The Ultimate Guide To Human Resource Management, RPO
Updated: Apr 11, 2022

Recruiting, hiring, deploying, and managing the employees of an organization is human resource management (HRM), better known as HR. An employer's human resource management strategy emphasizes the value of their employees as assets. People are sometimes referred to as human capital in this context and, like other business assets, the goal is to maximize return on investment (ROI) while reducing risk.
Traditionally, the term human capital management (HCM) has been used more often than Human Resource Management (HRM), which has been widely adopted by organizations and companies to manage HR functions and provide management advice.
What is the role of HRM?
In Human Resources Management (HR Management), the aim is to manage the people within an organization in order to achieve the organization's mission and strengthen its culture. With an effective human resource management practice, the human resource manager can attract new professionals who have the skills necessary to advance the company's goals, as well as train and develop current employees to achieve those goals.
The health of a business is largely determined by the health of its employees, making HRM a crucial component of doing so. In addition, the role of a Human Resource Executive and HR manager in a human resources department is also tied to employee compensation, employee orientation, hr analytics, employee benefits, employee development, employee relations, employee training programs, performance management, labor relations, employment laws, and employee retention which is linked to employee satisfaction.
Additionally, HR managers and human resource executives handle hr strategy, personnel management, and the talent acquisition process, including job analysis in order to ensure their organization remains competitive to attract prospective employees.
Human resources plays a crucial role in maintaining employee morale by making sure, for instance, that compensation and benefits are fair and by setting up programs to ensure a positive corporate culture at the company.
Human resource managers hr functions include managing various human resource policies, human resource issues, and human resources information systems such as the performance management system. As part of HR professionals' daily duties, they must carry out administrative tasks to support the HR department and the business.
The HRM functions extend beyond employee payroll, for example, to include responsibilities in developing the workforce through the implementation and management of talent development programs and management development to reduce employee turnover rate, and orientation programs to aid in onboarding.
HR managers and human resource executives are one of the most valuable resources of the leadership team in an organization; they develop strategies to manage employees, provide career development, and retain talent to reduce employee turnover rates while strengthening talent management practices to attract and hire talent.
The company's health and success are tied closely to its talent, so recruiting the right talent to retain it is equally critical for the company's success. Companies are turning to recruitment process outsourcing, RPO providers to increase recruitment efficiency and reduce costs with scalable recruiting solutions. An RPO offers several service models to support the hr processes and hr practices of an organization's talent acquisition process.
Consider how a company's business landscape can be improved by switching all or part of its hiring process to an RPO provider. In this article, we will discuss an HR outsourcing method, RPO that optimizes your recruitment organizational structure, practices, processes, and human resource management.
Why Consider Recruitment Process Outsourcing?
Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) is a process by which companies outsource their recruitment and selection to a third party. This is done in order to save time and resources that would otherwise be spent on recruiting.
There are many benefits of RPO:
It saves the company time and money,
It provides better quality recruiters,
It allows for more focus on other aspects of the business.
When you hire an RPO provider, they will create a strategy and work with your team to execute it. They'll also be able to work with your internal team for staffing, managing and executing hiring initiatives, and liaising with the internal HR team on compliance matters like payroll and benefits administration. This can all help free up your time and resources for other tasks that need attention.
An RPO provider will also offer a suite of sourcing tools that will allow them to find more qualified candidates than you might find yourself — and at a lower cost than if you did the sourcing yourself. As a bonus, they’ll provide ongoing training and coaching for your teams who handle onboarding so they can do more on their own without having to wait for input from the client. This often includes integrating new hires into the system or making sure vendors deliver all necessary materials in a timely manner.
All of these things add value to the company because it helps them recruit faster, cheaper, better quality talent — while freeing up some time and money that would've been spent on recruiting efforts otherwise.
Is RPO Right for Your Company?
Outsourcing human resource management is a good option for companies that want to focus on their core business without having to worry about hiring and managing employees.
Recruitment process outsourcing is a service where an external company takes care of all or part of your recruitment process. This includes sourcing, screening, interviewing, and even training.
Other Traditional Recruiting Options vs RPO, How Are They Different?
Recruitment can be accomplished via a variety of different approaches. One of the most popular is RPO or Recruitment Process Outsourcing. What is the difference between this and other traditional recruiting options?
The major difference between RPO and other traditional recruitment options is that RPOs offer an outside perspective on the hiring process. They have been able to see what works and what doesn't from the outside looking in. This means they can provide an objective opinion on candidates and offer different strategies for filling positions.
There are many different traditional recruiting options out there, such as:
Headhunters: A headhunter is a recruiter who specializes in finding and recruiting top talent. They often specialize in a certain industry or geographic location.
Executive search firms: These firms specialize in recruiting executives at the C-level and may charge a fee for their services (typically 33% of the first-year salary).
Temporary agencies: These agencies recruit temporary employees for companies that need extra staff during busy periods. They typically don’t work with candidates long-term, but they can be very useful when you need someone at short notice.
Many HR professionals will say that the traditional recruiting process is time-consuming because it requires the company to find the right candidate for the job opening through different channels such as LinkedIn or job boards. The traditional recruiting process can also be expensive because there are costs associated with advertising on job boards and hiring agencies.
Lastly, it can be difficult to scale because companies need to dedicate time and money to find candidates that have the skills, attributes, abilities, and often times the specialty/niche skills to successfully perform a role.
The RPO provides the company with a third-party partner who can deliver a process that is a more cost-effective and scalable option for companies looking to grow their workforce.
An RPO is a strategic relationship with an outside firm that specializes in human resources. It helps organizations manage their human resources by providing services related to recruitment, retention, compensation, benefits administration, training and development, succession planning, and other HR needs.
Since recruitment process outsourcing, or RPO, is a form of outsourcing that focuses on the recruitment process, hr departments or talent management teams can deploy the best recruitment model to fit the business strategy, and many HR teams look to execute modern human resource management practices such as RPO.
When it comes to recruiting, since there are a number of different options that can be used from traditional to modern practices, we’ll look at one of the most popular recruitment process outsourcing services, RPO, which offers a third-party service in the hiring process. RPO providers have been able to see what works and what doesn't from the outside looking in. This means they can provide an objective opinion on candidates as well as offer different strategies for filling positions.
Types of RPO Models/Engagements
How Much Does RPO Cost?
RPO is known as one of the most cost-effective ways for small and medium-sized businesses to grow their teams, but it can also be expensive for large companies with high labor costs. The cost of RPO depends on the type of RPO model you deploy, the size of your company, how much you outsource, technology, professional resources, and what you're looking for in terms of services. All of this culminates in a pricing model for RPO services.
Typical RPO pricing models include a monthly subscription fee and a performance fee. RPOs adhere to a fixed monthly subscription fee which is typically determined at the start of your partnership based on the number of hires you expect. The price of an RPO depends on the number of users, the type of access to be granted, and the duration.
An RPO can provide access to cutting-edge software solutions and can provide its customers access to their software that is designed to manage customer data, streamline business processes and reduce operational costs if the organization wants to leverage additional tools. If an RPO provides a customer with additional technology services for data migration or export, an additional fee may be administered to the business to support the requests. Deploying an RPO model is typically a cost-effective alternative to hiring in-house staff for recruiting tasks.
RPO pricing can vary depending on a variety of variables, but another factor is the number of professionals who will be hired to do the job.
What RPO Is Not?
Hiring and retaining talent is a huge challenge for many organizations. This is especially true for smaller businesses that may not have the resources to invest in recruiting or retention efforts. One solution for this problem is recruitment process outsourcing or RPO.
When an organization outsources recruitment, it can save time and money because another company takes on the responsibility of recruiting and hiring new employees.
It’s not always easy to know what you need and how it all works for your company. If you’ve been looking for a way to add value to your recruiting efforts, outsourcing your recruiting through Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) might be right for you.
Whether you are looking to outsource part of your recruiting or to bring in a team to augment or completely outsource your recruiting, it is vital to understand what recruitment process outsourcing is not so that you can find the right solution for your company.
In general, recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) does not mean providing you with recruiters in place of your current recruiters does not qualify as an RPO. Recruitment Process Outsourcing does not mean hiring temporary staff on an as-needed basis.
True RPO provider services should offer much more than recruiter staff augmentation - where a client continues to manage and provide thought leadership itself despite paying a monthly fee for an outsourced recruiter or team - but there are some RPO providers that tout RPO as little more than recruiter staff augmentation — true RPO should offer much more. In fact, the companies that get RPO right don't just outsource staff; they also outsource their processes.
How to Make A Business Case for RPO
To make a business case for RPO, it’s important to convey the potential cost savings and efficiencies of outsourcing recruiting to an external provider. Typically, this means showing how much is currently spent on staffing and the associated operational costs, as well as how those expenses might be mitigated or eliminated with RPO.
It is also beneficial to present ROI data from other similar firms. ROI data is often used in making a business case for any type of change – and it’s no different when talking about leveraging recruitment process outsourcing. The more that has been invested in recruiting and the more staff there are, the greater the potential cost savings and efficiencies would be with RPO.
Final Thoughts
The recruitment process is one of the most important aspects of any business. It’s the first impression that a company makes on potential candidates. And this impression can make or break an interview.
Companies that are looking to expand their workforce should consider outsourcing their recruitment process. This will help them save time and resources, while also providing them with access to a larger pool of candidates.
Human resource executives and HR managers are vital to an organization's success. As long as human resource practitioners are business partners who can provide practical and strategic support to the business, job security won't be an issue as they provide valuable insights from their specializations from organizations such as the HR Certification Institute. or other advanced degree programs.
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This article was written by Managing Partner, Fawn Hentrel.