The RPO Solution: When to Consider It as a Start-up

“The way to get started is to quit talking and start doing.” – Walt Disney, American Entrepreneur

When do you consider the RPO solution when you are a start-up? Every business has different recruitment needs, this is especially true for start-ups. So, it can be a little tricky to determine exactly what the standard requirements are to get an RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) partner involved. It’s not always the case that this would be the right move for every business. After all, as a start-up, you can’t afford to spend money you don’t have, on things you don’t need. The issue then boils down to a couple of different options. Should you employ a third-party recruitment agency? Is it Better to get an internal recruiter? Or, should you consider getting an RPO partner involved in your recruitment strategy?

In this article, we will explore, under what circumstances should a start-up, get an RPO provider involved in their operations, and if at all, it is the right choice to make. Generally, this assumption is based on a few different signs that a company is ready for growth. We have identified some of these markers in hopes that they will help you, as the employer, determine if the RPO road is the right one for you.

Getting the funds to take that next step, is a sign that you should! But what are the other signs?

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The RPO Solution is Best Retained Once You Secured Funding

One of the biggest milestones for any start-up is securing that first bit of funding, and it’s important for one big reason — it means you’re primed and prepped for growth and expansion. Isn’t that the goal at the end of the day for any business? But what comes after you fill your coffers? Investment, investment, investment! The only question is where you invest it. The people and services you hire will lay the foundation for how your business turns out. With that in mind, this would be a great point in time to invest in the services of an RPO agency to help develop your recruitment strategy as it will ensure quality hires.

Employing an RPO agency can also greatly reduce your time completing a hire as your organization will already have access to a high-grade talent pool. This will translate to reduced cost-per-hire, increased employee retention, and so on. This approach pairs especially well with a well-thought-out digital marketing strategy, the combination of which will help you attract top talent and establish your employer brand in the job market.

“If you keep waiting for the right time, it may never happen.” – Priya Ardis, Author

The RPO Solution Work Great When You Have to Meet Market Demands

If you have a product or service that is in high demand in the current market, then you need people to execute the delivery strategy. This means that you need to scale up to meet the demand. For this, an RPO solution would be ideal as they are not only recruitment service providers that can help you scale up your operations, but they are also flexible. As it is with any market, the trends in demand and supply are constantly changing and shifting, so flexibility is important.

Sure, you could turn to the option of hiring an in-house recruiter, but that is a more risky path as you can never be sure when or how many people you may need to hire at a moment’s notice. In the long run, this isn’t ideal. With the flexibility of recruitment process outsourcing you can safely plan to take on a large number of hires or scale down at a moment’s notice should the market go up or down. This has both a cost-saving benefit and a risk-reduction factor.

When You Are Trying to Meet Growth Targets

Continuing on the previous line of thought as the point above, you need to consider the long-term placement of your business in the market. Every business has something like a five-year plan or so that sets a goal of where the company should be in terms of size in a given period. An RPO solution can help you build that pipeline of talent so that you can take on new hires and grow the business when the time is right.

Hiring is not a game that is set in the present, a good recruitment strategy has to anticipate and prepare for the future as well. There needs to be a rough idea of what roles might open up, that you might need to be filled.

The RPO solution can help you identify these future needs and establish a baseline of the sustainability of said plan. This allows you to create a talent pool of potential skilled candidates with specific skill sets. When the time is right, you can quickly and efficiently fill those positions, while avoiding bankruptcy.

What Makes an RPO Solution Ideal for Start-ups?

Now that we have gone over some of the main reasons why you should approach a recruitment process outsourcing agency, let’s talk about why an RPO agency could potentially be a good move in the grand scheme of things, specifically for a start-up. As mentioned above, an RPO partnership can help you drastically and safely scale up your business and at the rate you need. They have expert consultants, recruiters, industry-leading technology in recruitment, vast talent networks, and access to in-depth data analytics. Working with an RPO provider enables you to make use of these resources.

As a start-up, when your access to such resources can often be limited, is a massive edge over the competition. Having these things on your side helps attract top industry talent, gets you better retention rates, and most importantly, your employer brand is established in the industry. Let’s be honest, it’s hard to get noticed by clients and candidates alike as a new business. Considering the alternative of using traditional advertisement, which can seriously put a dent in your budget, the RPO solution route is a more preferable option.

Your ideal RPO partner will work as an extension of your company.

Your ideal RPO solution will work as an extension of your company and represent your employer brand in such a way that it becomes the ‘go-to’ option for applicants. This is crucial in the job market as it is a candidate-driven space.

So, there you go, these are just some of the points of reference that indicate it’s the time of an RPO intervention, but this is just the ‘tip of the iceberg’, as they say. Whether it’s the right call or not, is completely up to you and where your business stands at the moment, so weigh the pros and cons, analyze your market standing, and your financial situation before opting for this route.