FULFILLING TALENT OBJECTIVES IN
HIGH ORGANIC-GROWTH
MIDDLE MARKET COMPANIES
Mass Recruitment
Speed, Efficiency and Success
May 2015
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INTRODUCTION
Few talent acquisition endeavors are as high stakes as those within a company
in high organic-growth mode.
In such organizations, the task
is to successfully recruit a
substantial number of employees
in a very short timeframe. The
company may be launching a
new product, entering a new
market, building a new facility
or extending its sales and
operations into new geographic
regions. Speed is of the essence
to seize the business opportunity,
yet it must not detract from the
ability to secure top skill sets.
Such hastened talent demands
often are beyond the capacity
of a midmarket company’s HR
and/or talent acquisition teams
to handle effectively. For HR, in
particular, workforce expansion
requires adding high volume
recruiting activity to a burgeoning
workload, much of it focused on
the successful on-boarding of
new talent and the continued
support of incumbent staff. It is
additive work—not shifted work—
because core HR activities
cannot be deferred during the
growth period.
The consequences of these
pressures can be significant.
If scurrying to fill employment
ranks, poor hiring decisions may
be made. By slowing down to
carefully consider job candidates,
the launch deadline may be
missed.
This report underscores the need
for middle market companies
(organizations with between
1,000 and 10,000 employees)
to strongly consider the
consultative and transactional
services value of RPO when in
high organic-growth mode.
According to NelsonHall, a
leading outsourcing analysis
firm, recruitment process
outsourcing will have a
compound annual average
growth rate (CAAGR) of 15.4%
between 2014 to 2019. In the
firm’s Targeting Recruitment
Process Outsourcing 2015
report, NelsonHall states, “RPO
continues to be the fastest
growing HRO service, doubling
by 2019,” and the “U.S. and
U.K. RPO markets will continue
to dominate as talent demand
for skills intensifies with aging
workforces.”
Why is RPO such a thriving
service? The answer is it
can directly contribute to the
achievement of strategic growth
initiatives and other goals by
aligning HR functions in these
efforts, while also improving
efficiencies, such as cost-perhire and time-to-fill.
We hope this report helps you
attain your immediate and longterm growth objectives through
a highly effective workforce
demand planning approach.
RPO continues
to be the fastest
growing HRO service,
doubling by 2019.
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MIDDLE MARKET:
FAST GROWTH NOW
Many middle market companies are experiencing fast growth, both organically
and through acquisitions. Having exercised caution in the first decade of the
21st century, midmarket businesses are expanding services and bridging new
geographic territories.
According to a 2015
survey of 1,000 U.S. midmarket
companies by the National
Center for the Middle Market,
the overall revenue of these
organizations increased 7.2
percent in 2014, compared to
4.9 percent for the S&P 500
over the same period. Buoyed
by rising confidence in both the
global and national economies,
nearly three-quarters of the
survey respondents (68 percent)
plan to invest their capital in
growth opportunities in 2015.
As midmarket companies grow
organically, operational capacity
must increase, requiring more
talent, better talent or both.
Not surprisingly, year-overyear employment growth in
the middle market doubled
from 2013 to 2014. Overall
employment growth among the
survey respondents averaged 5.0
percent in 2014 and is expected
to continue at a 4.0 percent rate
of growth in 2015.
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As the companies in the survey
sought to secure additional
talent to support their growth
initiatives, more than half (51
percent) acknowledged that they
had struggled to fill this skills
gap. Additionally, 77 percent of
respondents ranked the “ability
to attract, train and retain talent”
as one of their top five business
challenges.
In this era of fast-paced business
decisions and rapid change, the
failure to quickly enter a new
geographic territory, for instance,
can result in a competitor getting
their first. In such cases, the
company with the most agile
recruitment capabilities will win.
77% of Middle-Market
respondents ranked
the “ability to
attract, train and
retain talent” as
one of their top five
business challenges.
Typical Talent Challenges For
High Growth, Mid-Market Companies
MACRO ISSUE
RESOLUTION
HR Lacks Defined Strategy
Use Data & Analytics To Position
HR As Revenue-Impact Dept.
Bottom Up HR Strategy
Enlist Senior-Management
For Top-Down Approach
TALENT-SPECIFIC ISSUE
RESOLUTION
Weak Employer Brand and EVP
Create Programs To
Boost Hiring & Retention
HR Expected to Be “Jack Of All Trades”
Find Partner For Advanced Sourcing,
Recruiting Processes & Tools
Seeking Talent That Does Not Exist
Get Access To Current Talent Pools,
Comp Rates & Job Descriptions
Stuck In The “Top Candidate” Trap
Identify True Top Talent
With Compentency Profiles
HIGH VOLUME
PROJECT SPECIFIC ISSUE
RESOLUTION
HR Lack of Time and Resources
Allow HR to Focus On Strategy &
Find Partner For Large Projects
HR Not Always Privy To Large Project Plans
Engage Key Stakeholders
In Workforce Planning
Changing Project Needs and “Surprises”
Access A Nimble Team
That Can Scale & Pivot Quickly
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PLANNING THE
SCOPE OF HIRING
As middle market companies evaluate short- and longer-term organic growth
options, they must consider the talent needed for these plans to succeed.
In today’s talent-based economy,
workforce demand planning is
vital to the success of a
company’s organic growth plans,
but all too often companies don’t
have the discipline, the time or
the internal skill set to conduct
proper workforce planning.
While HR leaders will attest
to the importance of proper
advance workforce planning,
many are not privy to their
companies’ growth plans until
In today’s talent-based
economy, workforce
demand planning is
vital to the success of
a company’s organic
growth plans, but all too
often companies don’t
have the discipline, the
time or the internal skill
set to conduct proper
workforce planning.
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they are in play. Suddenly, they
must recruit and hire a great
number of skill sets in a very
short timeframe. An HR/talent
acquisition staff accustomed
to handling a handful of hires
a year is now faced with hiring
exponentially more people, often
in new and varied positions.
Unable to meet the demand, they
risk workforce gaps impeding
the business intent of the
strategic growth initiative. If they
stumble, the growth initiative
may fail to achieve the strategic
intent.
Meanwhile, the CEO is focused
on expanding the business—not
talent planning. This puts the
onus on HR/talent acquisition
to strategically determine the
different skill sets and overall
employee volume needed to
fulfill the growth objective.
Then, they must handle all
the transactional elements of
recruiting, including interviewing
and onboarding the new
employees.
HR could (and should) outsource
the workforce demand planning
and transactional elements, and
identify key areas where they
can engage with an RPO partner,
but many midsize company HR
leaders, in addition to their
CEOs, have little experience
leveraging this third party model.
They also may consider an outsourced recruitment provider as
a mere implementer of tactical
needs no different than hiring
an employment agency. Many
are unaware of the tremendous
upside potential of an RPO
strategic alliance buoyed by
senior leadership support.
Want To Transform?
Create a Plan &
Work The Plan
“(In) organizations that took
a rigorous, action-oriented
approach and completed their
transformations (all initiatives
had been fully implemented),
executives report a 79 percent
success rate—three times the
average for all transformations…
No single action explains the
difference; in fact, the more
actions an organization takes,
the more likely its transformation
is to succeed.”
McKinsey & Company, “How to Beat
the Transformation Odds,” April 2015
9 Warning Signs
Your Company Is Unprepared
For Large Project Growth
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HR doesn’t have
the bandwidth
to set aside
their current
responsibilities
and focus on
recruitment
Workforce
and demand
planning are not
specific functions
of the firm
Your business line
hiring managers
have never been
trained on proper
interviewing skills
No formal
employer branding
programs or
employee value
propositions are in
place
Your mid-market company is growing fast. HR has
scrambled to put in the proper training and benefits
programs. Now you’re expanding into a new market
or launching that new product. You’ll need 50+ hires
quickly. Is it realistic to assume your HR team can
pivot into a lean-and-mean recruitment machine?
Here are some hints that they may not be prepared:
The attributes of
your company’s
top performers
have never been
documented
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You lack internal
experience
with advanced
sourcing
techniques
and talent
communities
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Other
responsibilities
preclude HR from
keeping current
on recruitment
tools, trends and
salary market
rates
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No formal
process exists
for comparing
competitive data
such as salary,
compensation and
benefits
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You lack a defined
recruiting process
complete with
prescribed
actions,
procedures and
participants
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TALENT MARKET AND
SALARY MISPERCEPTIONS
Coming out of the recession, misperceptions persist about talent availability.
Simply posting a role to
a job board to generate
qualified candidates isn’t as
effective anymore, yet some
hiring managers hold onto
the image of yesterday’s
candidate landscape of eager
job seekers at every turn. They
are bewildered to find skills
shortages and the need for
advanced sourcing strategies and
condensed time-to-offer metrics
to secure desirable candidates.
Just as HR professionals have
access to unprecedented social
data about candidates, the
reverse is also true. Candidates
can obtain company information,
employee reviews and customer
feedback that were inaccessible
not long ago, underpinning the
importance of a strong employer
brand.
Another byproduct of the
recession: long-tenured
employees who juggle multiple
roles. The employee may have
started in one role, but over
time and staff cuts, the role has
expanded to include multiple
functions typically performed by
others. When the need arises
to replace these employees, a
skewed perception on what to
expect may translate into time
wasted searching for candidates
that simply do not exist.
Compensation packages are now
multifaceted and competitive.
This may be a hurdle, as
burdened HR teams do not have
the right data or the capacity to
properly price the required skills
in the relevant labor pools. It is
common for organizations to
ignore the supply and demand
dynamics of the labor market and
underestimate the compensation
requirements of targeted
candidates. Compensation
“equity” is confused with
“equality,” with skills “selling” at
today’s market price, not at the
rate of the existing team hired
five years ago.
An RPO provider flush
with clients is a fountain of
knowledge for current market
compensation rates. Unlike
agencies, RPO fees are rarely if
ever based on starting salaries,
so the market-rate data is
unencumbered by competing
priorities.
Some hiring managers hold onto the image of yesterday’s candidate landscape.
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Everyone wants top
performers and seeks
the stereotypical profile:
a pedigree that includes
the best schools and a
resume peppered with
tenures at top consumer
brands.
HR managers also must
avoid the “top performer” trap.
Everyone wants top performers
and seeks the stereotypical
profile: a pedigree that includes
the best schools and a resume
peppered with tenures at top
consumer brands. This is not
an accurate depiction of what
constitutes a topnotch performer
for every organization, however.
RPO providers can
undertake competency
profiling of existing star
performers, creating recruitment
efficiencies crucial to companies
in high-growth mode. Often,
these profiles lead to the
best hiring outcomes. To do
this internally, HR leaders
must be able to assess if the
organization has clearly defined
career paths, know how to
manage top performers and
develop programs that deliver
on employer brand promises.
If this is not the case, HR risks
trading the challenge of hiring
top performers for one of
retaining top performers.
COMMON TALENT OBSTACLES
“Top Performer Trap” “Role Scope Creep”
“Skills Gap”
“No Employer Brand”
“Solely Relying On Job Boards”
“Compensation Equity vs. Equality”
“Talent Availability”
“Defining Star Performers”
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8 Signs You’re Stuck
in a Talent Time Warp
Just because the economy has rebounded
from the Great Recession doesn’t mean that
your talent mentality has also rebounded.
NO RUSH MAKING
AN OFFER
Some still believe they’ve got all
the time in the world for interviews
and making offers. Not so. If you are
interviewing a candidate, it’s likely
he/she is interviewing with other
companies.
WE DICTATE
COMPENSATION NOT THE
MARKET
The market dictates current
compensation rates, and it’s not
based on what’s “fair” compared to
your other employees. Just because
the last three people hired five years
ago make X doesn’t mean that it
aligns with today’s expectations.
Unrealistic compensation offerings
make recruitment an uphill climb.
WHAT SKILLS SHORTAGE?
When it comes to STEM careers
there simply aren’t enough candidates
to go around. Deliberate employer
branding programs, attractive
employee value propositions and
creative sourcing are what it takes to
snag these candidates before your
competitors.
WHAT EMPLOYER
REPUTATION?
Access to unprecedented amounts of
social data isn’t just a one-way street.
Candidates can view previously
unimaginable levels of company
information, employee reviews and
customer feedback. Recruiting efforts
will lag for those companies that do
not deliberately create an appealing
employer brand.
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TALENT, TALENT
EVERYWHERE
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Everyone needs a job, so hiring
the best should be fast and easy.
Wrong. During the Recession great
candidates may have seemed like
they were growing on trees, but not
anymore. Today professional-level
candidates have more options and
opportunities, and recruiters need
advanced sourcing techniques and
impressive employer brands to find
and attract them to the company.
ONE EMPLOYEE WILL
GLADLY DO THE WORK OF
THREE
The 10-year veteran employee who
accumulated multiple jobs along the
way has left the firm. Just create the
replacement’s job description based
on that person’s final responsibilities.
Nope. Because one employee
weathered job scope creep doesn’t
mean you’ll find a pool of others
with the same abilities. Base job
descriptions on realistic expectations
or you’ll waste valuable time looking
for candidates that do not exist.
TOP PERFORMERS ARE
THE SAME EVERYWHERE
Top schools. Yes. Admired consumer
brands on the resume. Excellent.
That’s what everyone looks for
in a top candidate, but it doesn’t
mean that these candidate types
will perform well in your cultural
environment. Create competency
profiles based on living-and-breathing
top performers in your organization,
and use them when searching for
candidates. It will make recruitment
easier, and you’ll get better results in
the end.
EMPLOYEES WON’T
DARE LEAVE
Employees no longer count their lucky
stars just to be employed. You’ve got
to make it worth their while. What’s
your employee value proposition?
What career paths are offered? How
do your compensation packages
compare with competitors? Ignore
these questions at your own peril.
THE IMPACT OF
CHANGE
Midmarket companies tend to move fast. When an opportunity presents, the
business must be aggressive.
Consequently, the frenetic
demands to screen 500
candidates, pare this group down
to 200 individuals and ultimately
recruit 50 people within six
months create chaos and
confusion. RPO brings process
by mapping out the required
activities of all participants,
including hiring managers.
A thoughtful plan makes an
organization more deliberate.
The competent RPO provider
asks prudent questions such as:
Is it reasonable for managers
to devote 80 hours per week
to interviewing? How will the
company onboard 250 people
at once? Do ample work space
and equipment exist for the new
hires? Astute questions that
business leaders ordinarily do not
consider forces a better plan and
fosters stakeholder commitment
early in the program.
Another daunting challenge
for HR is managing the impact
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of the workforce expansion
on current employees. Legacy
employees must not feel
threatened by the influx of so
many new people. HR also must
ensure that the new hires are
aligned with the existing culture—
the self-sustaining pattern of
behaviors, thoughts, feelings and
a mindset within the organization.
A cohesive culture is arguably the
most important factor to running
a successful enterprise. For it to
truly provide value, companies
need to hinge the RPO effort
to their employment brands.
This is a top-down endeavor,
requiring legitimate executive
sponsorship and support.
A strong employer brand
assists recruitment objectives,
while a negative employer brand is
a serious handicap to successful
hiring. A purposeful employer
brand generates feelings
of meaningful work
and engagement among
employees whose loyalty and word
of mouth guide other talented
individuals to the business. These
varied cultural traits ultimately
combine to differentiate a company
from its competitors, generating
profitable business results.
In many organizations, HR is built
for the business the company
was in, rather than the business
it will be in. In such cases, the
consultative and transactional
benefits of RPO must be carefully
weighed and considered.
In many organizations, HR
is built for the business
the company was in,
rather than the business it
will be in.
To Manage The Impact of Change
Align New Hires With
The Company Culture
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Maintain A Consistent,
Authentic and Appealing
Employer Brand
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Manage The Workforce
Expansion Effects On
Current Employees
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RPO TO THE
RESCUE
If a midmarket company plans rapid expansion, RPO is a “plug and play”
alternative to drive cost and time efficiencies and consistent quality of hire.
The good RPO partner brings
deep expertise to the challenge
and works with HR, talent
acquisition and hiring managers
to realize superior workforce
demand planning, project
management and delivery. The
provider can discern talent types
and volumes, clarifying and
mapping out how many skill sets
are needed to achieve desired
growth outcomes.
RPO also can help an
organization refine and broadcast
a powerful employment
brand by defining an effective
recruitment value proposition
to target candidates outside
of the firm’s core competency
(e.g. why should an accountant
join your whiz-bang technology
company?). This ensures
messaging will be fresh and
attractive to a large number of
the best job candidates in the
shortest period of time.
RPO can further influence
an organization’s cultural
alignment with the prospective
employees needed to transform
the growth initiative into a
successful enterprise. By
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leveraging the provider’s
extensive data sets and
workforce analytic capabilities,
clear and compelling
competency profiles and job
descriptions drive outreach to
the right people with the right
skills. RPO also ensures more
open communications with
existing employees to reduce
the potentially adverse impact
of the workforce expansion on
high performers and even the
rank and file. RPO handles the
compliance laden and complex
transactional elements of
mass workforce recruitment. If
hundreds of new employees are
needed within a few months,
the demand can be fulfilled with
less risk of a poor skills match,
thanks to the use of employment
needs analyses, benchmarking
RPO handles the
compliance laden and
complex transactional
elements of mass
workforce recruitment.
and process standardization.
For companies entering new
markets and geographies, the
provider’s knowledge of local laws
and regulations and its boots on
the ground globally are an added
bonus.
RPO also can support more longterm recruitment and succession
planning needs, providing not
just the “quick wins” necessary to
launch a midmarket company’s
growth initiative. Unlike agencies,
the RPO has access to internal
talent pools making the provider
better placed to support talent
management and succession
initiatives. RPO offers the ability to
identify and judge the performance
of high-potential employees to fill
new positions as they are created
or become available.
Certainly, RPO is the surest way
for a rapid expansion plan to have
the more positive impact on the
business. After all, people are the
nucleus of an organization, the
most important business asset—by
far. Finding topnotch employees
in great numbers in a short period
of time is a task not for the
fainthearted.
10 Qualities to Seek in a Hiring Partner
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Recruitment & Employer Branding Expertise
Experienced providers offer extensive research skills, are familiar with cuttIng edge recruitment
and sourcing strategies, and can furnish tools and techniques for building a desirable employer
brand. They can also build specialty talent pools and communities.
Speed
Skilled RPO providers streamline your recruitment process by creating a simpler, more efficient
solution—all while balancing improvements in time-to-fill and maintaining a high quality of hire.
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Flexibility & Scalability
One of the greatest recruitment challenges is effectively responding to rapid fluctuations in hiring
demand. An RPO provider should offer several solution options for scalability and flexibility to
minimize your cost and risk as your hiring demand levels vary.
Cost Savings
The longer a role is left unfilled, the more it costs a business. Placing the wrong hire in a position
creates unnecessary turnover. An RPO decreases a company’s cost-per-hire and time-to-fill while
enabling HR and hiring managers to focus on high priority responsibilities.
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A skilled RPO provider will assist in selecting the best tools and technologies according to
your business requirement. They can also analyze and interpret industry and market intelligence,
leverage big data for better business decisions and implement automated candidate campaigns.
From an EEOC, OFCCP and process perspective, your RPO provider must build your hiring
system around your goals and objectives. This includes pre-defined Service Level Agreements
(SLAs) complete with a governance model to safeguard expected program results.
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High-Touch, Consultative Approach
A premium RPO partner provides white-glove service to both hiring managers and candidates.
For hiring managers, this means offering strategic planning and ongoing reporting and
measurement. For candidates, it translates into an exceptional hiring process experience.
Customized Solution
Many large recruitment companies operate on a one-size-fits all model. They simply plug your
company into their RPO model. Be sure your RPO provider can customize the solution to the
unique needs of your organization.
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Technology and Data Expertise
Compliance
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Talent Management and Coaching Services
Premium RPO providers offer value-added talent management and coaching services such as
competency profiling and psychometric testing, interview skills training, career and leadership
coaching and services to aid with succession planning.
Ability to Reach Beyond Current Borders
Whether you operate globally today or have future expansion plans seek an RPO provider who
can grow with you globally. Be sure your provider has an on-the-ground, multi-national recruitment
presence with local teams that grasp the values, customs and cultures of a location.
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ABOUT
HUDSON
Hudson is a global talent solutions company with expertise in
recruitment process outsourcing, retained search, technology
recruitment, recruitment consulting and talent management.
We help our clients transform their organizations by leveraging
our expertise, deep industry and market knowledge, and
assessment tools and techniques. Operating in 20 countries
through relationships with millions of specialized professionals,
we bring an unparalleled ability to match talent with
opportunities by assessing, recruiting, developing and engaging
the best and brightest people for our clients. We combine broad
geographic presence, world-class talent solutions and a tailored,
consultative approach to help businesses and professionals
achieve higher performance and outstanding results. More
information is available at http://us.Hudson.com.
Hudson Global Inc.
1325 Avenue of the Americas
12th Floor
New York, NY 10019
t: (212) 351-7400
http://us.hudson.com
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