What is APAC Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)?

December 11, 2024

Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) is when an employer outsources the responsibility of recruiting talent to a third-party service provider. In tight labour markets across the APAC region, RPO brings fresh talent, skills, and attention to talent acquisition, simplifying the workload for in-house hiring managers and HR staff. 

Additionally, RPO introduces specialist perspectives into your recruitment procedures. It fills potential knowledge gaps and optimises processes, fine-tuning your workforce for more productive outcomes. This is especially true in rapidly growing markets, including tech, finance, and IT, with RPO needs driven by increasing adoption of digital infrastructure and specialised skills demand.

This article will explore everything you need to know about RPO and how it can boost your business’s long-term efficiency. 

RPO Benefits: 10 Key Business Cases

RPO delivers tangible value to multiple facets of your business, from optimising resources to streamlining processes and increasing representation. When combined, these influences positively impact everything from granular tasks to core business operations. Let’s explore the benefits of RPO in real-world scenarios.  

1. High-Quality Talent

An RPO recruitment team’s primary objective is to provide you with top hires, even in notoriously difficult labour markets. With an extensive network of professionals, they can also create a talent pool, ensuring you have qualified candidates in the pipeline when a position becomes vacant. 

2. Cost Efficiency

An RPO provider supports you in hiring and retaining the best talent. With performance typically measured by time-to-hire, cost-of-hire, and quality-of-hire, RPO solutions ensure vacant positions remain open for a minimal time, saving costs and boosting productivity. 

3. Optimised Resource Allocation

With streamlined processes and industry expertise, an RPO service not only decreases talent acquisition spend but can free up internal recruitment resources to focus on HR and retention initiatives. More efficient resource allocation leads to enhanced productivity and a more positive candidate and company experience. 

4. Positive Candidate Experience

A WorkPro survey revealed that 44% of candidates wait less than two weeks to hear back from an employer after a second interview. Yet, in 2023, over 25% of employers maintained a timeline of 46-60 days from requisition approval to verbal acceptance. Because an RPO solution decreases the time-to-hire threshold, a candidate’s recruitment and onboarding experience becomes streamlined and smooth, helping employers secure the talent they need. 

5. Filling Specialised Roles

Recruitment process outsourcing helps companies tackle hiring challenges in skilled roles. In a climate where employers experience difficulty attracting experienced applicants (18%), applicants with technical skills (16%), or applicants in general (14%), support in filling specialised roles is no longer a nice-to-have — it can be critical to a business’s continued success. 

6. Enhanced DEI Opportunities

Balanced diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) hires — including people from a spectrum of gender, ethnicity, demographic, physical-ability, and neurological backgrounds — are well known to enhance a business’s productivity. RPO solutions can assist you in making strategic DEI hires to achieve an optimised and representative workforce. 

A 2024 Diversity Council Australia survey found that just 71% of employees feel they belong as part of a team — a decrease from 77% in 2021, and 78% in 2019. This means DEI hires are increasingly important in recruitment from both a business and candidate standpoint. 

7. Elevated Employer Branding

Employer branding makes a significant difference in talent quality and retention. However, not all employers have the in-house expertise to create a sound employer value proposition. An RPO provider helps you define your value to prospective employees and market your business to candidates — even in tough industries. 

8. Metrics and Analysis

Data provides the foundation for an efficient long-term talent acquisition strategy. Your RPO recruiter will likely have recruitment technology and predictive talent analytics to gain insights about your business’s hiring needs and talent pipeline. These insights equip you with a data-backed approach to candidate sourcing and workforce planning. 

9. Agile, Scalable Recruitment

Recruitment efforts are rarely consistent within an organisation. Sometimes, you may require high volumes of permanent or temporary hires, whereas other times, months may pass with limited need. RPO creates structures within a business that complement variable recruitment needs, and scale up or down according to company objectives. 

10. Global Compliance

Employment laws are consistently shifting and companies are increasingly tapping into the global workforce. For instance, permanent recruitment processes in Japan can vary significantly from those in Australia, meaning compliance is an important factor to consider in your recruitment strategy. An RPO partner’s expertise ensures businesses remain compliant for both local and global talent acquisition.

Types of RPO Recruitment

Every organisation has unique talent acquisition needs and hiring challenges. Whether you need end-to-end recruitment solutions, seek support in hiring for a single division, or require assistance with one aspect of your recruitment process, an RPO partnership can help. 

Here are some of the types of recruitment services an RPO company offers:

• End-to-end: Full-service RPO is an ongoing solution that covers the lifecycle of your recruitment process. Between employer branding initiatives, candidate sourcing and screening, and interviewing and selecting talent, end-to-end services oversee the entire hiring process, enhancing your recruitment function. 
• Project and on-demand: When you need the best workforce solutions for short-term talent needs, project and on-demand RPO offer the benefits of an end-to-end approach on a timeline that suits you. This is ideal for situations where your hiring manager or internal teams lack the resources to deliver on hiring needs. 
• Consulting: Develop comprehensive solutions to address your recruitment goals with guidance from an expert recruitment team. By collaborating with your executive leadership and stakeholders, RPO solutions craft a complete strategy to address issues and refine your recruitment process. 

Outsourcing recruitment is a simple extension of your internal team, allowing you to customise your RPO model and seamlessly meet your business targets.

RPO Pricing Models

The cost of RPO depends on the project’s scale and employer goals. Trends in RPO show a shift toward flexible pricing models, designed to accommodate fluctuating hiring demands, seasonal spikes, or evolving business goals. Below are some of the different pricing structures you can access:

• On-demand is where RPO experts deliver on an agreed number of roles over a fixed period. 
• Full-service RPO is where an outsourced recruitment team takes the lead, directing the entire recruitment process. 
• Function-based RPO, also known as project RPO, means the service provider undertakes a specific part of the employer’s onboarding operations, such as hiring for the sales department. 

Regardless of your hiring need, you can connect with an RPO team to discuss your goals and find the right solution for your business. 

Choosing an RPO Recruitment Partner

Certain characteristics make for a strong RPO partner. Companies that offer different engagement models provide the flexibility to ensure recruitment initiatives deliver within timelines and budget. Scalability means your partner can provide RPO solutions that address your specific needs — as and when they fluctuate. 

Most modern RPO providers leverage technology to enhance recruitment capabilities, facilitating strong data-backed decision-making regarding current and future hiring needs. A good partnership brings a high level of experience to the table, offering local and global expertise required to meet your recruitment goals. Finally, outsourcing recruitment should be a collaborative process, ensuring deliverables are aligned with your values and objectives.

Getting Started With RPO

Recruitment process outsourcing is a comprehensive and agile solution that helps businesses overcome diverse talent recruitment challenges. It provides a foundation for workforce growth and stability, supporting a business’s long-term trajectory. 

Envision is a leading talent-sourcing partner in the Asia-Pacific region, with experts who can seamlessly integrate into your organisation and craft tailored strategies from within. If you’re interested in working with RPO experts to achieve enhanced productivity and development, connect with our team today.