How to Gain Stakeholder Support for an RPO, and Why It’s Important

In recent years, recruitment providers have been required to deliver more than just transactional hires. As the landscape continues to evolve, businesses are starting to view recruitment as more of a solution than a one-off service, with Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) gaining traction.

For RPO to be successful, it’s crucial to have engaged and supportive stakeholders. Without their backing, an organisation may struggle to reap the full benefits. So, how does a business begin?

More Than Just Finding a Provider

If you’re considering an RPO, it means finding a provider that meets your needs is only the beginning. It is equally important to ensure your leaders and stakeholders are supportive and invested in its success. They will likely benefit from the change, as Henry Ford famously said, “If I’d asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said ‘don’t change anything’.”

Map Your Stakeholders

Transitioning from transactional to strategic recruitment means different things to different stakeholders. Many may have qualitative measures at the top of their list for importance, such as Hiring Managers and candidate quality, but it’s likely quantitative measures are important to others, such as Procurement professionals focusing on spend management.

Understanding your stakeholders and the impact involves their participation in the change—a positive step—and requires listening to their needs and priorities, which is another significant move toward engagement.

We’ve detailed some key stakeholders and their likely priorities:

Align Your Strategy

We have our provider and our people, but chances are there are going to be opinions on how an RPO should work. Outsourced recruitment doesn’t necessarily mean an element of control can’t be maintained, and the right provider should work with you to tailor your programme.

Based on your stakeholder feedback and discussions, it’s important you select and structure your solution. Typically, models are based around the following solutions;

Lean on Your RPO Provider

We’ve made it to provider, people, and perspectives, if you’ve made it this far then great work, but we understand it’s not easy. It’s likely your RPO provider has seen the challenges and circumstances you’ve faced before and can provide invaluable feedback and guidance. Your provider should feel like an extension of your business, and help you build a winning business case for a successful RPO.