One of the most pressing factors for businesses looking to survive the economic downturn and thrive in the future is how they can secure the best talent for long-term growth and competitive advantage. Firms need to hire the right staff with the right skill set to drive the business forward in an environment of increasingly rapid change and technological developments. And yet, most businesses - particularly SMEs - will struggle to manage their own recruitment processes.

The Challenge for Small Businesses
Large companies can afford to resource large HR teams with specialist recruitment functions. However, the majority of the UK's industry is run by SMEs and these smaller organisations often cannot afford the overhead of large HR support functions. This means that the latest techniques and processes for recruitment can be missed and opportunities lost out on. In such firms, old-fashioned recruitment tends to reign, with all its attendant dangers of 'cloning' recruitment (in the guise of existing management), a failure to recruit a diverse workforce, a lack of understanding about changing regulations and a static culture which no longer serves the market's needs.

How an RPO Can Help
A recruitment process outsourcing company can be a good option for businesses looking to recruit the best talent into their organisation, streamline the process, reduce inefficiencies and improve the quality of those hired. Essentially, a recruitment process outsourcing company works in a similar way to other outsourced support services. Many companies already outsource functions such as IT support, graphic design and print production, fulfillment and delivery and payroll - and the outsourcing of recruitment offers similar benefits.

When the relationship is well managed, an effective RPO provider will speed up the process of hiring people and vastly improve the quality of the talent pool available. They will also provide measurable metrics, improve process efficiencies to reduce costs and also improve regulatory compliance to the latest recruitment standards.
RPO versus In-House Team

The right approach depends on the organisation and its objectives. An in-house team can provide real value when the business wants to have recruitment at its heart and manage it strategically, with adequate resources and commitment to staying ahead of changing regulatory and compliance requirements, commitment to building strong and powerful databases with the ability to mine for rich data and the right staff in place to deliver a high-quality and cost-conscious process. However, when the organisation wishes to focus on its operational delivery and outsource this function to an external specialist, then an RPO provider may indeed be an interesting - and profitable - proposition.

If you want to find out more or have questions about RPO visit our knowledgebase at www.cloudrpo.com