RPO seems to have many different meanings, depending on who you ask. I’d say it’s simply outsourcing a piece of or all of a recruiting department. However, RPO means so much more than that to me, maybe because it is my chosen path and I’m passionate about it. Why, you ask? Because I’ve seen what great RPO’s are capable of achieving. A company can have the best ideas or products in the world, but, if they don’t have the best people to drive results in every position, they will fail or they may just be an ok company. Who wants to settle for just ok? NOT YOU? Good, then this blog is for you because I am going to detail out what makes for SUCCESSFUL HIRING OF QUALITY EMPLOYEES.

RPO should augment your organization in the capacity needed to allow healthy growth. This happens by first aligning recruiting partners with hiring managers to build trust and knowledge. This is true whether you manage an internal staff of recruiters or have an RPO in place.

People in companies responsible for hiring top talent always WANT to hire the best, it’s just that they are so focused on running the business that until the sweat starts running and their back is against the wall, it’s hard to actually find the time. And let’s be honest here, most people do not enjoy the interview process. Here are a couple of rules of thumb to having a group of hiring managers engaged in the process of hiring top talent. Before we move on, let me define “Hiring Manager”. It is an individual with Hiring Authority who is responsible for choosing and hiring top talent for their area of responsibility.

RULE #1: Give your Hiring Manager 1 Point Of Contact. The person (Recruiter) who speaks with candidates needs to be in direct contact with the hiring manager. Ideally, the same Recruiter and Hiring Manager should work together always, this retains business intelligence and builds trust and knowledge which equals = partnership.

RULE #2: Make choosing candidates to interview easy for Hiring Managers. Recruiter only presents Top 3 Qualified Candidates to Hiring Manager for interview. These candidates should be presented along with all interview notes and any completed assessments. Then Recruiter discusses with Hiring Manager each candidates strengths and weaknesses, providing an honest assessment.

RULE #3: Keep Hiring Manager in the loop throughout the search. Recruiter should send weekly updates of recruiting activity. Who are you talking to? How many candidates screened, interviewed, declined? Where is the position posted or advertised? Where and how you are networking?

RULE #4: Train Hiring Managers on How to Interview. This is critical for successful hiring. I could go on and on about nightmare interviews and not because of what the candidate said. There are many ways to go about doing this successfully. I prefer to provide interview templates to Hiring Managers that they can then customize to their personality and add to that a quick tip sheet they can keep handy.

RULE #5: Communicate the Process & Expectations to all Hiring Managers. No one likes not knowing what is going to happen next. Provide Hiring Managers with a flow chart of the recruiting and hiring process and timing expectations for feedback. This is a simple tool to keep everyone on the same page.