Hectic, deadline-driven, and rewarding describe a typical day in the life of a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) on-site manager.
Editor’s note: The following is a day-in-the-life account of on-site Kelly HRfirst RPO manager Stacey Forbes, who oversees a team of more than 30 individuals across four states for a Boston-based banking organization. The client asked to remain anonymous but confirmed with HRO Today on the scope of work KellyHRfirst performs. This account is intended to help provide employers with a first-hand perspective of the daily activities of an on-site manager.
As I reflected on a typical day, it seems the biggest daily challenges are taking a contract, managing the expectations of senior leadership, fulfilling the needs of the hiring community, and translating them all into reality. There is a basic premise of trust and respect in a relationship, but ultimately, only time and consistently meeting expectations will strengthen the partnership.
My workday typically starts by 6:30 a.m., with me answering a myriad of e-mails from my Kelly team, my boss, and our client regarding meeting requests, candidate-offer challenges, technology glitches, and project and hiring status updates. The day typically begins with a review of the daily schedule and making sure that any new HRfirst team members have the necessary tools, training partners, and someone to welcome them.
It’s Monday, so it’s time for new employee orientation. Since it’s summer, 40-plus interns will be brought onboard as well. A lot of logistics and staffing coordination occurs to ensure the orientation runs smoothly, and the new employees have a great experience their first day. In addition, we have people in from the HRfirst Hiring Center in Troy, MI as well as in Boston to learn more about our client and their culture. One thing we found out early on is that this is critical to their success for effective recruiting and sourcing.
With orientation underway, the next priority is to review open requisitions, develop sourcing strategies, and list priorities for the week. Once daily goals are established, the team begins filling jobs, including corporate staff positions such as administrative assistants, accounting professionals, paralegals, and specialized positions within financial services such as trading specialists and fund and portfolio managers.
It’s now 10 a.m., and I meet with my client liaison to review our to-do lists, provide updates, and make sure Kelly is on target to address client needs. We also realize that we need to add recruiting and sourcing staff to maintain effectiveness and to keep the staff from burning out. The ability to flex the staff up or down during peak production periods is a key component of an effective RPO model.
Just shy of noon, we head into a weekly “lunch & learn” session for our blended team, which consists of recruiters, the sourcing and logistics team as well as managers. Teams outside of Boston join via telephone. The 90-minute gathering provides updates on the organization, hot jobs that need attention, and training on new processes. There is significant value to these sessions, as they facilitate communication, best practice sharing, and overall team development.
Following lunch, recruiting managers review their workloads. We discuss how the teams are assimilating, determine training, identify potential hot spots, review performance plans, and forecast future needs. This is our chance to keep a finger on the pulse of not only the RPO world but on our client’s industry as well.
Close to 5 p.m. now, I grab a seat in my client liaison’s office and run through a laundry list of questions. She patiently listens to my list.
It’s the end of the day, and as in any relationship, strategic partnerships take patience, guts, finesse, and a lot of laughter. In the beginning, the relationship was referred to as “we” and “they.” Now it’s “us.”