CEOs and C-suite executives have good reason to rank recruiting as their top concern; thanks to the tight labor market, the process has become longer and costlier over time. More than a third of respondents to a report from Kronos and The Human Capital Institute agreed that filling positions now takes longer, and 73% said they increased starting salaries for openings, while half raised starting hourly pay in the last two years.
In fact, the talent supply and demand gap is so wide that a number of employers are outsourcing the recruiting process to boost their hiring rates, as shown by an Everest Group report released in September. Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) expanded during the past four years and grew more than 20% in 2018, alone, the report found. Not only are RPOs providing consultation on training, reskilling and “best fit” outplacement practices, but they’re also investing in technologies, such as artificial intelligence, analytics and blockchain to help organizations cut costs and improve hiring outcomes, said the Everest Group.
