Douglas Edmonds
Head of Sales and Solutions, APAC, KellyOCG
The global recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) market is predicted to explode over the next decade, with revenue hitting $26B by 2031. APAC is playing a key role in RPO’s success; it was home to a sizeable market share in 2021, and new contracts across the region are set to accelerate growth over the next decade. This increased investment is understandable – companies want fast access to top talent, often in competitive markets. A great RPO can not only provide speedy access to skills but also unlock essential local knowledge, technology, and hiring expertise.
When I speak to leaders about what they are looking for from a RPO, agility and flexibility are top of their list. The last few years have shown that very little is certain in hiring, business, or the economy, and many organisations – especially those operating across diverse regions in APAC – want trusted external hiring experts on their team.
Not everyone is comfortable outsourcing their recruitment process. After all, it means putting your employer brand into someone else’s hands. But what’s incredibly exciting about the future of RPO is that it’s often about augmenting hiring capabilities rather than eliminating TA teams – empowering organisations to achieve more while staying in control.
Here are five big reasons why leaders across APAC should be considering an RPO solution:
1. Augment your talent capabilities
For some businesses, it may be the right choice to use an RPO solution in place of a talent acquisition team, but that’s increasingly not the case. KellyOCG is working with clients operating in markets where they need to scale up and down quickly or tap into a specific type of recruitment expertise for a set time. By choosing a flexible RPO solution, they can access just the support they need whenever and wherever they need it.
2. Turn on local expertise
APAC is a diverse region culturally, geographically, and in terms of hiring practices, regulations, and norms. It’s almost impossible for a global or multinational organisation to have the unique market insights and knowledge to hire well across every territory. A global RPO partner will often have the distinct local expertise or access to local suppliers that enables a business to quickly onboard 50 workers in Shanghai or access hard-to-find skillsets in Malaysia. Local expertise is one of the most important benefits of working with an RPO.
3. Supercharge flexibility
In my last blog, I spoke about how workforce agility is nonnegotiable in APAC right now – you either get agile or you get left behind – and intense flexibility is a key part of that story. I recently connected with a global technology company who saw their recruitment levels drop to zero at the start of the pandemic, with their talent acquisition team shrinking in response. Then suddenly, a few months later, they needed to recruit 300 R&D staff as fast as possible to take advantage of a new opportunity. They did recruit the staff and meet their goals – but that would have been impossible without a skilled RPO partner.
4. Find the right tech mix
There is a whole world of talent acquisition technology out there, from tools to streamline the application process to automated onboarding and background checks and AI skills assessments. What’s more, the right tech mix looks different in every organisation and can change based on industry, geography, user profiles, and hiring processes. An expert RPO provider can help leaders to cut through the noise and invest in a tech stack that provides a meaningful return on investment.
5. Access expertise whatever your size (or industry)
There is a misconception that RPO solutions are only for the largest organisations (500+ hires a year) and for select sectors – IT, manufacturing, engineering, etc. This is an outdated view, and it’s a picture that’s changing fast. A new wave of agile RPO solutions are supporting companies with as few as 100 to 150 hires per year, and they can add real value in businesses that don’t have the budget to support large talent acquisition teams. More and more industries are also seeing the value of RPO; we’ve recently started work with both a high-end retail and a hospitality client to support their unique hiring needs – two sectors that are not traditional users of outsourced recruitment.
RPO isn’t one-size-fits-all – it’s a highly customisable and agile solution for leaders and organisations that want to consistently win the best talent. Want to talk about your biggest hiring headaches or to learn more about how KellyOCG does RPO differently? Drop me a line to connect.
