The art of getting IT right
Used well, technology offers huge advantages for recruitment, but if it isn’t up to scratch it can also leave you struggling to compete for talent, writes Carly Chynoweth
Date:
01 November 2007
Source:
Guide to RPO
Page:
28
Technology has changed the recruitment experience for professionals and candidates alike. Recruitment fairs are held in the virtual world of Second Life, candidate recommendations come through web networks such as LinkedIn, and corporate sites allow graduate trainees to chat with new colleagues online before they meet.
It’s inevitable that recruitment process outsourcing will have a technological component – the challenge for clients is to make sure that it will meet their needs and work with existing systems.
The first step is to understand what technology can offer. Chris Phillips, marketing director at software company Taleo, says that technology can bring three main benefits to recruiters: it reduces time to hire through efficient management of applications; it reduces costs by allowing companies to do more direct recruitment rather than using agencies; and it allows employers to be more competitive when hunting down the best talent.
“Deployed well, technology can have a significant impact on recruitment. We have clients who have moved from sourcing 90 per cent of staff through agencies to 30 per cent” – which, Phillips says, equates to millions saved. But not having the technology that others use can be problematic: employers struggle to compete against organisations whose technology allows them to find and process the best candidates faster than they can.
A significant element of this is driven by candidate expectation. More and more people use the internet for important elements of their personal lives, whether that’s socialising through Facebook or shopping at Amazon; it’s also seen as the obvious place to start job-hunting. As customers, they expect personalised sites that remember and act on their preferences.
Employer brand kudos
However, companies whose recruitment sites offer high levels of responsiveness gain more than simply the employer brand kudos of being in touch with Web 2.0 – the internet’s second generation, where the web is used to facilitate collaboration and communication between groups and individuals. They can also build and maintain a talent pool without having to do any updating themselves, says Vince Smallhorne, director of applications business development at Oracle, a business software provider.
Four or five years ago, organisations used technology that allowed them to scan CVs into a database and then search it for relevant talent. While this was easier than sorting through filing cabinets, the information in the database quickly became out of date. Now, however, online technology can be used to make sure that candidates keep potential employers’ databases up to date for them. “If you put in your details on an employer website, some sites will track if you don’t return and email you to suggest that you should come back, update your CV or see what new vacancies are available,” says Smallhorne.
To get technology right it is important not to jump headfirst into it, advises Emma Parry, a research fellow at Cranfield School of Management. “Don’t try to move your offline processes online,” she says. “That doesn’t work. Organisations need to think about reworking the process entirely using online techniques. This is where technology and outsourcing work well hand-in-hand.”
For example, if you’re taking a technology-heavy route, go the whole way, Parry says. “The people that do it well look at all three elements of recruitment [attraction, application and management/metrics] and find electronic systems that handle all three aspects. The problems come when people say ‘we will have applications online’ but then don’t have electronic systems in place to manage them. They might get a whole flood of applications to deal with manually.”
An end-to-end package can, among other things, create a talent pool, screen applicants against psychometric and other criteria, and arrange interviews. In some cases, technology is capable of doing so much heavy lifting that companies are using it to cut RPO providers out of the loop and bring recruitment back in-house.
“If an RPO provider was using vast amounts of technology, I would question whether I really needed them or whether I should do it myself,” Parry says.
Smallhorne argues that not all client companies will benefit from a technological recruitment solution. “For smaller places, technology isn’t that important. It’s more down to the individuals [from the provider].”
He admits that this is an odd position for someone from a technology provider, but explains that whereas large companies will find that technology helps them to manage the volume of candidates they need, smaller organisations will gain more value from the support of specialist recruiters.
Anyone who takes on a technology-driven RPO solution needs to be confident that whatever their provider recommends will integrate with existing IT systems and security standards. HR directors should involve their chief information officers and ask the same questions as if they were buying the software directly, Phillips says.
“There is a temptation to say that is the RPO provider’s problem – that’s what we’re outsourcing, but you are not just selecting an RPO provider, you are selecting the technology underneath it. If that technology cannot handle the needs of your business, there will be problems,” he says.
Christian Baader, vice-president of business process outsourcing (BPO) at SAP, advises finding out whether the RPO provider will be using a proprietary product or one available on the open market – important should you later choose not to renew the contract. “I would also ask about the relationship between the RPO provider and the technology provider. It’s important that the relationship is sustainable and that both are geared for the long term,” he says.
Most RPO providers have a preferred software supplier but find themselves working with a range of technologies as they take on new clients and inherit existing systems. However, Jon Holden, RPO practice lead at talent management software company Mr Ted, says that RPO providers should use “one to many” technology that allows them to use one package that they then configure to suit all their clients.
He explains: “It makes RPO very scaleable, so they’re more likely to make money out of running an RPO contract, which will in turn motivate them to work harder – and be better for the [client], which is better for both parties.” However, this only works if the client chooses to go with the technology recommended by the RPO provider; generally, this is not the case.
“Often the client says: ‘I’ve just spent £500,000 on software. If you’re going to run my contract, you have to use this system.’ This means that the provider is fighting an uphill battle to teach its people to use another system. They become victims of the client’s complexities... and it will often mean that there are a lot of manual systems in place behind the RPO, so you don’t get the same efficiency benefits,” Holden says.
There is a middle way, with client and RPO provider each continuing to use their own technology and sending jobs and candidates back and forth. Holden estimates that this offers about 80 per cent of the benefits of the client using the RPO provider’s platform.
In summary, Holden stresses that clients need to listen to their provider’s advice to get the most out of the contract: “Usually, the RPO will justify their business case – if they say you should change your technology, you should listen to them.”
* A tool based on CIPD research by Cranfield School of Management – Technology in HR: How to Get the Most out of Technology in People Management – is available for CIPD members to download at http://www.cipd.co.uk/tools
Road to efficiency and profits
Enterprise Rent-A-Car (ERAC) was one of the first of assessment specialist SHL’s clients to move part of its recruitment process online when it started using a custom-built online application system in 1999, says Donna Miller, ERAC’s HR director for Europe. She credits the technology with improving the selection process for its graduate recruits by helping to keep track of the 2,500 or so applications the company receives every month.
“When we started, it was a way of funnelling all these applications, making it easier for our recruitment team and making sure that people would not slip through the cracks,” she says. As applicant information is kept on a database, no candidates are lost or left hanging because their CV lands on the desk of someone who is on holiday.
But it’s not only the data management aspects that Miller values: the technology also screens candidates using psychometric assessment, bringing a high level of objectivity and consistency to the process. It judges candidates strictly on job-related competencies without considering age, race, disability or even degree quality.
While this is important legally, it also ensures that ERAC selects the most qualified candidates rather than losing them to subjective judgments. “As well as being thorough, technology never gets tired or bored,” Miller says. “We don’t miss important questions through human error.” Equally, the global rollout of the system means that applicants are assessed against the same standards, regardless of their location.
On top of these benefits, she adds, technology has reduced ERAC’s cost per hire for the average application by around £325.
Calling in the professionals
As a professional services provider, IRI’s customers rely on the company having the expertise necessary to provide the solutions that they need. This means that having the right staff with the right skills mix at the right time is critical, says Ros Smith, IRI’s HR director for northern Europe.
“It’s important that we can respond in a timely manner when we win new business,” she says. Traditionally, the company relied heavily on recruitment agencies to source those skills, but Smith was concerned that this approach forced IRI into a reactive mode as the agencies retained ownership of candidates, meaning that the company was unable to speed up the process by developing its own talent pipeline.
A relatively new relationship with Aon Consulting means that all candidates will now be entered on a central database that allows Smith to manage the talent pool. If, for example, IRI is approached by someone who has an interesting CV but needs more experience, or doesn’t fit any current openings, Smith and her team can flag their name in the system so that they automatically make contact on a defined date or when a relevant job comes up.
This helps to keep candidates “warm”, speeding up the hiring process. The technology also supports headhunting, as it’s useful for keeping track of senior executives to see who is looking for opportunities and who might be available in the future. In this way, IRI is able to line up potential candidates’ goals with its own workforce planning.
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