Where’s the Red Banana?
Posted on Mon, Sep 12, 2011
Post contributed by Jeff Jurinak. Follow Jeff on Twitter @JeffreyJurinak
Recently, I saw a tweet by S. Robertson: Read an article about bananas. I will never buy a Cavendish banana again. Just had a red banana, it was divine. #bananas
When you purchase bananas, do you ever wonder, “Why is my banana always the same color and shape?” The answer (as you probably predicted) is money. And of course that is right, what else could it be?
Now, when you think of your recruitment team, do you ever think, "Why are the same people working on all the variety of my openings?" The answer (as you probably predicted) is… ok, so you see where I am going with this, I am sure.
Reading Dan Koeppel’s: Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World, you learn the future the banana faces from cloning and not being ahead of the curve - a result of being operated by greedy humans. The parallels between the future of bananas and RPO services are interesting. Do your organization (recruitment needs) and your fruit basket (at home) require variety and specialty depending on your needs and tastes? Most likely, yes!
As an RPO provider, do we deliver a cheaper, standardized banana that we can sell to everyone, or do we deliver a variety of bananas that can nurture the needs of those we partner with and will offer the specific nutrients that are needed for an organization like yours?
My thoughts go a bit like this: pure play RPO providers specialize in focusing on your talent needs and offering a dedicated team so we can focus in on your talent needs; not cloning practices from other service lines to force feed a fit. Also, fortunately RPO isn’t a banana so the practice won’t take a hard left or get struck by disease and suffer a catastrophic failure. Other RPO providers that offer a variety of service lines do a great many things, but do they do them all very well or do they already have established models in which to wedge your talent needs?
RPO offers many distinct advantages for your organization; a pure play could be the right solution for you, if variety of excellent talent is what you are in need of, not a cloned out model of practices that promise to provide a model that should fit.
When investing RPO providers, I recommend you take S. Robertson's advice and choose the red banana!
For more on RPO and Bananas, check out Barry Diamond's RPOlosophy blog!
