Global Clients Join Analysts at Futurestep Showcase

Gary Bragar, HRO Research Director, NelsonHall

Congratulations to Futurestep on a job well done! The company brought several clients to the entire analyst event as well as Futurestep leaders from EMEA, APAC, including China and New Zealand, North America, LATAM, and all functional leaders.

Korn/Ferry

Parent company Korn/Ferry CEO Gary Burnison shared his perspectives on leadership including how employees want to be part of something where they can grow and be stimulated and what Korn/Ferry can do to better work with clients and help them make their business successful; it all boils down to its people! Korn/Ferry understands that companies focused on people outperform the market in terms of growth by linking its business strategy to its talent strategy.

Futurestep Offerings / Capability

Continuing its people focus, Futurestep CEO Byrne Mulrooney talked about a new career development tool called Forte. Career development is a top reason why employees stay with a company. Forte will be deployed throughout Futurestep starting with the top 100 people. Futurestep has also begun to market Forte globally to complement (but not replace) talent management platforms.

Regional and practice RPO leaders talked about how Futurestep makes a difference including its focus on:

• Understanding customer needs: per a recent OI RPO client satisfaction survey, Futurestep achieved top ranking in understanding client needs; I believe a leading factor is that a high percentage of Futurestep employees sit on site with clients
• Sourcing, assessments, talent communications/employer branding, contract management, technology, the recruitment process, vendor management, and metrics
• Its ~800 professionals in 20 countries organized by industry sectors with specialists including:
  • Life sciences
  • Financial services
  • Consumer/retail
  • Technology
  • Industrial
  • Government/public sector
• Building talent communities in all RPO contracts at no extra charge
• Using analytics with a dashboard to look across all RPO clients for benchmarking purposes.

Futurestep’s analytics, included for all new clients and to be added for existing clients by Q3, allow users to:

• View detailed data and trends including productivity, job placements by job type and gender, the top seven markets for the top seven functions, etc.
• Perform predictive analysis, e.g., top sources of hires.

Futurestep Clients

Of all analyst events I’ve been to this had the highest number of client attendees and case studies combined with presentations and dialogue around the table. Clients talked about why they outsourced, why Futurestep was chosen, benefits received to date, and what they would like to receive in the future. For example:

• An APAC client is going to use Futurestep for internal candidate hiring next
• Another client is looking to enhance its employment branding
• A North America client plans to expand globally with Futurestep including in EMEA
• A MNC client changed providers because it found Futurestep to be more of a consultant and partner.

Case studies provided examples of documented benefits obtained by clients including:

• Reduced agency hiring
• Cost savings
• Reduced time to hire, including time to deliver a short list of candidates
• Hiring manager satisfaction, etc.

Summary

I was impressed by the ability to speak directly with clients and Futurestep leaders across all regions and to learn about Futurestep’s capabilities.

RPO, A Bright Future on the Path to Business Impact

Linda Merritt, HRO Research Analyst, NelsonHall

The future of RPO is bright with growth opportunities in every area of the world. According to NelsonHall’s “HRO Market Forecast 2012 – 2013,” RPO will remain the fastest growing area within HRO.

RPO is still evolving as a service line, moving from back-office paperwork administration to the front lines of recruiting, predictive assessment, and employer brand management. Contract renewals and extensions are now a regular part of the RPO news stream. Among those with announcements of renewals and extensions are:

• Alexander Mann Services
• Capita
• Manpower Group
• Novotus
• Pinstripe.

RPO is not for the faint of heart

With great opportunity comes increased risk. Growth is seldom in a straight path upwards and RPO is also on the leading edge of any business downturn that impacts hiring. It is not uncommon to see up and down swings in revenues of 20% or more between good and bad years. RPO providers need to be ready to rock and roll incredibly fast and be flexible in responding to changes in demand while balancing its own core of subject matter expertise.

RPO is the trail blazer

It is hard for any business including HRO service lines to keep up with new technologies, global service delivery networks, social media, and open device access. To recruit highly skilled multi-generational talent anywhere on the planet, RPO needs the latest tools and technologies to bring capabilities to employers they could not easily and affordably duplicate.

RPO has a direct path to business impact

Dr. John Sullivan, a respected HR thought leader, recently said that RPO has the greatest business impact of any HR function. Dr. Sullivan is referring to The Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) “Realizing the Value of People Management from Capability to Profitability” research that rates the relative business impact of different HR functions on growth and profitability.

This was a major study of over 4,000 respondents across 102 countries, comparing the difference in revenue growth and profit margins at firms with “very high capability” individual HR functions to the business impacts of “low capability” HR functions. The firms studied had been named to Fortune’s “100 Best Places to Work For” list at least three times in the last ten years; their stock price growth was then compared to the stock price growth of the S&P 500. The “best companies” with great HR saw their stock price increase an average of 109% when the S&P 500 rose only 10% over the last 10 years, up to 10 times higher. Wow!

BCG found that the top ten performing HR functions in rank order were:

• Recruiting
• Onboarding and retention
• Managing talent
• Employer branding
• Performance management and rewards
• Leadership development
• Mastering HR process
• Global people management and global expansion
• Enhancing employee engagement
• Providing HR shared services and outsourcing.

In addition to the good news for RPO, the broader picture is the need for integrated talent management and the boost for HR outsourcing. Great HR can and does directly support great business results, and great RPO and HRO can be a part of that success story.

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From Public to Private – RPO Can Help – Part 2

Last week, I discussed the importance of identifying skill gaps needed and eluded that there was more to the story.  Have you considered what else is important?

Matching talent to available positions is just half of it.  It’s also important to let prospective candidates know about you and what it would be like to work for you.  This is where employer branding comes in.

Although employer branding is an emerging service, some providers such as Hays have been helping its clients with this for quite some time.  For example, Hays has a 3-year contract with Santander for end-to-end RPO services including employer branding for all Santander U.K. retail locations. Contracts are also beginning to be awarded specifically for employment branding.  For example, Alexander Mann Solutions was awarded a contract earlier this year for employment branding and recruitment advertising by U.K.-based E.ON.

Other services that RPO vendors can provide to help with the transition include:

• Outplacement services that include career workshops
• Robust onboarding and retention services such as Ochre House’s “Keep in Touch Program.”

The services that RPO vendors can provide are indeed important.  Manpower recently issued its 6^th annual Talent Shortage Survey with its findings that a third of employers worldwide can’t find qualified talent despite the over-supply of available workers.

RPO service providers who track and understand the market for talent on a multi-country basis will have the opportunity for an expansion of services into workforce strategic planning and workforce management based on the availability of key skills and capabilities in mature and emerging markets. By leveraging its base of recruiting and staffing expertise and global data, RPO can move into a linchpin position in the talent management supply chain linking learning, career development, mobility, and contingent labor.

RPO vendors are needed more now than ever, and the opportunities for RPO provider growth are as great as the world around us.

Gary Bragar, Lead HRO Analyst, NelsonHall