Recruitment process outsourcing in information technology industry

Outsourcing has been around for over twenty years and is still growing, while outsourcing of recruitment is a relatively new phenomenon. Organisations outsource primarily because of the cost benefit and time saving, since there are also several reasons to outsource, there are also several types of outsourcing.

Business process outsourcing is when an organisation outsources a whole business process such as Human Resources, which Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) is a part of. Recruitment Process Outsourcing is a process used to increase organisation's efficiency through managerial time saving, moving the recruitment process to external recruiting agencies providing trust and the proper competitive expertise needed.

RPO is the outsourcing of all or part of the recruiting process to an external business provider. The service provider may act as a virtual recruiting department for the company by providing all of the skills, technologies and activities needed for recruiting or may provide only select components and processes within the recruiting cycle.

This paper explores the history of RPO, the industry and market trends driving RPO, the challenges and benefits of RPO and guidelines for planning and implementing a successful RPO program.