I vividly remember sitting in my grandparents living room as a child and listening to my father and grandfather argue about who could drive from Randolph, MA to Stamford, CT (or vice versa) faster. My father never could believe my grandfather’s claim that my grandfather could make the trip in under 3 hours (2 hours and 51 minutes to be exact). And since my grandfather, a retired truck driver, was the family auto expert, and my father, a pharmacist, knew nothing about cars, the battle was always won by my grandfather. Back in 1960’s and 1970’s speed was the measure of success.
Fast forward to today and think about how the conversation has changed.
As my children sit and listen to us talk about car travel, it is all about fuel efficiency (obviously we’re not NASCAR fans). The discussion is about miles per gallon (mpg) instead of miles per hour (mph). The winner of the debate is the person who made the trip and expended the least amount of fuel. Bragging rights go to person who got the best miles per gallon, not the person who got there first. Today the measure of success is efficiency.
When I reflect about the Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) market, I see a similar transformation. Unlike fuel economy, this conversion occurred over the last 3 to 4 year versus the last 30 to 40 years.
In the beginning, RPO was about providers with the most horsepower. Cycle time was a key measurement. Being fast was paramount. Many of these companies, while viewed by their clients are successful, were extremely inefficient behind the scenes. People and money were thrown at process and problems. Just like the large engines of the 1960’s, reliability and range of operation was a concern. In addition, for the provider all this inefficiency equated to low margins and a lack of sustainability.
Just like rising fuel pricing and environmental concerns have “driven’ the need for better fuel effectiveness, financial sustainability and market competiveness has steered RPO organizations to optimize operations through technology and by identifying and removing the causes of process defects and variations (Six Sigma). And, as we have seen, over the past year, those RPO firms that have lagged behind and didn’t impose their own CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standards are experiencing the same fate as my grandfather’s Ford Gran Torino.
Photo credit: gawker.com
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