FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

What is RPO and how could it work for me?

Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) is a form of business process outsourcing where an employer outsources or transfers all or part of its recruitment activities to an external service provider. The overall strategic direction of recruitment policy will generally remain in-house, but the responsibility for successfully implementing that policy will shift to the recruitment process provider.

RPO is Ochre House’s core service. Our solutions are bespoke and in line with each individual client’s business drivers and people agenda. We work in partnership with organisations to design, build, implement and manage strategic hiring models using innovative solutions across all stages of the recruitment process, which demonstrably improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the recruitment function.

The key stages of the recruitment process that we manage are:

  • Workforce planning
  • Candidate attraction
  • Response management
  • Pre-screening
  • Selection & assessment
  • Offer management
  • Contract generation
  • Referencing
  • On-boarding

Our aim is to deliver to clients a sustainable capability that will deliver increasing value whilst reducing costs.

What are the benefits of RPO and how could it save us money?

Large organisations are increasingly choosing to work in partnership with RPO providers because they bring specific expertise and insight that can help to transform resourcing functions. Benefits can be both quantitative and qualitative and can include:

  • Increased efficiency & economies of scale
  • Strategic alignment of people strategy to business strategy
  • Improved business performance through better quality of hire
  • Reduced labour costs: attrition
  • Optimisation of value of employer brand
  • Increased visibility & control
  • Cost savings by driving more direct channels
  • Flexible and scalable resourcing capability
  • Compliance

What is 2nd generation RPO?

The first generation of RPO tended to be driven by organisations seeking to take control of the hiring process and was largely driven by the need for:

  • Increased visibility & control
  • Cost savings largely direct by reducing reliance on agencies
  • Compliance
  • Increased efficiency & economies of scale

Providers were largely judged on quantitative measures such as cost of hire, time to hire, reduced management time and the level of customer satisfaction.

In the second generation of RPO, where Ochre House specialises, organisations are looking for the provider to work in partnership towards common strategic goals to achieve transformational change. Drivers may include the following:

  • Strategic alignment of people strategy to business strategy
  • Improved business performance
  • Reduced labour costs: attrition
  • Optimisation of value of employer brand

In this model a provider such as Ochre House must constantly add value to the business through continual improvement. Measures of success for this type of partnership are typically both qualitative and quantitative and constantly reviewed to ensure the people agenda is in line with business drivers and goals:

  • Reduced costs (direct and indirect)
  • Improved quality of hire as measured by productivity / performance
  • Reduced attrition
  • Milestones demonstrating continuous improvement

What is talent management?

The logical result of 2nd generation RPO, talent management is the complete process by which the best people are sourced, attracted, acquired, developed and retained by an organisation to give it a measurable competitive advantage over other businesses operating in its marketplace. A specialist talent management consultancy like Ochre House provides analysis, advice and practical solutions at all stages of the employee lifecycle.

What would be the impact on our recruitment brand and candidate experience of outsourcing?

Ochre House completely understands the importance of maintaining a positive image of a client’s brand at all candidate touch points and at the forefront of all employment activity. We have extensive experience of optimising and developing an organisation’s brand and brand promise to ensure that the candidate experience across the recruitment process is positive and fully aligned to the values of our customers.

“Technology company (Steria), which uses the private and public sector RO supplier Ochre House, recruited Amanda Jackson as a marketing manager just four weeks after she applied online. Jackson says it was the speed of the hiring process and regular communication with (Steria) that persuaded her to join the firm despite other job offers. “How the selection is handled gives you a taste of what a company is really like,” she says.
Quote from Sunday Times article on Candidate Experience and the Job Seeker’s angle January 14, 2007

Do I need to fully outsource or can I outsource selected elements of the recruitment function?

For some organisations full or long-term outsourcing of the talent management process may not be either appropriate or desirable. Ochre House’s strategic resourcing capacity allows us to provide individual elements of our service offering to meet a particular need or to provide a project-based outsourcing capacity based around a specific recruitment need.

For example we have worked with clients across the EMEA region in such areas as talent attraction, candidate assessment and employer branding. We have also built highly successful ‘single event’ campaigns to attract professionals and managers for specified locations or skill-set areas.

What makes your service different?

  • The best people - We have unrivalled levels of experience in recruitment process outsourcing, in implementing on-site recruitment solutions and in the wider field of complete talent management.
  • Transferability - Our commitment is to transfer our knowledge and expertise to you by building a sustainable capability that will deliver increasing value to your organisation whilst measurably reducing costs.
  • Tailored solutions - We have no standard approach or ‘one size fits all’ packages. All our solutions are bespoke to the individual client, totally embedded and geared to your specific strategic goals
  • The personal touch - We are not a large faceless organisation. As an independent private company, our priority is customer value not shareholder value. We build genuine partnerships with our clients based on people and trust.

What geographical regions do you cover?

We work with organisations across the UK, continental Europe and the Middle East.

Who do you work for?

Our clients are demanding and ambitious organisations which operate in a wide range of industries and markets and include:

  • BUPA
  • McAfee
  • Somerfield
  • Thomson Local Directories
  • Steria
  • Siemens
  • Paramount Restaurants
  • Williams Lea