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Discover 3 ways RPO partnerships can help combat skills shortages

October 7, 2022

This blog was originally published in 2017 and has been updated for stats and relevancy.

The increasing need for talent with specific skillsets means that a single recruitment solution is not enough. A conventional recruitment agency will often find it difficult to offer the level of service that a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) partner can. A conventional agency can’t match the spectrum of recruiting solutions that an RPO can design to meet your specific needs and objectives.

Today, talent acquisition isn't just about filling a requisition or role. The process is much more complex than that, and it requires a holistic approach. Finding the right talent that will grow with the organization, remain engaged and contribute to your referral strategy requires a complete solution tailored to your company’s culture.

Below is a glimpse into some of the work an RPO partner conducts when aligning itself with its clients and fostering a relationship based on trust and integrity. Let’s take a look at some key factors that RPOs use to help combat the skills shortage:

Employment branding

When actively seeking talent and attracting potential candidates, you must be willing to promote your employment brand in the most authentic light possible. Transparency is everything in today’s talent market; almost everything a candidate could want to know about an employer is available online. Unlike an agency, an RPO partner can help design strategies for recruitment marketing content, career page and job description optimization, candidate experience and reputation management, among other brand expertise.

An effective employment strategy can help you combat the skills shortage in your industry and with 59% of CEOs anticipating the skills and labor shortage to be 2022's biggest disruptor (Deloitte), the time to act is now. In a tight market for talent, it's important to put your best foot forward.

Strategic workforce planning

Workforce planning is a strategy that allows organizations to ensure long-term success and profitability. This strategic approach is all about the broader picture. It evolves over years and can encompass several aspects of an enterprise, including forecasting future talent needs, developing retention strategies, predicting knowledge drain as employees leave the organization and implementing an effective workforce analytics strategy. Recruitment process  outsourcing companies can dig deep into an organization's future needs and ensure they remain adaptable to the business landscape and market trends.

Workforce planning is even more important during times of inflation. If your organization doesn't want to risk losing employees to better paying jobs, it's important to start thinking strategically about workforce planning. Some companies are increasing salaries and giving out bonuses while others are launching financial wellness initiatives or providing work-life balance and flexible remote options.

Workforce planning is, at its heart, a sustainability initiative to preemptively address skills shortages. It allows your organization to to identify the skills it needs now and in the future — despite today's rapidly changing business environment.

Hiring manager training

It is imperative that hiring managers and the RPO delivery team are a united force. It is the RPO's responsibility to develop a successful hiring manager training program so that hiring managers understand how their role fits into the bigger picture. After all, they are the decision makers and ones who will be working with the candidates. Hiring manager training programs can cover a wide variety of topics such as job descriptions and briefing, preparing for the interview, high and low performers, question types and techniques, how to build good interview questions, post interview actions, preparing second stage interview teams and compliance.

What’s most noticeable from all of this is how we end up creating a positive candidate experience when there is a strong seamless partnership and synergy between the recruiter and hiring manager. By working together, the hiring managers and RPO delivery team can identify and anticipate talent acquisition needs for today and for the future and design strategies to attract top talent in a competitive environment.

The talent acquisition process is evolving. There are multiple considerations to be accounted for when reviewing and addressing skills shortages. What’s proven and evident is that RPO partners have the capacity, bandwidth, knowledge and resources to address the shortage of talent, and add real value to your talent acquisition function.

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About WilsonHCG

WilsonHCG is an award-winning, global leader in total talent solutions. Operating as a strategic partner, it helps some of the world’s most admired brands build comprehensive talent functions. With a global presence spanning more than 65 countries and six continents, WilsonHCG provides a full suite of configurable talent services including recruitment process outsourcing (RPO), executive search, contingent talent solutions and talent consulting. TALENT.™ It’s more than a solution, it’s who we are.