Challenges when starting a new RPO engagement?

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Permalink Reply by Bob Etheridge on September 3, 2008 at 11:10am

This was a comment on the new linkedin discussion pages from

Rob Jannone
Business Development at Manpower Business Solutions RPO

Hi Bob,

From my experience, RPO programs work best if you have executive level buy-in that puts the RPO service in alignment with the business. That requires a lot of focus on change management, particularly the communication aspects.

The decision to engage RPO is often made in the "C Suite", leaving hiring managers with a "forced choice", a departure from their previous"open choice" to use whatever agency they prefer.

Those two aspects, managed properly and executed well, along with a couple of early wins in the engagement often leads to to a long term, mutually beneficial relationship between the client and provider. Failure to get that buy-in at all levels can scuttle the effort before it begins.

Enaging the business lines, and delivering the subsequent education on RPO, is often the most challenging hurtle, in my opinion.

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Permalink Reply by Winn Van Brimer on September 16, 2008 at 3:42pm

Hi Bob,
Rob Jannone gave some real good insight in his reply. I would add a couple thoughts.

1) The buy in from HR is easier than the buy in from Hiring Managers. Well documented metrics of existing practices and process flow and then the resulting improvement trends provide strong documentation for RPO. Aging between all process steps is #1 followed by cost savings (I use efficiency ratio). Most RPO customer don't have a picture of how much wasted time there is in the recruiting process. This leads to bad recruitment branding, loss of A-player candidates, and a high cost of vacancy.

2) Clear and easy to understand process steps are the best way to build the trust and confidence with the hiring manager. Setting service level expectations mutually and then obviously meeting those expectations are key as well.

Hope this provides some insight.

Winn Van Brimer
Director of Recruiting

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