As we highlighted in last week’s blog post, 5 Trends to Watch in IT Staffing, one of the recent recruiting developments is the emergence of recruitment process outsourcing (RPO). In fact, the Everest Group reports that the 2012 global RPO market continues to see accelerated growth of over 25%, and will reach US $1.4 billion in annualized spending.

As recruiting technologies evolve and contract staffing expands, organizations are increasingly turning to outsourced staffing solutions. Organizations are looking for alternative hiring solutions as layoffs in the HR department (along with budget cuts) have depleted their already limited internal recruiting resources.

According to a recent white paper from the Aberdeen Group, the top 5 drivers that persuaded organizations to use RPO were:

1. The need to focus on core business competencies
2. The need to innovate how organizations go about recruiting
3. Consolidated internal recruiting function
4. Need to hire quicker
5. Spike/anticipated spike in talent needs

The Benefits (and Hesitations) of RPO

The benefits of securing an RPO solutions provider are numerous.

First, companies benefit from the expertise of a specialist who has access to a large, qualified network of candidates and referral contacts.

Next, because RPO firms handle all aspects from recruiting through hiring and almost everything in between, it creates a seamless process for the candidates.

Finally, RPO can simplify the tedious, drawn out process that internal recruiting often causes. With RPO many of those challenges and roadblocks are inherently eliminated.

Despite the benefits, many organizations are still wary of handing over the recruiting reins completely. The top concerns listed in the Aberdeen Group report included cost and “the ability of the RPO provider to represent the brand well.”

In a recent Twitter chat, #TChat, the question was asked, “Does RPO damage or enhance a company’s recruiting practice? Why or why not?” A few of the responses included:

• “If you’re Microsoft, your brand is established, and going through a recruiter doesn’t tarnish it nearly as much.”
• “Some execs view ID’ing talent as 1 of their top priorities. Challenge is training managers & others to develop this competency.”
• “As with everything, it depends. Work with a good, reputable RPO, be upfront with candidates, you’ll all do well.”
• “Outsourcing is the way things get done in all aspects of HR today.”
• “RPO can definitely damage your employer brand pretty quickly”
• “Recruiters need to know both the org/ees to find the best talent who will fit & stay. Can that be outsourced?”

To view more about #TChat and the RPO discussion, check out the recap here.

It’s important to remember that even after a candidate has been hired, whether through RPO or internally, the successful recruitment was for naught if the candidate leaves after the first three months. Careful attention needs to be paid by the organization after onboarding to reduce turnover, increase team retention rates, and improve the overall quality of employee fit within the workplace culture.

What do you think: is RPO a good idea for your organization?

Note: To learn more about Agile’s take on RPO services, give us a call at 678.722.8200.

Image by Victor1588 via Flickr.

You may not have a Starbucks in the lobby, provide childcare on site, or offer luxury retreats, but you do have something attractive to offer top job candidates. And it’s your responsibility to make sure they know that. The ability to woo and retain ‘A’ players is one of the toughest jobs for any manager today.

The competition for top talent is fierce. So when you find a potential employee whom you know will be a huge asset to your team, you want to do everything in your power to ensure their answer to your job offer is a resounding “yes.” Below are four steps you should follow to make sure you get your superstar on board.

Step 1: Start with an Effective, Appealing Job Description
Sure, you could hurry and jot down the basic position facts off the top of your head. Or, you can take the time to craft a well-written, thorough description. Get the input of a group or assemble your team to find out what attributes are most important, what behavioral attributes are necessary and what the job really entails.  Does this sound like a lot of effort? It is. But a boring, commonplace description will likely attract mediocre candidates. Taking the time to create a well-written, appealing job description will be a worthy time investment.

Step 2: Pay Attention to How You Talk Up the Company
Instead of reciting the dry historical background of your company, focus instead on what makes your organization interesting and likeable. What sets it apart from others in the industry? While you know to never fabricate stories or stretch the truth, by communicating your company’s value proposition and knowing how to play up its best attributes, you’ll leave no doubt in the candidate’s mind that “this organization is for me.”

Step 3: Keep in Constant Communication with Your Candidate(s)
Sometimes the hiring process can drag out longer than you anticipated due to elements outside your control. That happens. But do not let a great length of time lapse, or the best talent will lose interest and walk away. Create and set a method of regular communication to keep up the momentum and keep your candidate involved and invested.

Ideally, you should make an offer as soon as you’re sure you have a star candidate. If you don’t hear yes right away, stay persistent and proactive until you close the deal.

Step 4: Mind Your Manners
Although this step may seem self-explanatory, it’s worth a reminder to mind your manners: put your candidate at ease, return calls promptly, make calls personally instead of depending on an assistant, be frank and avoid playing games. Don’t forget to thank the candidate for their time. Remember, you’re wooing here, so put forth the extra effort.

Step 5: Get Beyond Compensation
While compensation is of course a significant consideration of the job offer, both parties know there’s more to it than that. What else can you bring to the table that sweetens the deal? Does the company have an excellent recognition and advancement program? Great health plan perks? A first-rate sabbatical or time off program? It’s critical you find out from the candidate what matters most to them during the interviewing process and reinforce what impressed and interested them.

As the Adler Group, a performance-based hiring organization so aptly states, “Don’t use Wal-Mart advertising techniques to attract Tiffany customers.” The same concept goes for Tiffany caliber candidates.

Top candidates are special. Treat them that way. By focusing on this goal and following the steps above, you’ll be well on your way to becoming an employer of choice for the best talent around.

Since next week is Valentine’s Day, we thought it only fitting to write about the relationship between two parties – and how to move it to the next level. Most of us have been there before – we’re ready to commit but the one we’re courting just isn’t quite so sure. It can be heartbreaking. You, the hiring manager, have finally found the ideal candidate – a match made in corporate heaven. But the candidate has cold feet. It’s not that he doesn’t love what you have to offer – it’s just that he doesn’t LOVE what you have to offer.

We may sound like a broken record, but in case you haven’t noticed, there is a shortage of top IT talent with high-demand skills. Finding “the right one” is a major challenge IT hiring managers are quickly discovering as we settle into 2011. Agile’s white paper “Four Winning Hiring Strategies for the New IT” (we’ve provided a link directly to the paper – there’s no form to complete to download – think of it as a Valentine’s gift) provides recommendations on how companies can ensure they hire and retain top talent in the post-Great Recession. We’ve also blogged about how companies can retain top talent. But what are some sure-fire ways employers can turn their candidates on during the actual courting period? We’ve come up with a list to make that star performer more inclined to say “I do…accept your offer.”

1. Have an attractive value proposition.  Too often, we see organizations or hiring managers go on and on about how the candidate must be a good fit for them, forgetting that they need to also be a good fit for the candidate. When developing your value proposition, ask yourself “What does this candidate want that you can provide? What is important to them?” Once you’ve determined what it is that they are in search of, you can develop your value proposition around that need.
2.  Consider your employment brand and reputation. Employment branding is not about your company’s logo and advertising. Branding includes a wide range of factors including community involvement, office location, employee demographics, turnover, etc. Although you should play up the positive aspects of your reputation, you should also address any negative perceptions there may be about the company. It is better to offer an explanation that may provide clarification, than to have the candidate believe the situation is worse than it may actually be. Don’t forget to use your web site and social media to showcase your brand. Candidates can learn a lot about your company and employees from information gleaned on Facebook, Twitter and your LinkedIn group.
3. Sell the vision.  Communicate the company’s vision. Where is the company today and what is the strategy short-term and long-term? Also talk about the vision of the job the candidate is interviewing for. What is the specific role today and how might it change in the future? In addition, what is the career growth plan for the candidate or employees overall? What contributions will the candidate make to the organization? Usually, vision includes opportunity and you have to ensure the candidate knows he’s not walking into a dead-end job.
4. Always impress. You know the old saying “You only have one chance to make a good first impression.” There’s a reason why that sounds so cliché – because it’s true! You want to impress the candidate the moment they walk into your office.  Make sure whoever greets him makes him feel like he just walked into the Ritz. Don’t let him just sit there while he’s waiting for the interview to begin – help him relax by offering a beverage or asking if there’s anything he needs. By putting an effort into the little details throughout the hiring process, you’ll make a positive impact on the candidate.
5. Offer candidate access to “interview” employees.  One way to reassure a candidate that your company is the best career choice is to introduce them to other star employees. Encourage the candidate to talk to these employees to show him how achievers have succeeded in building their careers at the company. This interaction will also enable the candidate to ensure that the company is the right cultural and intellectual fit. Candidates will sometimes say “I do” to a job that pays less than another offer if it allows them the opportunity to work with a brilliant boss and impressive staff.
6. Provide a copy of all your benefits.  This may seem obvious, but sometimes it’s the benefits that make or break the deal.  Be sure to give the candidate a copy of benefits and highlight all the perks – work from home, tuition reimbursement, training/certification opportunities, profit sharing, day care facility, free/discounted gym membership, employee discounts at local retailers, etc.  The more your company has to offer, the more attractive the offer becomes to the candidate, and the more difficult it will be for him to say “I don’t.”
7. Communicate and follow-through.  If you’re the hiring manager, give the candidate your business card and provide your cell phone for any questions that pop up throughout the courting stage.  If you’re working with a recruiter, make sure to keep her in the loop at all times and understand who will be communicating what and when to the candidate. Send a follow-up email or overnight a letter immediately after the final interview that outlines how things went and next steps.  A powerful tool you may want to consider when making an offer is having the CEO call the candidate directly. It will not only impress the candidate, but it will send the message that the CEO cares about her company’s people.
8. Promote work-life Balance. This is becoming increasingly important to many IT professionals. Does your company promote work-life balance or are you known for incredibly long work hours? Many employees not only want flexibility in their work schedules, they’re demanding it. What is your work-life balance policy/philosophy? Do you offer flex time? Can employees work remotely? At Agile, staff is encouraged to work no more than 50 hours a week. We also get to work from home two days a week – and that is a huge deal given the nasty Atlanta commute!
9. Show them the money.  We know, this is so obvious, but it is a reality.  Benefits and salary must be competitive or you can kiss your candidate goodbye. During the courting period ensure you get a complete understanding of the candidate’s views on compensation. If you can’t meet the salary demands, you may be able to offset it with outstanding health benefits and other perks (see above).  The point is, you need to have the “money” conversation early on in the process so that you know upfront what is important to the candidate from a dollar standpoint. The more generous you are, the more enticing your offer will be.
10. Act quickly.  If you really, really love the candidate do not give him the opportunity to say “I don’t…accept your offer.” When you know you have the right person, move fast with an offer after the final interview. It’s best if you extend the offer personally over the phone. If you’ve done a good job selling yourself and your company, the candidate will be in a position to want to say “I do…accept your offer.”

What are some other tactics your company utilizes to ensure your top candidates will always say “I do?”

We came across the following blog post, and felt compelled to respond.

“I’ve worked as a pure recruiter and sourcer for most of my staffing career. I’m new to full desk recruiting and I would like to know how to explain to clients why they should use me as their agency recruiter for a placement fee. I do realize that HR or internal recruiters prefer not to use agencies for permanant job openings because it’s their function to recruit and source for these roles.  Employers also don’t like to pay a fee for perm placements. Any ideas why HR should consider a recruitment agency for their perm positions?”

From the perspective of a corporate recruiter, we understand why there may be a hesitancy to utilize an outside firm for perm placements. But there are advantages to partnering with an IT staffing firm, and here are just five reasons a company should consider the services of an outside recruiter.

1. High volume of open positions -  There are times when the internal recruiter will simply not have the ability to work all of their openings.  At any given time, there may be 10, 20, 30 or more openings.  Trying to successfully fill a number of openings (many of which require very niche-specific skill sets) with a limited number of internal recruiters can be quite a challenge, if not nearly impossible.   In addition, many corporate recruiters have aggressive SLA’s with hiring managers. Continuously missing those targets makes a huge impact on overall performance within their organization. Working with an outside agency to fill at least some of these positions can “speed time to talent” and ensure SLAs are continuously met.
2. Skillset/Focus – There may be some skill sets that the internal recruiter lacks expertise.  We’re seeing more and more job descriptions that require very specialized skills. Using an agency that has experience recruiting for particular roles and skill sets can be highly beneficial.  Companies may even want to consider using the outside agency(ies) to proactively look for talent with high-demand skills and make hiring decisions once those candidates have been identified. Competition for IT professionals with high-demand skills will become fierce in 2011, and to stay competitive companies have to be quick in finding AND hiring these extremely sought-after workers.
3. Screening – This is a touchy subject with HR/corporate recruiters, but it can be a great selling point if you approach it in the right way.  HR personnel that recruit (especially when there is a high volume of positions throughout the organization) simply do not have time to develop and adhere to an effective screening process. A reputable recruitment agency will be able to guarantee a successful screening process.  Screening candidates is something staffing firms do on a daily basis, and it’s something they should excel at. Agile’s talent process “Ready. Aim. Hire.” includes multiple levels of screening that ensures our clients receive the most qualified candidates in the fastest time possible.
4. Network of referrals and candidates – Because a staffing firm is in the business of hiring people – that’s all they do 24/7 – the network of referral candidates can be huge.  Each recruiter at the agency has her own network of people that she’s either placed in the past or has received referrals from.  These individual networks, when added together, can contain hundreds or thousands of highly qualified candidates that an internal recruiter just does not have access to. By having access to a large pool of professionals, an agency is better positioned to identify, screen and present more qualified candidates in a faster amount of time.
5. Recruit from the competition – Due to non-compete issues and recent laws pertaining to non-competes, it is very difficult (if not unlawful) for internal recruiters to directly recruit from their competition.  Here’s an example. Tim works at Company A and gets an offer from its competitor, Company B. He accepts the offer at Company B and HR asks him “who else would you recommend we hire from your old group at Company A. Tim says he would hire Sue, Sallie and Rich but he has a non-compete and cannot recruit these candidates. His non-compete extends to “direct” or “indirect” solicitation, therefore advising HR to recruit these folks would also be in violation of his non-compete. However, it is possible for a recruitment agency to assist a company in recruiting staff from the competition.  Provided Sue, Sallie and Rich are already in the agency’s database prior to Tim’s start date at Company B, the agency can attempt to recruit those individuals, whereas Tim and Company B legally cannot.

There are other benefits to using an outside recruitment agency.  The above are just a few that company’s should consider as they develop and refine their hiring strategies in 2011.

Back in October, Agile wrote “10 Reasons Why IT Jobs Are Worth Considering.” It was written, in part, because we were beginning to see an uptick in contract jobs from many of our clients. While IT budgets have loosened somewhat as the economy slowly putters along, some companies are beginning to hire more full-time employees. But as the New IT continues to dictate the way IT departments must change to survive, employers may be less inclined to commit to hiring full-time talent and choose to leverage contract workers instead.

The recession has forever changed the way technology leaders do business. A recent article in TechNewsWorld provides some interesting insight as to why companies need to use new hiring strategies to correctly staff their IT organizations. One strategy discussed is the need for employers to remain flexible during such uncertain times. Although the economy may be picking up, the road ahead in  2011, by most indications, will be bumpy at best. Analysts predict that the IT job market will improve next year (the IT unemployment rate in Georgia is only 5% ), but growth is expected to be slight.  And with recent news of a “double dip recession” on the way, further growth may very well by stymied.

Without a doubt, the economy is driving IT staffing decisions. Hiring on a contract-basis makes good business sense in many cases. Employers are able to staff projects without the costs associated with full-time employees. Leveraging contractors enable IT shops to get done what needs to get done, while removing some of the fear of what to do with those workers once a project is complete. As things improve, companies may bring contractors on full-time. But as IT organizations continue to transform, new hiring models will most likely take shape too.

What other factors are driving companies to hire IT professionals on a contract basis? During the past 18 months, businesses have had to do more with less. They have also determined that the skills sets needed one day are not the same skills required the next. Technology is changing faster than ever before, and to remain competitive, IT organizations must have the right people on the right project. By hiring contractors, employers are able to choose the talent with the skill sets that best fits the needs of the organization at that particular period of time. Companies could re-train existing and new full-time employees, and they will need to do so moving forward, but this is a conversation for another time.

In addition, both IT executives and workers are now expected to not only know about technology – they must know the business — that means understanding the overall business objectives and figuring out how technology can be used to solve business problems while adding measurable value to the business. Implementing projects for the sake of technology is a thing of the past. IT is being held accountable, and it has to justify its existence by delivering impact that extends throughout the enterprise. Full-time employees that have survived the budget cuts and lay offs of the past may or may not have the business acumen necessary to communicate how technology fits into the big picture and how to show real results.

The days of permanent jobs are far from over. But as the New IT takes hold and transforms the way IT organizations do business, contract hiring will become more prevalent. There are  advantages to contract jobs, so if you are a job seeker — don’t despair. As the economy improves, there will be exciting opportunities for those willing to take on contract work. For technology leaders and hiring managers, hiring on a contract basis will probably become the norm, at least in some instances. We’d like to hear from you. What is your IT staffing strategy? Will your organization be hiring more contractors versus full-time employees in 2011? What factors are driving your hiring decisions?