The ROI of Recruitment Process Outsourcing: 7 Essential Metrics for Evaluating Success

Organisations often depend on suppliers for products and services that would be difficult, time-consuming or costly to generate in-house. The talent acquisition process is no different.

Recruitment needs fluctuate as companies grow and diversify, and running an HR department at full capacity may not always be practical. That’s where recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) comes in.

Briefly, RPO allows organisations to hand over some or all of the hiring process to external experts, capitalising on their knowledge, proficiency and access to top-tier talent.

The benefits of RPO include:

• Access to a wider and more diverse network of talent 
• Freeing up time, money and resources for core business activities 
• Mitigation of compliance risks

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7 KPIs to evaluate success 

All stakeholders will be looking for a favourable return on investment (ROI) to assess the value of the partnership. Here are seven metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) by which this can be measured. 

1. Cost per hire: The RPO provider’s fee covers various aspects of the process: advertising expenses, screening costs – like CV filtering and candidate interviews – as well as the onboarding phase. This metric enables you to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of your RPO strategy.
    
2. Time to hire/time to fill: The number of days between receiving a candidate’s application to the moment they accept an offer is known as time to hire. Sometimes, the preferred metric is time to fill, which differs slightly in that it refers to the time taken for the entire recruitment process, beginning when the vacancy is announced. 
    
3. Quality of hire: A swift and low-cost hire is of little value if the candidate is a poor fit. Performance, productivity, employee satisfaction (evaluated via surveys and interviews) and retention rates are all KPIs that affect the investment value of the outsourcing process. 
    
4. Hiring manager satisfaction: Effective RPO partnerships hinge on clear communication with hiring managers. Team leaders are pivotal in defining roles and identifying suitable candidates, making meeting their expectations and requirements vital. 
    
5. Candidate experience: The hiring process should also motivate potential recruits. First impressions are crucial, but so is their post-application experience. Even rejected candidates should feel valued and well-treated, increasing the chances they consider future opportunities with the employer. 
    
6. Diversity of candidate pool: This KPI examines the diversity of the candidates who apply for positions within your organisation. By monitoring the diversity of your candidate pool, you can gauge how effective your recruitment process and RPO provider are in attracting a wide range of candidates. 
    
7. Offer acceptance rate: This metric is critical in assessing the effectiveness of your recruitment strategy. It's the ratio of candidates who accept your job offer to those who received it. A high acceptance rate signifies that your RPO provider is successfully engaging candidates and accurately conveying the benefits and opportunities associated with your business. If this rate is low, it may indicate issues with the offered package or the recruitment process itself, prompting the need for review and adjustment. 

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Driving ROI with Page Outsourcing’s RPO solutions 

Page Outsourcing has extensive experience sourcing top-quality talent and streamlining the recruitment process. Whether you need a long-term recruitment plan or a number of specialist hires, we can help. Our flexible, end-to-end solutions allow you to quickly scale up or down, leveraging our talent pools and knowledge to optimise your workforce. 

Not only can we drive down your recruitment costs and save you time, but we can also provide you with the metrics and KPIs demonstrating how cost-effective an RPO strategy can be. We assist with aligning these metrics with your organisation’s specific goals and show you how to define the baseline measurements to use for comparison. 

Contact us today to learn how Page Outsourcing can help you secure fast and sustainable returns on your recruitment investment.