Multi-Country, Single Provider RPO Contracts Gaining Traction

Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), just like all other HRO process areas, has been impacted by the recession and lower hiring volumes. And revenue recovery and growth will be further impacted by the lagging nature of hiring after a recession. However, those RPO providers with multi-country capabilities are better positioned to tap into today’s limited opportunities, and will have the opportunity to fare better than their single-country counterparts when hiring volumes return.

NelsonHall’s 2007 and 2009 RPO Market Analysis studies found that multi-national buyer organizations are increasingly seeking single-provider RPO solutions for reasons including: 1) Standardized technology and consistent processes, which results in increased efficiencies and reduced cost; 2) Consolidated reporting from one system, which results in better data quality; and 3) Reduced provider management efforts.

While RPO providers can gain global delivery capabilities via partnerships, as discussed in my July 22 blog, we are also seeing individual providers win multi-national RPO deals. Their ability to win these contracts are due to a number of factors including increased local presence and knowledge of where and how to attract local talent, technology to support multi-country recruiting efforts and ability to provide onsite support.

Examples of recent multi-country RPO deals include:

•  Kenexa on October 26 announced it was awarded an RPO contract by LSG Sky Chefs, a corporation with 30,000 employees in 49 countries. Using a hybrid model of onsite and service center delivery, Kenexa will provide LSG with global recruitment services which are expected to reduced costs due to centralized recruiting and deliver a better candidate hiring process.

•  PeopleScout on November 2 announced it won a multi-million RPO contract with Covance, a global drug development company with 9,600 employees in 20 countries. PeopleScout will perform hiring services for professional and hourly positions for Covance in North America, South America, Australia and Asia.

•  Pinstripe on August 18 was awarded an RPO contract by Agilent Technologies for the provision of complete end-to-end RPO services from job requisition through on-boarding for exempt and non-exempt employees in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Brazil.

To underscore providers’ acknowledgement of the importance of single provider multi-country and global RPO capabilities, Manpower on October 30 announced a realignment which combines its HRO and RPO groups into a dedicated business unit, Manpower Business Solutions (MBS), to strengthen its outsourcing service offerings. RPO services are delivered in 20 countries today. As part of the combined group, MBS can further leverage Manpower’s reach, in 80 countries today, to increase its RPO delivery footprint.

I believe this is the tip of the iceberg in that we will see more global RPO contracts being awarded over the next several years. Providers with the capability to support multi-country RPO will see increased opportunities to win new business and expand existing domestic-only hiring contracts for multi-national and global clients.

Gary Bragar, Lead HRO Analyst, NelsonHall

Explore posts in the same categories: hr outsourcing, hr outsourcing research, hro, HRO providers, nelsonhall, rpo, rpo contracts, RPO providers, rpo research

Tags: hro, hro research, Kenexa, Manpower, Manpower Business Solutions, multi-country RPO, nelsonhall, PeopleScout, Pinstripe, recruitment process outsourcing, rpo, rpo research

You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.