Recruitment is the most likely HR function to be outsourced

It has been found that recruitment is the most likely HR function to be outsourced, with 71% of respondents reporting so in the Talent2 APAC Market Pulse Study, which surveyed nearly 600 HR executives across Australia, China, Hong Kong and Singapore. This means that more and more businesses are beginning to see the benefits involved with recruitment process outsourcing (RPO).

More than 87% of major Australian companies now outsource at least one HR function, and the pace of HR outsourcing is increasing across the Asia Pacific, according to the report.

These results are mirrored in a recent Employment Office client survey, which found that 82% of respondents were interested in recruitment marketing services, 61% were interested in candidate screening, 39% were interested in candidate management software, and 29% were interested in interviewing and shortlisting services.

The Australian executives surveyed by Talent2 cited the main benefit of HR outsourcing as allowing specialists to manage complex non-core functions, while freeing up internal resources to focus on core competencies. Therefore, the time and costs saved from outsourcing recruitment is able to be invested in other functions of the organisation to increase productivity.

Doris Kluge, HR Coordinator for Employment Office's client, Richmond Fellowship of NSW, says that "For SME's like RFNSW, if someone could develop a relationship with a provider who has the service, and importantly an understanding of their business and sector, then the outsourcing is a good measure."

Jeanne Harris, HR Coordinator at Victoria Daly Shire Council, acknowledges that outsourcing recruitment advertising is a good idea "as it’s quite time consuming", however Harris feels that areas such as payroll and contracts should be kept in-house so that chasing can be done locally. Victoria Daly Shire Council is also a long-term client of Employment Office.

53% of Australian respondents said they planned to either start or increase their outsourcing over the next year. In an exclusive interview with Employment Office, CEO of CareerOne, Michael Harvey, commented on this point saying “Yes, we’re definitely seeing an increase in the use of Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPOs) across the industry. We work with a lot of the big recruitment companies who have RPO arms and we can see that they are growing."

Harvey agrees with Talent2 CEO John Rawlinson's comment that "Outsourcing is now being considered a strategic solution, rather than a cost-cutting tactic in response to the GFC", and furthers this by highlighting that besides the GFC, outsourcing is driven by a number of factors including the fact that in particular sectors, we are starting to see some skill shortages.

"The other thing is that sourcing talent is becoming more complex these days – there are so many new ways to source talent – for example we’re seeing the rise in LinkedIn - and companies such as Careerone.com.au have a lot more diverse products, so I think there’s a range of different solutions out there, and for individual businesses, keeping up with those is difficult, and I think that’s leading to a lot of these large organisations looking to RPOs.”explains Harvey.

Kluge reiterates this by explaining her key reasons for outsourcing as "Timeliness, consistency, and having access to leading edge technology and strategies that a small NGO with limited funding and resources may not be able to justify". Harris also agrees that there are many benefits to outsourcing the attraction strategy, including that "the turnaround is quick, all the groundwork is done, and all we need to do is approve it - we retain the control of the interview process and turnaround is quicker than in-house - it takes the pressure off so we can focus on other critical functions."