The War for Talent

May 26, 2008

The war for talent continues to grow daily. In a global economy facing the threat of recession, acquiring and managing talent are two of the biggest HR challenges faced by organizations today. The key question many companies are considering is -  is finding the right talent, quickly, best put in the hands of outside specialists, or should recruitment be managed in-house?

Firms need to assess how effectively they handle recruitment, then decide whether it might be worth outsourcing all or part of these activities – typically for a more competitive rate for recruitment without any service degradation.

Companies need to understand their own requirements before deciding whether to turn to RPO. If recruitment is a big part of their intellectual property, then they might not want to outsource it, and if they have a distinct set of values and behaviour, then they either need to find a similar outsourcing company or keep recruitment in-house. 

Compared with such commonly outsourced HR functions as payroll administration, RPO is relatively new. The market for it is growing quickly, however, and is already thought to be worth about £280m in the UK. But RPO, as a developing concept, can mean different things to different companies.

Many large organisations already use RPO, and research shows that the benefits in terms of cost and time savings can be high. Client companies, according to outsourcing specialists, can expect to save 20%-30% on the cost of hiring and 35%-50% on the time taken to recruit. Leaps in service quality have also been made, thanks to rapid advances in IT.

Knight Hamilton can provide advice and guidance on both acquiring and managing your talent.

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