Three more buyers offer their opinions. 
By Debbie Bolla
Ron Bozorth is a HR business partner at VWR International, LLC who works with Pinstripe.
How has the RPO model changed in the last two years?
I don’t think the model has necessarily changed however elements, such as social media, have evolved and interviewing is more commonly being held over Skype. It’s areas such as this that is causing how recruiters in the RPO model connect with and find people.
Do you look to your RPO for navigating talent retention?
While I believe that ultimately, the organization is accountable for navigating through the maze or retention and holding onto and finding exciting opportunities for our best employees, I do see our RPO firm playing an important role here. Our RPO firm is often times the first one to touch and see a candidate, represents our company and provides candidates with the first impression of who we are as a company. It’s from these connection points that candidates form lasting impressions – positive or negative – that can play out later on in one’s decision to stay with or leave the organization. So, we treat our RPO firm as a part of our organization so that the candidate experience is a positive as possible.
What metric is now most important to your organization, and why?
Time to fill and cost is important but to me, it’s all about quality of candidates.
How is technology improving talent acquisition?
I think any good firm has to have a good technology recruiting platform and it will help find people it will help people connect with and find or stay connected with the firm etc… However, if they don’t have good technology but have good recruiters and sourcers, that is super important as well as they creatively know how to find and connect with people.
How is social media changing the game?
The ability to reach so many so quickly continues to evolve via Facebook, LinkedIn etc and is great for smaller, lesser known companies.
Debbie Walkenhorst, regional VP, human resources for SSM Health Care in St. Louis, works with Pinstripe.
How has the RPO model changed in the last two years?
Our RPO model has not changed in the last two years! With the exception of the RPO being able to effectively increase and respond to our technology capability, which we would not have been able to accomplish as an independent organization with major capital constraints.
Do you look to your RPO for navigating talent retention?
We do from a selection for fit component through agreed upon service standard expectations and the behavioral interviewing process.
What metric is now most important to your organization, and why?
Related to the RPO, time to fill is the primary, but we are working on balancing this with retention in the first 90 days and year.
How is technology improving talent acquisition?
The ability to develop a passive candidate list through web-based information and contacts.
How is social media changing the game?
Social media provides a means for us to identify potential candidates for future positions.
Paul Tantillo is the US head of resourcing for Barclays Captial. He works with provider SourceRight Solutions.
How has the RPO model changed in the last two years?
Originally we brought in the RPO via SourceRight Solutions to ensure we meet our OFCCP (Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs) recruitment requirements, which added an addition administrative burden to our internal recruiters. As a result of the RPO being at Barclays more than 1 year we have been able to add additional value add services which include reporting, training, data quality management for our ATS, direct sourcing, and coordination of our mobility and employee referral programs.
Do you look to your RPO for navigating talent retention?
Not currently other than management of our mobility and employee referral program.
What metric is now most important to your organization, and why?
All OFCCP recruitment metrics:
Mitigate 1 to 1 hiring by having a robust applicant pool
Ensuring all our jobs have valid/compliant basic qualifications
Ensure we are collecting all relevant data from search rirms (EEO data, etc.)
Interview scheduling and interview feedback collection
Barclays is dedicated to following all recruitment requirements that the OFCCP requires and leverages the above metrics to ensure a best in class recruitment function.
How is technology improving talent acquisition?
We don’t use either of our RPO’s technology solutions. We have automated manual features in our current ATS to eliminate 99 percent paper processes.
How is social media changing the game?
We recently signed a contract with LinkedIn. Without the RPO we would not have the bandwidth to direct source however the value proposition still has yet to be seen for Barclays as the service is very new.
