August 27, 2018
As enterprises face unprecedented talent acquisition challenges, recruitment process outsourcing soars as one of the fastest growing outsourcing markets in the world, growing at 15% for the past three years
The Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) market is one of the fastest growing outsourcing segments today, with growth hovering above 15 percent consistently for the past three years, according to Everest Group. Although the solutions applied in RPO have been slowly evolving for nearly two decades, the adoption of next-generation technologies is expected to surge and significantly alter the RPO market landscape in the near future, adding fuel to the fire of an already blazing RPO market.
Enterprises today are facing unprecedented challenges in talent acquisition, suffering from significant pain points such as forecasting workforce requirements, adapting to the changing nature of the candidate base, developing effective branding, and responding to rapid development in technology. According to Everest Group, RPO service providers are seizing this golden opportunity to help enterprises meet recruitment challenges with next-gen technologies like advanced analytics, benchmarking and workforce planning.
Evolving use cases of digital technologies in talent acquisition include the following:
- Analytics: Use cases include spend analytics, supplier analytics, workforce analytics, peer benchmarking, and social media analytics to source, screen and engage candidates
- Natural Language Processing (NLP): Chatbots can leverage NLP to improve candidate experience by engaging with candidates right from the sourcing and screening phases all the way to the interview scheduling and onboarding stages.
- RPA: RPA can be used to parse key words in resume screening; automate job postings in job portals, banner advertisements and direct emails; and update all instances of workflow when a change is needed.
- Machine Learning (ML): ML can be used to conduct first-level screening, including checking the relevance and quality of experience and the cultural fit of the candidate. ML also assists analytics applications with identifying and leveraging the most suitable sourcing channels.
“The technology in the RPO market to date has been largely focused on improving the efficiency of specific talent acquisition processes and has been limited to dealing with structured data,” said Vishal Gupta, practice director at Everest Group. “Going forward, we’ll see next-generation technologies such as RPA, analytics and AI that can deal with unstructured data and deliver insights and probabilistic solutions. The impetus to be on the front edge of this wave is driving significant technology investment on the part of RPO service providers. We’re also seeing more and more service providers embracing the RPO+ value proposition, offering value-added services such as employer branding, talent communities, and talent consulting services. These capabilities will become important differentiators in a fiercely competitive market where more than 700 deals are up for renewal in the next three years.”
These and other research findings are explored in a recently published Everest Group report: “Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) Annual Report 2018: Orchestrating the Digital Talent Acquisition Symphony.” This research provides a comprehensive coverage of the market across dimensions such as evolving RPO value proposition, market overview, key trends, solution characteristics, buyer adoption trends, and digital in talent acquisition.
Other key findings of the report:
- The RPO market touched the US$3.3 billion mark in annualized contract value in 2017.
- As the RPO model gains maturity, the marketplace is witnessing the entry of hither-to unknown buyers. Industries such as retail, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, as well as small-sized buyers (less than 3,000 FTEs) are entering the market in increasing numbers, leading to new avenues for service providers to tap.
- Total Talent Acquisition (TTA) is increasingly getting a prominent place in the discussion around the talent needs of enterprises. While still in its early stages, service providers would do well to develop TTA capabilities with an eye to the future.
- North America continues to occupy the lion’s share of the market with the UK and Australia being the other major markets. Continental Europe and Asia Pacific are emerging markets with good potential for the future.
- The competition in RPO remains intense, with not many players having a dominant market share, both in terms of number of deals as well as hires. With a large number of deals coming up for renewal in the next three years, service providers will have to be on their toes to maintain their market share as competition intensifies.
***Download a complimentary 10-page abstract of the report here.***
