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Supply shortages: how can an RPO partner help?

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Supply shortages: how can an RPO partner help?

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UK supermarkets are struggling to keep the shelves stocked in the way they would normally. Shopkeepers have been warned to expect stock shortages in the run-up to Christmas and need to negotiate with their suppliers increasing their prices. What is happening, and how can an RPO partner help businesses alleviate pressure?

Staff shortages

Pre-covid, the shortage of HGV drivers in the UK was around 60,000. Today, the UK has 100,000 fewer truck drivers than it needs, leaving companies and hauliers unable to guarantee pick-ups and deliveries. HGV drivers transport almost all products found on UK shelves, and especially those relying on tight schedules of deliveries like farmers, manufacturers, and construction companies, have expressed concerns.

truck drivers needed
Pre-covid, the shortage of HGV drivers in the UK was at 60,000. Today, the UK has 100,000 fewer truck drivers than it needs

A lack of HGV drivers is not the only labour shortage the UK supply chain faces, and the pingdemic impacting the availability of supermarket workers has long been mentioned as a contributing factor. However, this may just have been the tip of the iceberg.

Industry response

The time to fill a vacancy for an HGV driver takes most companies over 8 weeks. Reasons for the shortage include:

  • Drivers in the ageing pool of available drivers retiring,
  • Shortages of previously employed EU drivers that have left the UK,
  • And a backlog in drivers tests that could provide more qualified drivers because of the pandemic.

So far, the government response has included a relaxation of the driver’s hours rules, meaning drivers can now be on the road for 11 hours instead of 9. It is a response that has received wide criticism, as it is considered to do little to ease the problem it is trying to address, while compromising safety standards.

trucks parked
Many companies have taken it upon themselves to become a more attractive employer to the small talent pool of available drivers.

Many companies have taken it upon themselves to become a more attractive employer to the small talent pool of available drives. Tesco, for example, is offering a £1000 sign-on bonus, while Morrisons is working on training schemes for staff to become lorry drivers. Others advertise permanent contracts, no weekends or evening shifts, focus on wellbeing and salaries up to £40k and have expanded their recruitment campaigns to speak to a broader group, including women and first jobbers.

Engaging an RPO partner

An RPO partner can’t make a shortage of the needed skills go away, but an RPO partner can certainly help you gain the competitive advantage, insights and recruitment technology to ensure that the available talent chooses to work for your organisation. RPO experts bring the experience and knowledge of different markets in different contexts and will be able to advise. Examples include:

Recruitment strategy

A different market may mean reconsidering your overall recruitment strategy. When job advertising is no longer enough to attract the talent you need, an RPO partner can advise on a different approach. 

man holding clipboard
An RPO partner can help you gain the competitive advantage, technology and insights needed to compete for talent.

Hudson RPO has assisted a manufacturing client with hard to fill roles in remote locations by implementing a renewed on-the-ground, recruitment strategy. Click here to read more.

Predictive hiring

The need for niche skills and talent can fluctuate quickly, especially in unpredictable times. An RPO partner can do more than help you with your current hiring needs; with extensive experience and the tools available for analysis of your market, along with best practice methodologies, an RPO partner can help you predict future hiring needs. Predictive analysis helps you with more time to prepare, building talent pools in advance, and engaging and building relationships with talent early. Click here to read how our local knowledge, sourcing skills, and predictive analysis helped our client Caterpillar. Your RPO partner can also advise how to strategically train and develop existing staff to meet current and future demands.

Competitive advantage

Becoming the employer of choice in a competitive market takes a holistic approach to the recruitment process that an RPO partner can help set up from employer branding, recruitment advertisements, and the interview and onboarding processes. Click here to read how Hudson RPO helped AstraZeneca achieve 100% candidate satisfaction by augmenting the service with employer branding, satisfaction surveys, candidate pool management and LinkedIn and social media presence.

These are just a few examples of how an RPO partner can help you meet your hiring needs. If you would like to discuss your challenges or have any questions about how we can help, get in touch today.

Hudson RPO

Content Team

The Hudson RPO Content Team is made up of experts within the Talent Acquisition industry across the Americas, EMEA and APAC regions. They provide educational and critical business insights in the form of research reports, articles, news, videos, podcasts, and more. The team ensures high-quality content that helps all readers make talent decisions with confidence.

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Climate Change: how will businesses adapt?

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Climate Change: how will businesses adapt?

Content Team

Many conversations in the last year have been around the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. As we emerge from the pandemic and adjust to the new world of work, our next challenge is arising. With deadly heatwaves, floods and extreme weather events becoming another new normal, businesses will have to answer a new set of questions as the UK, due to host COP26 in Glasgow in November, is priming companies for action.

A decarbonised market

At the opening of the COP26 private finance agenda, Alok Sharma, the COP26 president and UK business secretary, highlighted the need for a shift in funding. “Only decarbonised economies will be able to grow through the worst impacts of climate change”.

Investment in climate action is already creating jobs, with workers on the frontline of the necessary industrial transformation. For example, the solar energy industry in the US is already creating jobs 20 times faster than the overall economy.

Two co-workers having a discussion
After the COVID-19 pandemic, the next big challenge for many businesses will be climate change.

The increasing pressure on organisations to become more environmentally responsible comes from a broad range of stakeholders, including investors, employees, governments, and customers. Year after year, the percentage of funds held in green and sustainable investment rises.

As part of the green industrial revolution in the United Kingdom, the sale of non-electrical cars will stop after 2030. Scotland is ramping up quickly in its effort to become a wind-energy leader on the European continent with ambitious plans for offshore wind farms.

Still, many climate responses in business currently primarily focus on short-term cost-saving measures, and targets for carbon reductions are not always in line with the Paris agreement.

The challenges

Climate change creates new business risks that will vary per industry. Apart from the most obvious risks for operational impacts from extreme weather events, supply shortages and rising sea levels, climate change poses challenges at various levels:

Transitions

Business models will have to adapt, and offsetting emissions will soon no longer be enough. This can include office models as a fifth of UK emissions come from commercial property, but also travel policies, office recycling plans and suppliers. There are also transition risks that arise from the response to climate change: changes in technologies, markets and regulations that can increase cost, product, and asset values.

Regulations

If companies do not voluntarily work towards low-carbon targets, regulation will eventually force the issue. Aside from this, an increasing risk for organisations is the liability for emitting greenhouse gasses. Although legal cases at the moment have primarily focussed on fossil fuel and utility companies, more organisations will face accountability for the damaging effects of climate change.

Reputation

Despite rising pressures, many businesses still consider climate change a distant problem. As long as customers do not appear to care, action can be considered an unnecessary expense. But younger generations are particularly engaged in the issue, sidelining visible climate offenders as employers of choice, and changing their purchasing and investment decisions. Walmart, Target, Ikea, Nike and Amazon have recently come under scrutiny in a report that measures the climate pollution retailers emit from overseas shipping. Next, it is likely for scrutiny to shift to companies in sectors that have been avoiding action. Increased transparency, a stance on climate change and improvements are becoming part of an (employer) brand, and questions businesses will have to answer in interviews, client pitches and online.

modern office
Despite rising pressures, many still consider climate change a distant problem.

The job market

With a shift in any market, comes a shift in employability, required skills and job availability. In urban labour markets, damage by extreme weather events will be more likely, while rural labour markets face a greater incidence of flooding and damage from extreme heat. Supply chains, labour conditions, health & safety, and labour productivity are at risk from rising temperatures and the effects of forced short- and long-term migration from rising sea levels.

Jobs can disappear without replacement in the banning or discouragement of particular processing methods or resources, especially in energy and pollution-intensive industries such as manufacturing, tourism and transport.

On the other hand, jobs will be created in emerging and adapting green sectors that will need various skills for their transitions, development and operations. Most studies show that the transition to a low-carbon economy will lead to a net increase in employment. Stimulating investment and innovation in green products and services that are more environmentally friendly and low carbon enables enterprises to access new markets and offers a competitive advantage for other enterprises to emerge.

The opportunities

The UK identified the low-carbon economy as an area of opportunity; it’s forecast to grow 11% a year up to 2030. In the wind industry, it is believed that jobs in the offshore sector could grow to 70,000, primarily based in northeast England, Yorkshire, the Humber, East Anglia, and Scotland.

While in the US, it is anticipated that millions of jobs will be created in sectors from renewable energy to innovation of low carbon-related construction. The growth for wind turbine service technicians is predicted to be 58% in the next eight years and NETs, negative emission technologies, could increase to generate annual revenues of 800bn$ by 2050, larger than the current market of the oil and gas sector.

Earlier this year, the Sustainable Market Initiative Insurance Taskforce, including 17 firms like Allianz, Hiscox and Axa, has pledged its support to the transition to a less carbon-intensive economy. They are expanding their insurance coverages for projects such as offshore windfarms and partnerships with governments to provide better disaster protection.

The opportunities go further than the demand for renewable energy and environmentally friendly products. The transition to net-zero has been dubbed the greatest commercial opportunity of our time. Industries will see an increased opportunity to come together to, for example, use AI and technology to analyse large data sets in efforts to cut plastic and food waste, for service and for consulting industries to offer assistance in energy transitions and legal advice.

Millions of jobs will be created from renewable energy
Millions of jobs will be created in sectors from renewable energy to innovation of low carbon-related construction.

Conclusion

Most organisations have seen how vital adaptability is in light of the pandemic. Climate change is likely to become the next challenge the world of work has to overcome. While some businesses may be further advanced in their efforts than others, it is never too late to start. Starting points can include reviewing company travel policies, encouraging trains over inland flights, reviewing suppliers and commuting practices. In a changing market with fluctuating demands, an RPO partner can offer flexibility, scalability and advice. Get in touch today.

Hudson RPO

Content Team

The Hudson RPO Content Team is made up of experts within the Talent Acquisition industry across the Americas, EMEA and APAC regions. They provide educational and critical business insights in the form of research reports, articles, news, videos, podcasts, and more. The team ensures high-quality content that helps all readers make talent decisions with confidence.

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Recruitment in a candidate-led market

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Recruitment in a candidate-led market

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In contrast to last year’s recruitment freezes, furlough, and job losses, the job market has taken an undeniable turn in 2021. With careful optimism, an uptake in vaccination rates and easing restrictions, the confidence to hire is at an all-time high. However, the shortfall in available talent to fuel this newfound optimism while we emerge from the pandemic is creating a job market where the demand for skilled talent outstrips the supply.

What previously unseen recruitment challenges will arise as we adapt to the new world of work in a market led by candidates, and how to overcome them? We have asked our very own Hudson RPO recruitment experts.

several candidates seated
49% of participants in our World of Work survey expected that hiring in 2021 will exceed 2020 levels.

What is a candidate-led market?

The hiring demand has soared 145% above pre-pandemic levels in the first months of 2021. In a market like this, candidates feel confident to explore different opportunities, driven by life changes over lockdown, the opportunity of better pay and benefits, remote working, or a lack of progression in their current role.  

“Offers for some positions are 30% higher than they were before.”

Although opportunities are opening up left and right as organisations recover, the supply of available talent has not increased as quickly after the pandemic. Strengthened by an online recruitment process requiring less time commitment and investment, candidates successfully engage in multiple interview processes at one time, and more often than not receive multiple offers.

Candidates with multiple offers tend to be more confident to challenge offers they receive, backed by other offers and counteroffers. They are more vocal about their expectations of pay and benefits and weigh up their options carefully to make their decision to accept an offer, sometimes well into the onboarding process.

Particularly skilled candidates in supply chain, engineering (software and power), IT, logistics, sales, recruitment, trade, mechanics, STEM and e-commerce are high in demand.

What does it mean for the recruitment process?

Although the challenges and successes can vary per industry, some recruitment trends are shared across all industries, business sizes, competitive landscapes, and talent requirements. Whether it is early in the interview process, or at offer stage, candidates seem less engaged and see it as less of an issue to trade their opportunity for a better one.

Applications

Early 2020 brought about an influx of applications, but it is proving to be harder to get the same number of applications in 2021. Roles that had 200 applications previously, now reach no more than 30. Exceptions to this are applications for home-based working, which gives employers that offer flexibility a real competitive advantage.

With less applications, recruiters are forced to respond with more active sourcing and direct recruitment. But many face the challenge that candidates who did not apply via job adverts, are less engaged in the interview process, and more inclined to abandon the interview process or reject offers.

“Candidates applying via job adverts are twice as likely to commit to the entire recruitment process.”

The interview process

The pandemic has irreversibly changed the recruitment process, and for most it now no longer includes having to take time off work and travel for a face-to-face interview. With less investment in time and relationship, an interview cancellation or no show is only ever one click away.

Many report that if an interview process is too long, and includes too many steps, some candidates disappear without letting anyone know. Moreover, some candidates are not even interested in an interview or screening call before they know what kind of salary and benefits are on the table.

several people in meeting
Most candidates are considering 2 or 3 offers at a time.

The role of the recruiter in the interview process increases, and candidate experience becomes even more important than it was before. Recruiters are forced to take on a more consulting and soft approach with candidates, and spend more time coaching and advising hiring managers on their hiring needs, the recruitment process and offers. More follow ups are required to keep a candidate engaged, and most interview processes have been shortened and streamlined. Unfortunately, a recruitment process that is too streamlined required even less commitment from a candidate and brings the risk of being easy leverage to raise other offers.

Making the offer

Certainly, the most reported challenge is the rejection of offers, sometimes even while candidates have started the onboarding process. The main reason for rejected offers are counteroffers, either by competitors, or their previous company. In a tight market, organisations are happy to raise a counteroffer, as entering a recruitment process is more expensive and difficult than keeping an existing employee. Retention bonuses have also become more common.

“Some candidates carry on interviewing when they already started a job, and change jobs when they get a better offer. They keep their options open.”

Candidates can be involved in the final stages of a long, multi-step interview process for a senior position that requires a larger investment of their time, and still reject an offer. But even if a candidate is not currently in work, there is still less on the line in rejecting an offer even after having started, as the next opportunity is just around the corner.

Not only does the candidate driven market bring more confidence to keep options open, but candidates also look at an offer from a more holistic point of view. Pay is not the only factor they consider, they also look for sign-on incentives, car allowances, promotion trajectories, holiday packages, permanent contracts, flexibility and remote working and are more vocal about this too.

Unfortunately, many of the familiar benefits organisations offer, do not match what candidates are looking for. Relocation packages have lost their attraction when candidates know that their job can be done from anywhere, insurance and benefits packages are less interesting to the younger generation to whom lifestyle focused benefits such as gym memberships, counselling, and cycle to work schemes are more appealing. Unsurprisingly, the most attractive benefit is the ability to work remotely, hybrid, or on a fly-in fly-out schedule.

How can organisations recruit successfully and efficiently in a candidate-led market?

We have spoken to the Hudson RPO specialist recruiters and talent advisors across many of our accounts to ask them how they have successfully responded to the changes in the candidate led market.

  • Analyse where improvements are needed

Start by identifying where and how changes can be made. Analysis behind job advertisements such as AB testing, monitoring the length of the recruitment process and at what stage candidates drop out, survey competitors and review if the benefits you offer aligned to your target audience.

  • Explore alternative ways of sourcing talent

As sourcing becomes more difficult and is a time heavy investment for little response, employee referral schemes, social media, and local networks become more interesting and offer more opportunities for truly engaged candidates that fit the organisation.

  • Improve the employer brand

Because more applicants that actively applied for a position tend to be more engaged throughout the interview process, it is no longer about finding the talent, but about making sure they know about an employer and are interested enough to apply. This is where a strong employer brand is of great importance and competitive advantage. To read more about employer branding, click here.

three diverse employees working
Sourcing can be expensive in a candidate-led market where candidates tend to be less responsive. Referrals are a great alternative.

  • Explore where you can adapt your needs to the market

When a particular role or skill is hard to fill, consider if your investment in the recruitment process would be better off being an investment in training and development. Not every candidate can tick all the boxes right away, by investing in training and development you are also making an investment in a long-term employee that contributes to your organisation.

Do you recognise any of the challenges described? Contact us today for advice, or learn more about how recruitment has adapted after COVID-19 in our most recent podcast with our client, LV=, or in our latest whitepaper with Future Talent.

Hudson RPO

Content Team

The Hudson RPO Content Team is made up of experts within the Talent Acquisition industry across the Americas, EMEA and APAC regions. They provide educational and critical business insights in the form of research reports, articles, news, videos, podcasts, and more. The team ensures high-quality content that helps all readers make talent decisions with confidence.

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PODCAST: COVID-19: How have recruitment and employee wellbeing adapted?

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PODCAST: COVID-19: How have recruitment and employee wellbeing adapted?

Content Team

In this podcast, Kevin Hough, Head of Resourcing, Learning and Talent at LV=, speaks to Sarah Dickson, Hudson RPO Head of Operations & Implementation on the measures LV= implemented during the pandemic to pivot their recruitment strategy and tailor their wellbeing offering.

Like many organisations, they were forced to move to virtual recruiting and onboarding during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing unique recruitment challenges. They also examine the importance of tailored wellbeing programmes, discussing what LV= and Hudson RPO offered their employees and how they met expectations.

Are you interested in learning more? In our latest whitepaper with Future Talent Learning we discuss the future of work, employees and leaders: View whitepaper

Hudson RPO

Content Team

The Hudson RPO Content Team is made up of experts within the Talent Acquisition industry across the Americas, EMEA and APAC regions. They provide educational and critical business insights in the form of research reports, articles, news, videos, podcasts, and more. The team ensures high-quality content that helps all readers make talent decisions with confidence.

Follow Hudson RPO on LinkedIn

What is RPO?

Learn More

What is MSP?

Learn More

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9 Trends for the US market in 2021

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9 Trends for the US market in 2021

Content Team

With the eventful first months of 2021 behind us, the world of work carefully starts to emerge from the pandemic. What methods will be left behind as we reopen and what are the lessons we bring forward into the rest of 2021? We have identified 9 trends in the US market that will impact decision making across organizations in the US.

As the US economy emerges from the pandemic, the US GDP is estimated to grow by 8%. A contrast to the 2-3% average we have seen in the last 15 years. Predicting progress and optimism merely a year after a labor-market catastrophe might seem early, but the US is setting the example of how rapidly jobs can return against the backdrop of increasing vaccination rates.

highway in city at night
2021 will see a competitive market for talent, driving hiring costs, the importance of employer branding and technological advancements

In the early spring of 2020, the unemployment rate in the US came close to 15%. Today, it is standing at 6%. Even in Europe, currently combatting a third wave of infections, the labor market is beating forecasts as the economy starts to adapt to our new way of life and virus-containment measures. Moreover, the public perceptions of how easy it is to find a job have reached levels that previously took over a decade to recover after the financial crisis.

1. Competing for talent

The projected growth, the recovered confidence and a carefully optimistic market are likely to lead to a previously unseen competition for talent. Recruiters are likely to notice this trend first, particularly in blue-collar jobs and shift worker positions. A continued rise in demand for delivery service workers, the return of retail, hospitality, restaurants and supply chains benefiting from unspent lockdown savings and stimulus checks are all competing for the same pool of talent.

The first response to a competitive race for talent is an increase in wages to attract people into an organization. While some companies manage to respond with one-off incentives such as sign-on bonuses, others have no choice but to raise their remuneration. On average, workers who switch jobs can now expect a 13% pay rise, while many employers are paying their existing employees 4 to 7% more than they did a year ago.

Despite the willingness to pay more, nearly half of all American businesses have reported finding it challenging to fill vacancies. Whether there is a reluctance to return to work because of feared health risks or generous unemployment insurances, salaries may have further to rise in 2021.

2. Increasing hiring costs

Regardless of industry and market, business leaders can expect an increase in hiring costs following the soaring competition for talent. Increasing hiring costs entails more than needing to make more expensive offers to candidates to compete. It can also be attributed to the conversion rates of job advertisements in times when job supply outweighs job demand, causing talent to look at more job advertisements while applying to less. This, in its turn, means lower conversion rates, higher costs per click and more expensive advert placements. As a result, LinkedIn, ZipRecruiter and Indeed will become more expensive, and the cost per applicant for an organization is projected to rise as far as 10-30%.

3. Continued importance of employer branding

One way in which an organization can respond to increasing wages and costs is to make sure it positions itself as the employer of choice within its market or industry. Leaders in the recruitment industry agree that employer branding has a significant impact on hiring and will continue to be an increasing area of focus. More than 90% of candidates seek out at least one resource to evaluate an employer’s brand before applying.

several people in meeting
1 in 5 Americans have left a job due to poor company culture.

Employer branding can help reduce costs per hire and time to fill in a competitive talent market while improving engagement and employee retention. The pandemic has shifted the mindset of many employees and applicants, causing organizations to have to answer questions about wellbeing, their handling of the pandemic, diversity & inclusion goals, stance on societal issues and flexible working options.

A strong employer brand starts internally by nurturing an organization’s internal culture. In a year of uncertainty and social unrest, one in five Americans have left a job due to poor company culture. 77% of applicants consider a company’s culture before applying and more than half of them consider the culture more important than salary when it comes to job satisfaction. Find out more about employer branding and how it can support your recruitment process here.

4. A strategic drive towards DE&I

With company culture, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) are key and will be a continuing area of focus for organizations in the US. Applicants are making decisions based on their assessment of an organization’s commitment to DE&I, as 70% of them have reported wanting to work for a company that demonstrates this.

Against the backdrop of 2020’s social movements, an increasing number of North American companies and executives in the US use or are considering using DE&I metrics in their incentive plans to drive and measure progress towards their goals. Click here to read how DE&I metrics can help your strategy.

The role of the recruiter in attaining these goals will grow. Not only are they the first point of entry for diverse candidates, but they also advise hiring managers they support, build diverse interview panels and drive data-driven reporting against diversity goals.

Additionally, organizations will invest in the right recruitment tools to help build diverse teams. One of these latest tools is the programmatic job ad: buying, placing, and optimising a job advertisement by software rather than people. A software-only approach prevents people from bringing their own beliefs of preferences into the hiring process or the placement of their advertisements. So far, programmatic job advertisements have shown 23% more candidates from underrepresented groups and 7% more women than the US online benchmark.

Tampa Florida downtown
Hudson RPO has recently opened a new office in Tampa to facilitate the growth of our team of experts in the US.

5. Focus on wellbeing

Apart from a commitment to DE&I, applicants also look for employers who recognize the need for a work environment that prioritizes wellbeing. Over the pandemic, the mental health conversation in hiring became more common. In 2020, organizations increased wellbeing offerings and increased internal communications and social interactions to prevent a social disconnect.

Many organizations in the US are currently making the shift to a holistic view on wellbeing rather than focusing on cost reduction, resources and insurance costs alone. Especially the younger generation that is about to enter the workforce is aware of societal issues and has the drive to be part of solutions. Happiness at work being limited to the time spent in the office is over as work-life balance changes with remote working. Wellbeing is increasingly considered to be the opportunity to give back, having a clear purpose and mission as drivers for inspiration and energy at work.

6. Internal mobility

Since the start of the pandemic, internal mobility has increased by nearly 20%. Companies will continue to catalogue employees’ current skills and tie internal opportunities to relevant L&D sources that will help employees fill any qualification gaps. Internal mobility programs can lower recruitment budgets, but when done right also increase budgets for learning, development and resources. This can change the role of the recruitment function, aligned it more closely to HR to lead and build internal mobility programs and development initiatives.

Another change for recruitment is the way they assess potential candidates. With more internal mobility opportunities, many organizations will move away from static roles in departments and shift to agile project-based and cross-functional structures, allowing employees to shift to new projects if business needs change. With this, an applicant’s potential and transferable skills like adaptability and problem-solving increase in importance and benefit an organization. According to a LinkedIn survey of over 1500 talent professionals, the number 1 skill for recruiters to embrace in 2021 is adaptability.

7. Leadership changes

With an increased focus on internal mobility, wellbeing, DE&I, comes a change in leadership styles. Alongside the debilitating effects on work-life balance, the pandemic has taught us that flexibility and empathy are essential for employee retention. More than ever, board rooms have focused on mental, physical, financial and emotional health in relation to work performance.

Regardless of industry, soft skills are growing in value. Talent that can lead to change and work and manage a team with flexibility and adaptability is valuable to an organization in unpredictable times. As a result, applicants with technical knowledge combined with management, leadership and project management are overtaking others in demand.

person presenting in a meeting
The millennial generation is getting ready for leadership positions.

Taking center stage in this change in leadership is the millennial generation, who are now ready to take on management positions as the baby boomers begin to enter retirement. Millennials bring digital knowledge and experience, but simultaneously exhibit a practical understanding of how to apply their knowledge to bring about change. Currently, 91% of millennials say they seek leadership roles and 83% of them would prefer to work in an organization with fewer managerial layers.

8. Social media newcomers

Even before the pandemic, the use of social media in recruitment was common practice. Almost 85% of American companies say they use it with success. However, the realm of social media changes quickly, as do the platforms that recruitment functions need to adapt to. Soon, advertising on LinkedIn may no longer be enough.

The world of social media is moving away from the traditional resume and shifting towards a more creative and personal way of pitching one’s work experience. For example, the video platform TikTok is now testing a tool that can help brands recruit new employees. The tool is mainly targeted towards the Gen-Z audience, allowing them to post a TikTok video resume that can look much like an elevator pitch of work experience summary.

This is not the only way in which TikTok is transforming the applicant experience. GenZ’ers also use TikTok to share career advice in short videos, ranging from application advice to interview tips and negotiation skills. The hashtag #careeradvice gained momentum in the first half of 2021, totaling more than 80 million views.

Another newcomer is the platform Clubhouse, an invitation-only social networking app that aligns well with the increasing interest in audio content such as podcasts and webinars. Clubhouse allows users to get together in moderated rooms to listen to selected speakers, live and unrecorded.

Clubhouse is rumored to be a trend to keep an eye on for the business-to-business industry and a new way to source candidates based on their profile, contributions, and attendance in Clubhouse, for example, in exclusive business events or live virtual recruitment fairs.

9. Technology

For the remainder of 2021, organizations will have to adjust their sourcing and hiring methods to stay viable in a competitive market, meaning investments in technology and automation. For example, traditional hiring processes can be upgraded by applying programmatic job advertisements, predictive analysis, automatization of processes like DocuSign and applicant tracker systems (ATS).

AI-powered chatbots are also becoming commonplace as organizations start to use them for the first phases of applicant screening and look for ways to make the application process easier to improve the candidate experience. Many applications are submitted through mobile devices, a 20% increase from 2019 to 2020.

woman studying something on monitor
Natural language processing and artificial intelligence will transform HR and hiring practices.

Related to AI is Natural Language Processing (NLP), referring to the ability of software to understand spoken and written language. NLP can help identify candidates quickly, without the need for lengthy manual screening processes. NLP also has the potential to be combined with voice recognition to facilitate faster review and analysis of job interviews and equip chatbots with personalized responses.

In an everchanging and competitive landscape, an RPO partner can help your business navigate and advise your best route to market to find your most important asset – people. If you have any questions or would like to find out more, get in touch.

Hudson RPO

Content Team

The Hudson RPO Content Team is made up of experts within the Talent Acquisition industry across the Americas, EMEA and APAC regions. They provide educational and critical business insights in the form of research reports, articles, news, videos, podcasts, and more. The team ensures high-quality content that helps all readers make talent decisions with confidence.

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8 Procurement questions for RPO evaluation answered

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8 Procurement questions for RPO evaluation answered

Content Team

Are you considering an RPO to help your organisation meet its strategic recruitment goals?

Outsourcing the recruitment function is a major strategic consideration that will help you identify and secure your company’s greatest asset – its people. The below 8 questions can be helpful during the procurement evaluation process of an RPO partner, offering a valuable baseline for decision making.

1. Does outsourcing the recruitment function or process align well with your business needs and strategy?

One of the main benefits of RPO solutions is that you can scale the support you require from an RPO up or down depending on your hiring needs. Hudson RPO can work with on-site and off-site recruiters that will form part of and integrate into your existing teams and processes.

2. Will recruitment process outsourcing truly improve your business performance?

From talking with our clients around the world, we have identified the top 4 ways our clients have improved their business performance:

Cost reduction
Working with an RPO partner significantly decreases the average cost-per-hire, often by more than 50 percent. A tailored RPO solution supplements hiring and helps you drive quality, efficiency, and reduced costs and time to hire.

Ability to flex and scale
An RPO solution allows your organization to flex talent acquisition headcount up and down as hiring needs change. Measuring and tracking performance through regular reporting, alongside talent data that is easily translated to insights, you will increase efficiencies, identify improvements, and better forecast future hiring needs.

Quality of hire
Many clients are in a niche sector and need scarce skill sets. Leveraging formerly untapped sourcing channels, to access additional candidates is one of many benefits of outsourcing recruitment. Hudson RPO is experienced in candidate sourcing and has a range of bilingual talent sourcers available to meet client’s needs anytime, anywhere. While helping one of our clients in rural Canada find their niche talent, we reduced their agency fees by 25%, and accomplished an annual cost saving of $60,000.00 USD.

Enhanced employer brand
Utilizing Hudson RPO’s experienced recruiters as an extension of your team provides accessibility to deep candidate networks and reduces time to engage those candidates. Hudson RPO can also include employer branding into your tailored solution to help you further improve your employer brand. As well as creating a better candidate experience, a strong employer brand makes your organisation more attractive to candidates and positions you as the employer of choice in your market or industry.

woman presenting at meeting
Outsourcing your recruitment can help you identify and secure your company’s greatest assets – its people.

3. How can you understand and control costs?

It is important to understand the entire pricing structure, and how the package of products, services and management fees may be bundled together. Through insights and regular reporting from Hudson RPO, it will be easy to understand how the investment you make contributes to your recruitment process, what improvements are needed, and what needs to be forecasted for the future.

Cost reduction through shared risk.
When a business downturn hits and recruiting needs suddenly drop, so does a company’s need for recruiting staff. Likewise, when the business is expanding into another product category or region of the world, recruiting needs may suddenly spike.

Outsourcing the recruitment function allows a company to pass along the cost risk of those resources to the business partner. Recruitment outsourcing partners accept the responsibility of efficiently adjusting resource levels when hiring fluctuations happen. As a result, the client does not bear the burden of carrying unnecessary staff.

Similarly, the client faces a lesser chance of being short-staffed when greater resources are required.

Faster time to hire.
Time is money and hiring new professional level employees takes a lot of both. From identifying candidates, to conducting interviews and negotiating offers, acquiring a new employee taxes your internal resources.

Plus, each day a job requisition remains unfilled, your business loses the benefit of that employee’s contribution. Recruiting and budgetary resources are pulled away from other high-value initiatives.

Outsourcing all or part of your internal recruitment function can dramatically reduce your time to hire.

Streamlined recruitment processes.
One of the most common problems we see with the recruitment life cycle is that it’s a disjointed and uncoordinated multitude of practices—good and bad—across organizational functions, departments, divisions and regions.

Often, this causes overlap in media buying, training, and on-boarding procedures. It leads to poorer hiring decisions and higher operational costs.

Piloting an RPO project gives you the opportunity to rethink these processes. The RPO vendor will help examine your recruitment process workflows to determine where overlap, excessive cost, and inefficient practices may exist.

Then, an outsourced model can be custom designed, providing you with service levels and success metrics that exceed the status quo. These practices yield increased efficiency and satisfaction with the recruitment life cycle, resulting in overall cost reduction for your company.

several team members around table
An RPO vendor can help examine your recruitment process workflows

4. Are the financial projections accurate?

It is important for you to take a critical look at any numbers submitted by the RPO provider. Look for assumptions, oversimplifications or just plain misleading figures that may adversely impact your overall cost/fees. It is a good idea to ask for case studies or client testimonials. 

5. Will this arrangement still enable you to have the necessary internal human resource skills and expertise needed in any organization?

While outsourcing may be the right direction for your recruitment function, there is still a need for internal expertise to help evaluate chosen strategies and tactics, and coordinate with the RPO provider.

It is essential for RPO providers to understand a company’s historical recruitment needs, the objectives and priorities of stakeholders and the broader HR and business agenda. This data will be the basis for setting correct SLA and KPI benchmarks, which are essential for the management of business expectations and getting the partnership off on a strong foundation.

Your business partner should also be open to transferring all knowledge and turning back over the people and processes to your internal team once a best-practice operation is established and running smoothly.

6. Who will ultimately manage the financial and performance metrics of the contract?

People, processes and technology combine to deliver an RPO solution. It is essential that the company’s internal leadership maintain oversight of any outsourcing initiative. Factoring into the contract terms the time and resources necessary to effectively manage the relationship and its results is smart.

7. What are the cultural ramifications of outsourcing your recruitment function?

Understanding how your managers and broader employee base are going to react to this massive operational change is critical. One essential competency to look for in your RPO business partner is change management expertise. Hudson RPO has knowledge of the potential pitfalls and know ways to ensure organizational support and buy in.

Our client Astrazeneca selected Hudson RPO for our scalabilty, cultural alignment, and experience in pharmaceutical recruitment. The solution for Astrazeneca includes all permanent and fixed term hiring. To set the team up for success, we implemented a change management program to get hiring managers on board in the process.

8. Is there an escape clause in the deal or protection in place for when business conditions change?

As we have seen during the recent recession, business conditions can change in a major way, and fast. You need to make sure you are not locked into a long-term contract or deal with little or no flexibility to alter scope or completely withdraw over time. Here again, making sure that there is a shared risk model for operational costs when hiring demands change is one way to help ensure some of this protection. You could consider an on-demand recruitment solution, getting your company expert support for sudden or challenging hiring requirements for a specified period.

If you have any questions not mentioned above, or would like to speak to a talent expert, please get in touch.

Hudson RPO

Content Team

The Hudson RPO Content Team is made up of experts within the Talent Acquisition industry across the Americas, EMEA and APAC regions. They provide educational and critical business insights in the form of research reports, articles, news, videos, podcasts, and more. The team ensures high-quality content that helps all readers make talent decisions with confidence.

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