allows users to keep up with the latest methods in hiring, including social media and cloud recruiting.

 And the big game changer is that it is not only more cost effective than internal recruiting, it is also more scalable— users can quickly ramp up or scale down their use of RPO depending on requirements and pay for just what they use.

The market has spoken. Industry insiders believe, RPO is not just here to stay but will grow quickly in the next few years. Here are some facts.

We at Staffing Industry Analysts have found that 30 percent of large buyers of contingent labor used RPO for all or some of their recruiting and 23 percent are considering putting in place within the next two years.

ManpowerGroup, in its annual report, said the global RPO market will increase to $4.4 billion in 2015 from approximately $2.4 billion in 2011.

Staffing providers are sniffing around RPO firms. In October last year, Automatic Data Processing Inc. announced it acquired The RightThing, a recruitment process outsourcing provider.

Randstad Holding NV cited SFN Group Inc.’s RPO as part of its rationale for purchasing the firm last year. Randstad’s claims it now holds the No. 1 RPO position in North America.

It’s a good time to be thinking about RPO. For more information check out the February 2012 issue of Staffing Industry Review magazine for more information.