Why should you outsource the management of your temporary workforce?

Organisations with a large temporary workforce can often become overloaded with the management and recruitment of their temporary workers. In an attempt to combat this, the concept of Recruitment Process Outsourcing or RPO, was formed. RPO offers various solutions that suit the requirements of an individual client, some offering sole responsibility for the management of a temporary workforce, some that provide a single-source supplier avenue and others that offer a combined/hybrid solution.

Besides the obvious benefits, such as reducing the administrative burden etc., why should an organisation outsource the management of their temporary workforce? Datum RPO have compiled a short list of key benefits of using an RPO provider:

Ensures the compliance of legal and other governmental statuaries:

A major benefit to your business of moving to an RPO provider is ensuring compliance to working standards and guaranteeing all regulatory requirements are up to date.

RPO companies store online information covering rights to work in the UK, DBS checks, qualifications, health and safety training and details of Agency Worker Regulations. Good RPO firms will carry out annual audits of all agency worker records. This not only means you avoid potentially costly fines or legal bills, but also reduces the concern about future legislation or compatibility with your Corporate Social Responsibility policies.

With the government introducing new employment legislations such as the Apprenticeship Levy and the Modern Slavery Act 2015, complete legal compliance is becoming ever-more challenging for organisations with a large temporary workforce.

Allows for complete transparency in the supply chain:

Many large organisations find it difficult to accurately track the costs of their temporary workforce, invariably supplied by a large number of recruitment agencies spread nationwide.

RPO helps businesses solve this problem by empowering them to track, authorise, approve and receive invoices through one centralised software system. When used correctly, RPO gives you an accurate picture of your workforce expenditure with real time management information and reporting across your entire business.

Additionally, through the implementation of standardising agency margins, Recruitment process outsourcing gives businesses control over costs and allows for complete transparency and clearly visible margins.

Offers improved performance and easy communication:

One of the biggest benefits of outsourcing the management of your temporary workforce is that you get all the benefits of a broad supply base whilst removing the challenge of dealing with multiple suppliers and all their different agreements.

With Vendor Neutral Management, a panel of agencies will be formed utilising your existing suppliers, taking into account factors such as financial stability, geographic capabilities and legal compliance, so you have the most suitable suppliers working for you. In addition, supplier communication and general enquiries are managed entirely through an RPO provider.

Consolidated invoicing is also an important time & cost benefit. The Chartered Institute for Procurement and Supply (CIPS) suggest that processing an invoice can cost up to £50, most companies using agencies usually process thousands. Whatever the figure for your organisation, you can make serious savings by utilising RPO’s ability to turn multiple invoices into one consolidated invoice.

Greater connection with suppliers:

Implementing RPO enables scalability and flexibility whatever your fluctuating recruitment demands, with no compromise in speed, quality or brand. By allocating responsibility for selecting and managing agencies, an RPO provider has the ability to fully optimise and manage your entire recruitment process.

The best RPO providers are vendor neutral and propose a panel of agencies based on a review of your existing agencies, or, if there is a lack of supply, will suggest new ones. All agencies within the supply chain are audited continuously by your RPO provider to ensure they are meeting industry minimum benchmark quality standards. This brings consistency of supply, a higher quality workforce, financial stability and optimised pricing.

Enhanced and promted brand ethos:

When a temporary worker works at your organisation, it has a direct impact on your brand. Branding has become vital to a company’s reputation as an employer. An organisation’s use of branding directly influences the attraction of potential new employees, general recognition and portrays what it’s like to work with you.

RPO is a really effective way to improve the candidate experience and build your brand, as RPO companies manage recruiters effectively to work as an extension of your company to give candidates a smoother, more positive experience. This can play a big part in ensuring future success for your bottom line.

Bottom line profitability and sustainability:

Once you’ve completed your initial analysis and review of your current temporary labour recruitment processes with your RPO provider, you can then start measuring the results to track your returns. RPO produces data using customised software platforms, that enable you to measure the impacts on your bottom line, weighing the benefits of investment versus cost.

To calculate whether RPO has been effective in streamlining your recruitment process, you can compare cost areas, such as number of effective candidate sources, time-to-hire, pay rates, tenure and invoice processing time.

Additionally, because data and results can be tracked continually via customised RPO software, you can always measure if you’re still getting value for money or cost savings. If you engage with a good RPO provider you should expect to see direct cost savings in the region of 6-12%.

To find out more about reaping the benefits of outsourcing the management of your temporary workforce, together with an 'Annual Savings Calculator' to work out how much you might save, click the button below!

About Datum RPO

Datum RPO are experts in recruitment process outsourcing and handle the entire recruitment process for some of the UK’s biggest companies.

As experts in procuring and managing temporary and contract agency labour, we provide a complete RPO service that helps our customers become more efficient, whilst delivering savings of up to 12% on existing spend.

Find out more about the Datum RPO difference at www.datumrpo.com