With 70 percent of total active RPO deals reaching end of term within three years, intense competition requires focus on deepening capabilities and greater innovation
DALLAS, SEPTEMBER 9, 2015 — Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) continued its momentum and grew at 13 percent in 2014 to cross the US$2 billion mark in annualized spend. This relatively modest overall growth rate reflects a sluggish 6 percent growth in North America, the largest RPO market segment, buoyed by the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia Pacific (APAC) markets, which grew at 21 percent and 31 percent respectively.
“As the RPO market matures, it is becoming more broad-based,” said Rajesh Ranjan, partner at Everest Group. “We are seeing significant deal activity in emerging RPO markets of Continental Europe and Asia-Pacific beyond traditional markets of U.S. and UK. Also, we’re seeing greater RPO adoption in some of the non-traditional industries, such as travel and hospitality.”
The competitive landscape for RPO service providers remains intense, with 70 percent of total active deals expected to witness end of term in the next three years. Competitors are predominantly segmented by geography. While service providers are making significant advancements in multi-country capabilities, there are still very few “truly global” players. Fierce competition is compelling market evolution: advanced pricing constructs and value-added services, including analytics, are coming into play, and service providers are expanding their capabilities across all types of hires to increase their market share.
These results and other findings are explored in a recently published Everest Group report: Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) Annual Report 2015 – Broader adoption, Deeper execution, Greater innovation.
This report provides comprehensive coverage of the RPO market across dimensions such as market overview, key business drivers, buyer adoption trends, solution and transaction trends, recruitment technology trends, and service provider landscape.
Other key findings in the report:
- There is a steady increase in the offshore play in RPO. With increasing maturity, global sourcing in RPO will move towards an “ideal” model that balances cost with quality of service
- With growing maturity of the RPO market, numerous add-on / peripheral recruitment tools (especially analytics solutions) are being introduced in the market that enhance the recruitment value chain
- In addition to that, value-added recruitments services, such as employer branding and talent communities, are increasingly becoming table stakes and play an especially important role during renewals
- The market is also evolving in terms of more advanced and outcome-oriented pricing constructs and SLAs, wherein the buyers exercise greater control and the providers’ interests align with those of the buyers
- The competitive landscape continues to remain intense, forcing the service providers to continually bring in greater innovation in their solution elements so as to remain relevant
***Download Complimentary 10-page Preview Report Here*** (Registration required.) This preview summarizes the report methodology, contents and key findings and offers additional resources for further study.
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High-resolution graphics illustrating key takeaways from this report can be included in news coverage, with attribution to Everest Group. Graphics include:
- RPO: A market in flux
- RPO market geography
- RPO gaining traction in emerging markets
