Human Resources Outsourcing is growing at a staggering rate. A recent study by the Yankee Group shows the HR Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry will reach $80 billion by 2008, at a compound annual growth rate of 12% over the five-year forecasted period. Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), also known as Employment Process Outsourcing (EPO), is leading the charge in HR BPO growth as it redefines companies' approaches to acquiring human capital. Baird, a wealth management firm in Milwaukee, indicates the initial market size for RPO is $20 billion in the United States alone.

Much like BPO, RPO is generally defined as "outsourcing or contracting out select responsibilities of the recruitment cycle." Various organizations typically outsource the non-consultative or non-core elements with their recruitment process. These may include Internet research (name generation), resume screening, job board and Internal database searching, job posting, resume processing and other Web-based functions. By outsourcing these functions recruiters are able to dedicate more time to core competencies such as candidate and hiring manager interaction and other high value consultative activities.

Outsourcing select recruitment processes will have significant and real impact on your bottom line while measurably increasing your recruitment effectiveness. Below are some of the benefits of outsourcing the non-core elements within the recruitment process:

• More freed up recruiter's time to interact with candidates and hiring managers.
• With more time to focus on candidates and hiring managers, recruiters can offer a much higher level of customer service.
• Generally RPO's subscribe to an extensive number of recruitment tools, technology and subscriptions that can increase their candidate sourcing capabilities.
• As pure researchers, RPO's skill in locating candidates brings tremendous value.
• RPO´s can respond instantly to any urgent requirement.
• Employing an RPO costs 50% to 60% less than traditional staffing expenses.
• Companies can expand their recruitment team without any direct employment considerations.

• Lower administrative costs
• HR becoming more visible and strategic across organizations
• Mergers and acquisitions are encouraging companies to adopt HR BPO and RPO services
• Improved speed and quality of hiring

The top three responses were: Clients said quality, service and speed; Providers said cost reduction, speed and quality. Obviously quality and speed are the two key elements to consider. Of course none of this is self-evident as you begin the assessment process but there are a number of ways you can conduct due diligence when choosing a vendor. Most clients start with a series of 'test' assignments, most of which are usually hard to fill positions with very specific requirements. This can generally give you a good idea as to what to expect in the way of service but shouldn´t be the only criteria when making a critical decision such as this.

The first is 'time to present the person that will be hired.' If you look at that whole continuum of the recruiting relationship, the ´time to present´ metric represents that division between the recruiting efficiency and the company´s decision-making ability.

Next is 'hiring manager satisfaction.' This sounds very basic, but it's rarely done by most recruiting functions. Aggressively seeking hiring manager feedback for every job supported - the good, the bad and the ugly. This survey includes candidate quality, speed, responsiveness and the overall quality of the process.

The third is the 'new hire satisfaction survey.' What was their experience? What did they like? What did they not like? It´s essential to recognize that candidates are also potential consumers, shareholders, referral sources and employees.

The fourth relates to cost. This is a well-researched and valuable "cost-per-hire" metric, calculated by taking total costs of recruitment divided by total compensation of hired employees.

These metrics can be difficult to collect and even more difficult to incorporate into the ongoing management of a recruitment function, but it´s an important step in raising the bar for the industry.

The most successful RPO's distinguish themselves on the candidate facing side of their service. This is where their real value lies as they are representing your company brand and any impression made on a candidate that they recruit for you needs to be in line with the values that your own employees bring to the table.

Everybody deserves courtesy and respect, fairness and follow-through no matter what. That is non-negotiable and is something that is hugely absent today. We know from various surveys that as high as 94% of people who apply for jobs never hear back from anybody, ever. It´s that proverbial black hole that everyone talks about. What happens when you want to tap that 94% of people as investors, as purchasers of your product/service or use them as referral? What are those people going to think when you treat them that way?

The hiring manager must have the path of least resistance. For them, a recruiting solution must be simple, allow them to describe their hiring pain briefly and in their own words, then make decisions only on fully pre-interviewed candidates who meet their specific criteria. Effective and timely communications with all stakeholders throughout the process is essential. People respond well to knowing where they are in the process, and it's so rarely done today. Having accurate applicant tracking that meets or exceeds government reporting requirements is a must. Relying on manual entry for applicant tracking is the most inefficient way to capture bad data. Recognize and incorporate the fact that every job is as unique as the company, team, project and hiring manager to whom it reports. It´s important to know what pain will be solved by the person filling this job, how this person´s success will be measured, attributes of top-performers on the team and why the right person would want the job. This includes the nuances related to the personality fit, team dynamics, management style, demonstrated skills and abilities and related experience. Successful RPO´s will build and execute a recruitment plan to find and interview the top performers unique to that job.

Utilize and incorporate all candidate sources, including job boards, internal referrals, user groups, professional organizations and known referral communities for direct sourcing. Hiring managers don't care where the top performers come from as long as they are found.