Getting Retail RPO Right
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Can an RPO talent acquisition strategy improve revenue? The unequivocal answer is YES – the right RPO can. In today’s marketplace, with unemployment at an all-time low and a shallow labor pool for frontline workers, many industries are hyper-competing for the best customer-centric talent. That’s why integrating RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) or RPO hybrid models into an overall talent strategy is essential to improving customer service.

RPO is especially “right” for retail right now for three reasons: first, retail and e-commerce leaders are increasingly looking beyond cost to scale and drive innovation. Providing a differentiated customer service experience — both in-store and online — is critical. In fact, it may be imperative: according to Harvard Business Review, customers who have a “best” past experience spend 140% more compared to those who had a “poor” past experience. Second, RPO solutions can support both corporate and store-level hiring. Lastly, just-in-time recruiting can more effectively manage the labor spend for seasonal employees.

Retailers are increasingly turning to flexible RPO solutions for all these advantages. But some are, unfortunately, finding that not all RPO partnerships are as successful as they can, or should, be. That’s why we’ve recently published a complementary ebook, “Proven Strategies for Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) Implementation and Adoption”.  It’s a common sense guide, peppered with data and case studies drawn from our experiences working with leading brick-and-mortars and e-retailers. The ebook describes the seven best “backbone” practices that significantly impact how much value an RPO can add to the bottom-line. The practices address many critical aspects of RPO partnerships, from guidelines for disciplined project setup and implementation (rule #1), to establishing meaningful metrics (rule #5) to communications and training (rule #7).   

The most successful RPO partnerships, in our view, follow these seven best practices and are built on mutual trust, with the client and vendor teams working toward a common goal so that the RPO team can do its very best work.  When done right, the RPO will help the client:

• Effectively scale retail staffing while making better hires who more closely match the client’s talent strategy, culture, and values—exactly when and where they are needed —so that store managers can focus on their primary roles and provide an excellent customer experience.  
• Add immeasurable value by delivering a distinctive employment message to local pools of talent using a systematic and disciplined approach to attract and screen for “best fit” candidates.
• Provide the hiring accelerant that retailers often need, particularly in time-sensitive volume situations, such as new store openings or seasonal spikes, when many similar roles need to be filled.

To download the free ebook, go here.

About the Author

Jason brings twenty years of leadership, business development, consulting and management experience in Talent Acquisition and Human Capital services.

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