RPO and the Client’s Brand

  

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Post contributed by Barry Diamond. Follow Barry on Twitter @bddiamond

Recently, I was preparing to present an RPO solution at a Fortune 50 company who is working with one of our competitors.

Whether my prospect has an internal recruitment team or is already outsourcing, I always try to figure out what is currently going on. One of the easiest ways to investigate talent acquisition is to research the prospect’s recruitment marketing efforts and candidate application process. Four questions I always try to answer prior to a meeting are:

1. Where are they posting, do the links actually work, and is the message compelling and consistent?
2. What social recruiting tools are they leverage and how “connected” are their recruiters?
3. Is the online application process candidate friendly and intuitive?
4. How well is the career portal designed?

Going into this exercise, my predisposition is always that most companies already working with a RPO service provider will be doing a better job marketing career opportunities and improving the candidate experience than an internal team. Clearly one of RPO’s value propositions is that talent attraction strategies and tools is one of our core competencies. Simple put companies hire us to do it better.

However, my latest research for the Fortune 50, “we are already working with a RPO firm” organization was truly eye-opening. In summary, the RPO service provider was co-branding positions thus creating confusion for candidates. The RPO provider’s logo and the client’s name were both prominently displayed on all the job postings. In addition, the positions were advertised in a manner totally inconsistent with the client’s image and the client’s marketing efforts. These were professional careers promoted as if I was going to own a fast food franchise.

Compounding the branding issue further and creating a less than intuitive application process, candidates could apply through either the RPO service provider’s ATS or the client’s ATS for the same positions. Honestly, this tactic seems to further muddle the client’s brand message and reduce process efficiency. My intuition tells me that a large number of candidates are being “lost.” In addition, this situation raises some additional questions like:

1. Who owns the candidates in the service provider’s ATS?
2. Is the candidate pool being shared with other clients?
3. What would happen if the client had an OFCCP audit?

In a Pinstripe Recruitment Process Outsourcing engagement, it is always about the client’s brand. It is always their logo. It is always their messaging. It is always their values. Pinstripe does the work but it is never about us. In fact, in our worlds, candidates never know Pinstripe. Each candidate should only experience great service and believe that service was delivered by their potential future employer.

If the end goal is about helping the client’s overall business initiatives and goals, then talent acquisition and the employment brand should support and enhance the overall client brand. You can’t do this in RPO if the service provider is co-advertising or co-promoting themselves alongside you, the client.

Respecting, promoting and building your client’s brand is very much RPO 101. It is unfortunate that not all service providers adhere to this key Recruitment Process Outsourcing principle.

For more on the importance of your employer brand, please download the Pinstripe whitepaper Recruiting at the Speed of Now.