How to Build the Perfect RPO Pitch for Skilled Labor Positions

May 10, 2023

The working class is the lifeblood of today’s economy. Without our skilled laborers, the economy as we know it would come to a screeching halt. Unfortunately, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to keep positions in our vital industries properly staffed at a time when we desperately need them. 

Recruiters for labor roles are facing an up-hill battle in order to fill these important positions. 90% of companies that are primarily working class are operating with unfilled positions and 50% are facing increased employee turnover. In addition to this, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts that labor force participation is going to decline to 61% by 2026

This is all coming at a time when there is increased pressure on today’s talent market. According to the Deloitte and Manufacturing Institute, the number of days it takes to fill an open position for a skilled labor role is somewhere between 70 to 93. Whether you are in construction, transportation, diesel servicing, or any other industry that relies on skilled labor, there is a dire need to fill open positions and do so in a timely manner. 

In order to overcome all of these obstacles, you need a forward-thinking team equipped with the knowledge and technology to help you succeed. To meet this need, many are turning to partner with a Recruiting Process Outsourcing (RPO) expert. 

RPOs aren’t just for filling the job openings that you have; they help spark sustainable growth by providing a bespoke recruiting strategy that is wholly customizable to your needs. They help you scale your recruiting appropriately, construct a growth strategy that is practicable, and provide insights from industry experts, all while targeting the most qualified candidates for your job openings. 

This article will illustrate the value that an RPO can bring to your recruiting team, and how to best build a convincing pitch to your executive team that an RPO model is the solution to your recruiting problems. 

What are the advantages of outsourcing your recruitment services? 

Partnering with an RPO provides a number of benefits that can completely modernize your talent acquisition strategy. 

Retaining the services of an RPO is a pragmatic solution. These programs provide measurable cost-savings that you otherwise would not be able to achieve. Because you can calibrate the scale of your talent acquistion to market conditions, you’re able to realize a level of cost-efficiency that you simply can not reach when you hire a recruiting agency or attempt to conduct your strategy exclusively in-house. 

RPOs also prove their own worth by providing qualitative gains in your recruiting process. Traditional recruiting strategies can often lead to poor candidate experience and contact fatigue that ultimately results in a less experienced hire just to fill an open position. But with an RPO, the entire process is streamlined to provide the most engaging hiring experience possible while specifically targeting the highly-qualified candidates that you need on your staff. 

In order to achieve the drastic changes in your hiring process, RPOs leverage the most advanced technology and data tracking tools available. They provide the insights that you need to make actionable decisions in areas of opportunity within your systems with real-time reporting. RPOs further simplify your recruiting process by using their technology expertise to automate interview scheduling, identifying the most fertile sourcing locations for hires, and appropriately vetting job applicants.

When you take on an RPO partner, there isn’t just a handoff that happens without any communication between your two teams. Throughout the entire process, you have access to a team of specialists that are able to consult you on the appropriate technology stacks that will most benefit your business, as well as provide invaluable insights into performance and recommendations for next steps. By taking advantage of this knowledge and expertise, you are able to construct a completely personalized and cost-effective recruiting strategy that adapts to your needs. 

Drafting the perfect RPO pitch for execs

RPO is undoubtedly a resource that brings tangible results to your recruiting efforts. Now lets go over how to build the most convincing pitch that will help executives understand the benefits of implementing this model into your strategy. 

1.   Conduct a thorough analysis of your current talent acquisition system

RPOs are completely customizable and cover a wide range of services that change depending on your demands. In order to calculate how to implement these services into your process that provides the most benefit, you need to identify the precise needs of your organization. 

Start by collecting key data from your current talent acquisition efforts. This data could include:

      1. Hiring speeds
      2. Time to fill open positions
      3. Cost-per-lead
      4. Cost-per-hire
      5. Hiring ratio

By compiling this data you will be able to identify the largest areas of opportunity that an RPO would be able to significantly improve your system. This information will help you convey to higher management how an RPO could be best utilized for your organization’s needs. 

To get a better idea of where you stand right now, CLICK HERE to use our Talent Acquisition Systems Analysis Tool. Our proprietary evaluation was built to help you pinpoint the unseen gaps in your processes.

 

2.   Get a complete accounting of your current talent budget

To create the strongest case for RPO, it helps to compare the costs of implementing this model against your current talent acquisition budget. When compiling this information, ask yourself how much you are spending on outside vendors or on marketing your open positions. Get the full picture of your expenditures to see if your budget is being spent efficiently. 

Next, identify how you would implement the RPO model to receive the most value. RPOs typically offer many varying packages that can include management charges, transactional fees, hybrid models (a combination of both) as well as other fees that may come with access to advisors, service expansion, and others. 

When you have an idea of how much you’re currently spending compared to how much you would save with an RPO while also gaining access to a higher quality recruiting strategy, you will be able to demonstrate the true value of this partnership to your executive team. 

 

3.   Generate buy-in from the executive team

Simply presenting the data to your executive team will not be enough; it’s critical that you are able to get them fully onboard with the idea. Your executives may have different thoughts on how best to execute this strategy or the scope of the services that they would want to employ. 

To get around this and make sure they realize the full potential of a partnership, find out what each executive’s goals are and explain how an RPO can accomplish each of their objectives. Illustrating the qualitative gains and the cost savings of an RPO, as well as how this partnership aligns with their goals, will ensure that you receive the buy-in needed to successfully execute this talent strategy. 

To Summarize

In order to construct a holistic, scalable strategy for your recruiting process, you need to access the capabilities of an RPO. Doing so will reinvigorate your talent acquisition and propel you to greater success.

By thoroughly analyzing your current recruiting process, auditing your talent budget, and generating executive buy-in, you will be able to formulate a logical and convincing pitch to your executive team for why RPO is right for your business. Now is the time to reexamine your talent acquisition process and develop a strategy that is cost-efficient and provides higher quality candidates for your open positions. 


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