Specialized expertise is critical to winning in the tight talent market.
By Debbie Bolla
Change is constant. More than one-third of workers have experienced significant change in their roles in the past year, according to PwC. A full 70% of leaders agree they face a skills gap, and technological changes drive much of this. According to McKinsey, by 2030, up to 30% of current hours worked could be automated due to generative AI.
Many employers are tempted to resist recent technological innovations and their talent implications, but many are adopting strategies to help them stay ahead of change. When attracting and recruiting top candidates, a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) partner may be the key to conquering the talent equation. No two RPO providers are the same, however, and the key to success lies with an RPO that goes beyond transactional recruiting to bring flexibility and trust into the relationship.
“Working with an RPO gives you the advantage of bringing resources and strategies into play quickly against changing conditions and business demands,” says Rebecca Bowser, director of client services for Sevenstep. “Our clients trust us due to our ability to predict failure before it happens. Our proprietary data system and processes enable us to take action and pivot before our clients even see the issue ahead. That is the level of trust and flexibility an employer needs in a volatile business environment.”
What qualities should you demand from an agile and trusting partnership to help you face economic uncertainty, growing skills gaps, and generational shifts? The demands speak to the fundamentals of talent success, including:
- Scalability. “Hiring markets ebb and flow,” Bowser points out. “For example, we have a client whose hiring needs ranged from 50 to 600, all in a single year. Having a partner eliminates internal recruiter downtime, stress, and turnover. It can also empower organizations to hit hiring goals when they need to flex up, reducing time-to-fill.”
- Standardization. From an operational standpoint, a partnership can help standardize controls and tracking, enabling a consistent hiring process aligned with the considerations of the rest of the business. Bowser says external support in driving a consistent process can unleash the full potential of both internal and external TA teams.
- Global reach. As companies expand and grow into new markets, it can be difficult to understand the local laws, regulations, and market-specific challenges. An RPO partnership with a global reach can bring in expertise to help solve local talent concerns.
- Strategy rooted in data. With access to data and analysis, a partnership can bring a new perspective on hiring approaches. For example, a proprietary predictive analytics capability used by Bowser’s organization analyzes requisitions to predict hard-to-fill roles (i.e., those that would be at high risk for aging). Her team can deploy specialty resources and tailored talent strategies against those requisitions to mitigate that aging risk, keeping hiring initiatives moving forward with quality talent.
Bowser says that even employer branding can be evaluated through the lens of data. The effectiveness of the messaging and appearance can be tweaked, and the results of those changes can be tracked for data-driven results.
- Access to talent. The hiring and labor market will remain challenging, and an RPO partner has strong expertise in addressing hard-to-fill roles. Bowser says talent strategies are evolving, and the crossover between full-time and contract talent only improves access to candidates.
“Access to talent gives us more options in supporting clients. For example, when we do identify roles that are hard to fill, we can engage contractors for those roles while we search for the long-term person,” she explains. “This is one example of a creative total talent approach to keep our client moving forward when a traditional solution may have stalled their project for months, and access to talent of all types makes it possible.”
As change will remain constant, preparation will be more critical than ever for the successful TA function. Bowser says one solution to aid with that is having the right partners in place to develop the blueprint and plan. An RPO partner can anticipate scalability shifts and technology needs and help tenfold when launching new programs to attract and secure the right talent.
