Ochre House Media & PR

Winning in the new world

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The rapid pace of change in the business world means that HR departments can no longer realistically predict the nature of the workforce more than 18 months ahead. As a result, hiring needs to shift from it's current focus on skills and abilities to behaviours and attitudes. That's the message from the Ochre House think tank, which includes over 650 major employers such as Aviva, GE Capital, Nokia, O2 and RWE npower.

At it's latest meeting, the think tank concluded that to effectively align people and business strategies organisations will need to attract and retain individuals who have 'future proof' skills and behaviours. Think tank participant, O2, for example has developed a 'People for the Future' program, which asked business heads what their own area and the company as a whole would look like in three years and what capabilities would be key to the new structure. Skills identified included foresight, insight and analysis, innovation and agility and capacity for change, while behaviours included adaptability, enthusiasm and energy, and focus on delivery.

Attracting 'new' types of people to an organisation will need to be based on selling a vision of the future and how they can help to shape it. However, it is essential that the picture of the corporate environment painted in the hiring process is an accurate one or there could be a significant risk of attrition or, as one delegate put it, 'organ rejection'. People must be allowed to be the people they were recruited to be. At the same time the case for recruiting 'new' people must be made at all levels. Failure to do so could lead to resentment on the part of the current workforce.

Sue Brooks, Managing Director, Ochre House

HR departments 'failing on talent management'

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The think tank, which is made up of over 650 employers such as Aviva, Balfour Beatty, EDF Energy and Microsoft, said there is a need for HR departments to use simplified language so that all levels of management are engaged.

Ochre House director and think tank leader Helena Parry said: "There is a general call in the network for the capability of HR to be upskilled so that it can better handle the communication challenge."

She added that it is also important that HR workers understand the commercial and strategic side of the business, arguing that firms no longer have faith in ideas and theories.

Instead, company boards need to show evidence that support functions are useful, Parry argued.

A recent study from Taleo Corporation found that talent management and mobility is a key issue for HR departments in 2011.

The research shows that 71% of 500 HR decision makers in large UK companies believe that talent mobility is becoming a more important part of the HR agenda.

Source: Institute of Leadership & Management

Where next for RPO?

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Like it or loathe it, recruitment process outsourcing is here to stay. Now a billion pound industry and the preferred method of talent acquisition for many companies around the globe, industry experts predict that it will more than double in size over the next three years. But what exactly is RPO, what has caused its phenomenal growth in recent times and what implications does this have for the recruitment sector as a whole? Helena Parry, director of international RPO and talent management specialist, Ochre House, reports.

According to the latest report by industry analysts, NelsonHall, the RPO sector was worth over a billion pounds in 2010 and is expected to account for more than two billion pounds in fees by 2015.

The single largest market is still in North America followed by the UK, but increasing interest in the fast growing economies of BRIC and Goldman Sachs’ ‘Next 11’ could move these countries into the second place slot over the next few years.

So what has caused the rise of this enormously successful industry? The initial motivations for what NelsonHall defines as ‘the transfer of operational responsibility for one or more recruiting functions, including recruitment administration, from the client to a services provider ‘ was largely to automate and streamline processes with the end goal of saving money. But, while cost will always play a part in the decision to outsource, the real reasons for it have now become much more complex and wide-reaching.

The people agenda

Over the past eighteen months Ochre House has conducted interviews with over 100 CEOS and HR directors across Europe about their attitudes to talent acquisition and management. And while the early stages of the project were still influenced by a cautious attitude to the general economic upturn the picture now definitely seems to be one where the people factor is regarded as key to most corporate agendas. What this means is that organisations are increasingly willing to invest in the attracting, developing and retaining of talent, but that they are increasingly keen to do this in a strategic way. And, in many instances, this in turn means partnering with an external specialist that can help make, not just recruitment, but all aspects of talent management more effective.

The basic argument for involving RPO providers in the whole talent management chain, rather than specifically at the point of recruitment, is a logical one. After all, what is the point of creating a world-class talent sourcing function if an inherent mismatch between employer and employee, culture shock or lack of development opportunities means that your recruits leave before you can get the best out of them? However there are also more complex reasons for in-depth partnering with an outsourcer. The acceleration of technology means that markets are changing more rapidly today than perhaps at any other time in history. Business models that made companies successful in the past may consequently need drastic overhaul if their owners are to continue to thrive in the future. Instances of major enterprises undergoing dramatic change to take advantage of the ‘new normal’ are increasingly common.

Take for example Telefónica O2, responding to the crowding of the mobile telecoms space with plans to diversify into areas such as financial services, TNT moving from mail and parcel delivery into logistics and facilities management or GE Healthcare developing process improvement consultancy as an adjunct to the supply of medical machinery. However this degree of change can only be effectively sustained if an organisation’s people strategy is closely aligned to its business counterpart, which may mean the targeting and accessing of talent from well outside established comfort zones. Again partnering with an external expert becomes the logical solution because ad hoc or project based approaches cannot deliver the necessary focus.

A global approach?

As the world shrinks and markets become regional or even global rather than purely domestic, a growing number of multi-nationals are now looking at these talent management partnerships on a similar basis. But is a single global approach to talent management really feasible. What works in France, Germany and Spain in terms of physical and online networking may not work in Russia where candidates respond best to specific, highly personalised approaches. And further afield in a major growth market such as China there are many potential problems in using the web for recruitment because many of the online tools commonly employed Europe and the US wouldn’t make it through the country’s firewalls.

At least for the foreseeable future, therefore, in-depth local knowledge combined with international reach is likely to provide the key advantage in the competition for the best people. The challenge is to turn this regional partner model into a global solution for the client. At Ochre House we structure our partnerships with specialists in the US and on the pacific Rim to combine flexibility in individual geographical markets with a consistent approach to the things that should be regarded as ‘universal’ – criteria that are non-negotiable wherever hiring is undertaken, such as buy-in to the company’s business and social philosophy, its basic standards and its commitment to diversity. In our view this combination of local and international is not a stop-gap or a compromise while we wait for some completely global hiring platform to be devised - the most effective solution has already arrived.

Friend or foe?

So how should the wider recruitment industry be viewing the growth of RPO companies and the wider talent management specialist they are metamorphosing into? For some in recruitment consultancy it can only be bad news, but for the best in the business the development could present, not a threat, but a whole raft of new opportunities.

Yes, RPO companies do often push aside some traditional recruitment providers as they develop their clients’ capabilities, but, at least in my view, only those who are not delivering real value. For consultancies that provide real return on investment, we can be allies rather than enemies, helping to create greater clarity around roles and more realism about what is and isn’t possible within employment markets.

For individuals we also provide new and exciting career paths in roles with very strong consultancy elements and true involvement in a client’s business – our own CEO cut his teeth in the agency environment, for example. RPO is most definitely not going away any time soon. Best therefore to embrace it as quickly and as closely as possible.

Source: Recruitment International

Is multi-local the new global in the 21st century?

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

It has been fascinating to work in the rapidly growing resourcing outsourcing industry over the last few years. Along with many other BPO and professional services organisations supporting large global corporations we have been closely following the trend for such businesses to move from local and multi-national to globally integrated enterprises (you can’t help but love IBM).

From a resourcing perspective I agree on the movement to this integrated enterprise. After all there’s no denying that a global perspective on resourcing helps organisations create efficiencies and added value such as:

Common values and hiring philosophy
Best practice being shared across countries and regions
Consistent platform and tools
Compliance, control and management information
Maximising access to global talent pools.

However, what I don’t agree with is that some organisations seem to be trying to create resourcing models and partner with RPO firms in the same way as they look at IT and ITO. That is, on a global level with a one-size-fits-all approach, and where it is all about scale, cost and efficiencies supported by an operating model with large nearshore or offshore recruitment centres. In my view this simply won’t work in resourcing the products we are talking about are knowledge workers and they certainly don’t behave in the same, consistent way across the world.

You will be kidding yourself if you think you can have the same approach to talent attraction or engagement in the US as in, for example, Germany or Japan, because of the impact of local cultural influences. Also, there are many complexities around local legislation and regulations such as workers' councils and data protection laws and I would consequently wish any company the very best of luck from a compliance perspective should they attempt to adopt a “one-size-fits-all” global resourcing approach.

I have met with a number of leading organisations over the last few months and whereas 18-24 months ago the talk was all about providers having a global footprint, the more enlightened are beginning to realise that deep local knowledge and expertise are essential to any resourcing model you build. However, too many think they will have to sacrifice the global approach and its benefits, as there is no one global RPO provider that can offer that. But, our experience is that you can get the best of both worlds with local expertise combined with global governance. Ochre House can point to several global customer success stories working with Pinstripe, our local strategic partner in the US, and other local partners in APAC but at the same time providing global consistency.

The key is to combine adaptation to individual geographical markets with a common, consistent approach to those things that should be regarded as ‘universal’ – the criteria that are non-negotiable wherever hiring is undertaken. Into this category will fall such things as buy-in to the company’s business and social philosophy, its basic standards and its commitment to diversity and work/life balance. And we tend to believe this combination of local and international is not a stop-gap or a compromise while we wait for some completely global hiring platform to be devised. Perhaps the most effective solution to the international talent sourcing model is not in the pipeline - it may have already arrived. What do you think?

Source: Outsource Magazine

Outsourcing and the 'Hotel California' Approach to Talent Management

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The first generation of recruitment outsourcing concentrated on doing exactly what it says on the tin – taking over the responsibility of sourcing new staff from the external market. And in most instances the best players in the sector achieved the targets set for them by their clients and everyone patted themselves for coming up with such a clever idea and for a job well done.
But the world moves on.

What seemed like a near perfect model in the 1980s and 1990s now looks as dated as a Spandau Ballet LP or a Madchester t-shirt. Today the focus is no longer just on making recruitment processes cheaper or more efficient, but on the whole spectrum of talent management. And that means, not just sourcing the very best new talent for organisations, but also developing and sustaining productive relationships with individuals, who have already worked for them, but have moved on to pastures new.

Research across the Ochre House Network, an extended think tank, which is made up of over 650 major employers including GE, Kimberley-Clark, Lilly, Microsoft and United Biscuits found as many as four out of every five leavers would consider working for their employers again. But very few businesses have established effective systems for tracking and bringing back the best people.

At its latest meeting the think tank concluded that an employee’s resignation and departure should be regarded as a natural and possibly temporary process rather than as a cut-off point. Organisations should be thinking in what were described as ‘Hotel California’ terms – “you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.” Delegates cited Johnson & Johnson’s ‘boomerang’ scheme and Astra Zeneca’s open door policy as prime examples of this thinking put into practice.

It seems that too many employers seem to see resignation as the end rather than the beginning. Yet it’s much more realistic and productive to accept that it’s natural for the best people to explore new career opportunities, but can often be enticed back through ‘keep in touch’ programmes, perhaps even more skilled and able than when they left. The key to success seems to lie in a clear allocation of responsibility for such programmes and a commitment to regular, relevant, but nor intrusive contact. But so far, few companies have succeeded in building this elastic talent pipeline. And, in my view, it’s down to outsourcing partners to ensure that such pipelines stop being an aspiration and turn into a concrete reality.

Helena Parry is a director at recruitment outsourcing and talent management specialist, Ochre House.

Source: Sourcing Focus

Most important factors in measuring quality of hire revealed

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

An HR think tank has arrived at what it considers to be the most important factors when assessing quality of hire.

The Ochre House Network think tank, made up of more than 650 major employers including GE, Kimberley-Clark, Lilly, Microsoft and United Biscuits, reveals possible measures of quality of hire as:

1) Ratio of candidates selected for interview by line management to the number submitted by the sourcing team
2) percentage of annual exits on a year-by-year basis
3) Allocation of bonuses at the end of a recruit’s first year
4) Comparison of capabilities at interview, on hiring, after three months and after a year
5) Asking line managers whether they would re-hire a recruit after three months and after a year
6) Sustained high performance over a three year period – it’s unrealistic to expect high performance within the first six to nine months
7) Monitor whether a recruit is tagged ‘high potential’ within an agreed time period

Ochre House director and think tank leader Helena Parry says: “Measuring quality of hire is obviously essential to make sure that organisations are building the right talent resources and getting best return on investment.

“However it’s important that the recruitment process doesn’t get bogged down in too much administration. And it’s also vital that organisations don’t become obsessed with making the ‘perfect’ hire. What counts is that they get the best possible person available at the right time and in the right place.”

Source: Recruiter

How to Motivate Your Staff?

Wed, 25 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

1. Build a solid foundation

According to Paul Daley of talent management specialist, Ochre House, it is essential to get things right from the very beginning, at the point where an employee is first recruited. “People tend to be motivated when they are working in the right environment, where their abilities and aspirations match, not just the specific job they’re doing but the overall corporate culture,” he says. “It’s consequently vital that you sell an accurate picture of the organisation during the recruitment process, rather than tell people what you think they might want to hear. Failing to align expectations with reality is a very fast and effective way to undermine morale and demotivate a workforce.

2. Let people make mistakes

Nobody is perfect, says Koen Dewettinck of Vlerick Leuven Gent Business School, so it is important to create a supportive and positive working environment where they can, at least within reason, be free to make and learn from mistakes. “If you empower team members in this way they will experiment, innovate and create much more effectively.”

3. Sweat the small stuff

Do not underestimate the small gesture says Dave Leyshon of recruitment specialist, CBSbutler. “Something as simple as saying thank you or taking the time to write a letter of appreciation for a job well done can do wonders for morale.

4. Do not micro-manage

Employees should not just be free to fail, they should also be free to operate in the way they believe makes them most effective, says Vlerick’s Dewettinck. “Give your people some degree of autonomy about the way they organise their jobs, albeit with clear boundaries which match the maturity of the employee and the exact nature of the role.”

5. Be seen to be fair

According to Isabel Metz of Melbourne Business School businesses are often harmed by perceptions of inequality amongst the workforce. “People need to believe that the organisation is rewarding everyone in the same way. If they think that others are getting preferential treatment they can rapidly become disengaged.”

6. Walk the talk

Offer a good and replicable role model to your people, says Laura Guillen of ESMT Business School. “A manager needs to be seen as both successful and worthy of respect.”

7. Tailor your approach

Understand that not everyone has the same motivations says Gill Bell of recruitment specialist, Handle. “Gen Y in particular are often motivated by completely different factors to their predecessors. Simply throwing money or titles at them is unlikely to be effective; you need to be much more imaginative in your approach.”

8. Surprise people

According to Vlerick’s Dewettinck, while it is important to get the formal aspects of a reward system, do not underestimate the power of the informal reward. “Don’t just stick to the rules. If someone has gone the extra mile for the organisation then go the extra mile for them with an ad hoc bonus, time off, a celebration or whatever is appropriate for the individual and the business.”

9. See the person, not the job

According to another ESMT professor, Konstantin Korotov, it’s important to allow people to be human beings at work. “Without belong intrusive, show an interest in them, their families and their life outside the workplace. Remember birthdays and anniversaries.”

10. Share good news

“There are few things better for creating a positive atmosphere,” says Graeme Read of professional and managerial recruiter, Antal International, “particularly when the media are full of doom and gloom. And individuals love having their achievements publicised to their colleagues, even if they usually protest that they don’t!”

Source: Business Review Europe

After the horse has bolted... how to get your leavers back

Thu, 19 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

According to research by a leading HR think tank, as many as four out of every five leavers would consider working for their employers again. But few organisations have established effective systems for tracking and bringing back the best people. That’s the message from the Ochre House Network think tank, which is made up of over 650 major employers including GE, Kimberley-Clark, Lilly, Microsoft and United Biscuits.

“Too many employers seem to see resignation as the end rather than the beginning,” says Ochre House director and think tank leader, Helena Parry. “However it’s much more realistic and productive to accept that it’s natural for the best people to explore new career opportunities, but can often be enticed back through ‘keep in touch’ programmes, perhaps even more skilled and able than when they left. The key to success seems to lie in a clear allocation of responsibility for such programmes and a commitment to regular, relevant, but nor intrusive contact. But so far, few companies have succeeded in building this elastic talent pipeline.”

A new talent pool

Parry went on to explain to The People Bulletin that one or two decades ago, you had jobs for life, if people left it was a big shock and you wouldn’t let them back in the door after an act of such disloyalty. This is still the case in some German companies, but the rest of Europe is waking up to the reality that the average Generation Y employee will hold a job for an average of two to three years.

“When I look at all the different recruitment channels – I see anyone working for competitors as an enormous talent pool for employers and something you cannot disregard. If you do, you are missing out”, says Parry. Her view is that the more open you are about keeping the door open, the richer a company you will be in the long term as these people come back with new ideas.

Erika Berger and Millennium

She observes there is a difference between Scandinavia and the UK on this one (Parry is from Sweden but has lived and worked in the UK for some years). “When I left Sweden, it was more about jobs for life, but now people are changing jobs more and employers have become more talent-centric.” She thought the story in Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest where Erika Berger leaves Millennium to be editor-in-chief at Sweden's largest daily paper, the fictional Svenska Morgon-Posten and eventually returns a good example of all these trends being played out in a highly networked society.

How it works

Some companies are looking at their talent strategy in a different way and although not all are like Johnson & Johnson who actively encourage individuals to leave, get some new experiences and return, they are setting up alumni programmes to keep in touch with ex employees and organising secondments and job-swapping schemes. Parry noted that a number of high profile organisations had made undergone widespread redundancy programmes in the recession, only to hire the same employees back six months later once the economy had picked up (she wasn’t telling us which ones).

Source: The People Bulletin

Can Recruitment Outsourcing Deliver Quality of Hire?

Tue, 03 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The outsourcing of the recruitment process to an external partner gives organisations immediate access to best practice in the market and the skills and experience of dedicated professionals. Which, of course, should mean that the quality of hires made through such an arrangement should be better than those made in any other way. But how do you actually know if the right recruitment decisions are being made? And given the wide range of factors that can affect the performance of an employee once they enter a business, from corporate culture to line manager ability, is it really possible to assess measure quality of hire in any meaningful way?

At the last meeting of the Ochre House Network, an extended think tank made up of over 650 major employers such as GE, Lilly and Microsoft, delegates came to the conclusion that, while measurement can be a daunting challenge it’s by no means and impossible. And these were the concrete suggestions that they came up with:

1) The ratio of candidates selected for interview by line management to the number submitted by the sourcing team
2) The number or percentage of exits per annum on a year by year basis
3) The allocation of bonuses at the end of a recruit’s first year
4) Comparison of capabilities at interview, on hiring, after three months and after one year
5) Asking line managers whether they would re-hire a recruit after three months and after a year
6) Sustained high performance over a three year period – it’s unrealistic to expect high performance within the first six to nine months
7) Monitor whether a recruit is tagged ‘high potential’ within an agreed time period

However, let me voice a few words of caution. Measuring quality of hire is obviously essential to make sure that organisations are building the right talent resources and getting best return on investment. However it’s important that the recruitment process doesn’t get bogged down in too much administration, stopping those at the coal face of talent acquisition doing their jobs properly. And it’s also vital that organisations don’t become obsessed with making the ‘perfect’ hire. What counts is that they get the best possible person available at the right time and in the right place. Aiming for the best is obviously always a good thing, but tempering expectations with realism is what gets the job done at the end of the day.

Source: Sourcing Focus

No Place for Napoleon at Apple Inc.

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT

OK, in outward appearance they’re nothing like each other. One’s tall and lanky, the other was short and stocky. One has that trademark Californian drawl, the other was always trying to cover up his native Corsican accent. But despite all this and the two centuries that separate them, there’s still a lot of Napoleon Bonaparte in Apple CEO, Steve Jobs.

That’s not a criticism of course. Before Napoleon made a major miscalculation about the Russian weather he’d built an empire that spanned most of Europe and much of this was down to his own personal leadership on the battlefield and at the conference table. But his fall from grace and incarceration on an obscure mid-Atlantic island shows just how badly things can go wrong if the one at the top takes on too much responsibility.

Back in the 21st century, shareholders in Apple are eyeing the lessons of history with a degree of nervousness. Despite continuing reports of Steve Jobs’ ill health the board of the tech giant is continually reluctant to publish any form of concrete succession plan that might put fears about the future to rest. But do they perhaps have some ‘master plan’ behind what increasingly looks like dithering, confusion or the straightforward refusal by Jobs to let go the reins of power?

So what’s the view of the academics that teach and review effective leadership for a living at the world’s top business schools? “The company almost certainly has a replacement in mind,” says Professor Marc Buelens, who specialises in leadership at the Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, “but it’s possible that they don’t want to dilute the Steve Jobs ‘aura’ that serves them so well. Jobs has a huge influence on Apple, but I think it’s mainly external. He’s the showman, but there’s obviously already a highly talented team operating behind him.”

According to Buelens what Apple should be doing is issuing some sort of statement that, while Jobs can never really be replaced, the culture he has instilled in the company will live on under any circumstances. This would, in effect be a ‘don’t worry’ signal to the market. “Ikea is a good example of a company that will stay the same even after the founder has gone,” he says. “The corporate structure and ethos is so strong that it will endure no matter what. It’s not about who the leader is.”

However for this to be truly effective, Jobs would have to deliver the message himself. And whether that’s going to happen any time soon is certainly open to debate.

The real solution to the challenge of replacing Jobs may lie in a change of thinking: in coming to see the Jobs-shaped hole as something to be filled, not by one individual, but by a team. “In order for Apple to make up for losing Steve, they may have to stop thinking about how one individual can replace him and start thinking about hiring multiple people to fill the gap,” says Buelens.” Steve’s forte is marketing – so they may have to think about strengthening their whole marketing team if he goes. One person may not be enough.”

Although the spotlight might be falling on Apple at the moment, it seems that their problem is an all too common one, even among some of the world’s most successful companies. “There’s a general acceptance in HR circles that what businesses now need is a combination of both internal and external market mapping and talent pipelining to create ‘total workforce planning’,” says Paul Daley, a director at talent management specialists, Ochre House. “But few, if any businesses, have as yet managed to turn this ideal into a reality. In too many instances the people-planning exercise is still not taken as seriously as it should be.”

As Apple may find to its cost if it doesn’t take the right action soon.

Source: Forbes

A new approach to European HR - dream or reality?

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT

A shifting scenario

Over the past eighteen months ago Ochre House has interviewed over 100 CEOs and HR directors across Europe to establish their attitudes towards, and plans for, HR in the short to medium term. Perhaps not surprisingly given the economic uncertainty of the time, the early part of the project unveiled a fragmented and somewhat confused picture, with many business leaders adopting a ‘wait and see’ policy or focusing heavily on immediate cost savings at the potential expense of long term strategy. However by late 2010 and early 2011 we found that things had changed dramatically. The general revival in economic confidence has made HR, and in particular, the attraction, development and management of talent, a key priority for corporate boards. At the same businesses appear to be accepting that markets are shifting more rapidly than perhaps at any time in history, which in turn calls for as much agility and flexibility as possible to deal with the challenges and opportunities presented. And in many cases this means that organisations will need to adopt new HR models well outside their traditional ‘comfort zones’.

Against this backdrop there appears to be a growing interest in adopting, if not yet global, then certainly regional HR delivery models to create a workforce that is genuinely international, both in outlook and potential. But how can this be achieved in practice within such a complex region as Europe?

Indications of progress

Since the beginning of the year we’ve been exploring this question through the resources of Ochre House’s Network, an extended think tank of over 650 leaders in HR, procurement and general management from such major companies as Aviva, GE, Lilly, Microsoft, Motorola, Telefónica O2 and Tesco.

In the Network’s most recent workshops we established that approaches to HR across Europe now appeared to be in one of three phases or ‘generations’. Generation 1 involves a transformation of HR capability within individual countries with at least some move towards a classic Ulrich model, the introduction of better management information systems and an exploration of outsourcing. Generation 2, while still focused on individual countries, brings a more service or customer-driven ethos, a standardisation of some activities and the emergence of genuine HR business partners operating on a strategic basis. Generation 3 marks the move to a true regional model with cross border services, greater use of outsourcing and a tie-in to regional or global service provision in other key areas such as finance, IT and procurement. Despite an obvious appetite for a pan-European approach it seems that movement towards it, while definite, is still relatively slow. Most participants in the workshops felt their organisations were somewhere between Generations 1 and 2 and only a very small number believed that their company had made significant progress towards Generation 3.

The ‘holy grail’ and how to find it

So what do organisations in the Ochre House Network believe is the optimum model of HR management in Europe?
First and foremost it needs to be flexible enough that it can constantly align with rapidly developing business drivers and goals. Secondly it needs to be scalable so that it can fit with organic growth and likely future M&A activity. Thirdly it must focus clearly on the customer experience to encourage higher levels of engagement and, consequently, greater business value. The effective use of technology also plays a significant role in enabling the model and it’s consequently important to seek out the ‘best in class’ while retaining a willingness to work with existing systems rather than insist on unnecessary revolution. Network members further believe that no model can be successful if it ignores cultural, legal and regulatory diversity. But accepting arguments that any particular country or area represents a special case can quickly undermine the aim for consistency and simplicity wherever possible. And finally the model should recognise an organisation’s current leadership system and work with it wherever appropriate.

What is clear is that there is no one solution to the challenge of pan-European HR management because each organisation is a unique case with its own special set of circumstances, market conditions and commercial goals. The most effective regional model may therefore be one of compromise – a hybrid using a mix of shared services, centres of expertise and local operational teams. The key will be to define the boundaries between and the working relationship of all three to avoid duplication and unnecessary complexity.

Source: Executive Grapvine

RPO Providers Forming Strategic Partnerships to Give Buyers Global Services with Local Expertise

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The universal complaint about human resources outsourcing in general and RPO (recruitment process outsourcing) in particular has been that few if any service providers have both a local and global reach.

It has been difficult to provide best-of-breed services in every location on the globe an outsourcing buyer may need. “RPO buyers have searched for the mythical one-stop global solution for years,” says Elliot Clark, CEO of Shared Xpertise.

Now that is changing on the RPO front. Many of the service providers are forming strategic alliances with RPO service providers on other continents. The goal: to provide buyers with better candidates faster because of their deep contacts in and vast knowledge of specific local markets.

“For years outsourcing buyers wanted a global solution, but it was only a catch phrase for RPO service providers,” says Randy Gulian, CEO of allegistalent². “Today buyers can actually get a global solution.”

Sue Marks, CEO of Pinstripe, says successful recruiting is by definition local. Local may mean city to suburban, state to state, country to country or region to region. Partnerships such as her firm has with OchreHouse “give buyers the benefit of an integrated process, cultural fit, technology, and metrics coupled with local expertise and talent channels. Today there is a competitive race for top talent. Companies can’t hire the best talent if their service provider has a generic solution with no local ties and doesn’t know the local customs.”

“Global outsourcing buyers want a consistent candidate experience and uniform reporting from one global brand,” adds Bruce Morton, Executive Director of allegistalent². He says these buyers want consistency, “which is hard to get from a multiple of partners.”

U.S. RPO service providers that are leading this trend include allegistalent², Pinstripe and OchreHouse, and SourceRight Solutions and Hays plc, among others. Here is the story of how these alliances developed and what they can do for outsourcing buyers.

“Two years ago you could cobble together a solution with different providers in different regions,” says Gulian. “Buyers won’t accept that today. They want one provider, one message, and a standardized candidate experience.”

allegistalent²

Talent² started in 2004 in Asia as a search firm and eventually it extended its services to RPO, becoming the first RPO in Asia Pac, according to Morton. “We noticed we were missing out on some local deals because the decision makers were elsewhere,” says Morton. He estimates 70 percent were in either the United States or the UK. “That got us thinking. We wanted to both protect our business and grow our market in Asia. We had to either grow our own or find a partner,” he recalls. “Allegis Group Services was the natural choice.” Allegis Group Services is the RPO and MSP division of the Allegis Group, one of the largest privately held recruitment firms in the world.

Allegis Group Services and Talent² had some global clients in common. And because Allegis Group Services had already built a relationship with Andrew Grant, the Managing Director on the Talent² side, they formed a partnership in 2010 to cover the globe.

In their first outing together, they bid for and won together possibly the largest multi-continent RPO deal bid out last year. It was an all- encompassing engagement for one of the largest financial services companies in the world. They formed the global implementation team with members from both Allegis Group Services and Talent² and deployed over 150 recruiters across the globe to manage the engagement.

“Our RPO business was pretty global already,” recalls Gulian, “but the obvious hole for us was APAC, so deciding to work with Talent² was easy. They are the 800-pound gorilla there. And we both wanted to further expand into Europe” he says.

Morton says allegistalent²’s “U.S. learnings” from their original deal helped the firm develop more global offerings. allegistalent² now has a central global project management office. Once it gets an assignment, it adds the requisite local nuances.

Pinstripe and Ochre House

Marks says Pinstripe’s exclusive strategic partnership with Ochre House allows them to “meet the global needs of companies that have varying numbers of openings in many different countries.” A typical engagement, she says, would be for a U.S midmarket company that has a large number of U.S. jobs to fill and then lower volumes in 15 different countries.

The executives of Pinstripe, which is based in Wisconsin, and OchreHouse, which is based in London, met at the HRO conference in New York in 2009. Marks says there was a cultural match; even better, their operating model was the same. The two decided to go to market together to meet buyers’ global needs. “We won our first deal shortly after we formalized the partnership. We continue to add clients who need a global recruiting footprint,” she says.

Pinstripe and Ochre House have just added a third member to their partnership: Career International to cover China.

“Our clients (and we have several now) get the depth and breadth of our global and local knowledge,” says Marks. “We know the Americas, they know Europe, and our APAC partners know their regions. We know the talent challenges and, most importantly, where the talent pools are.”

She says mature outsourcing buyers already have centralized HR processes and technology. “They’ve already done the work on the core and know what’s important.” Now they want “worldwide reach with in-country expertise.”

SourceRight Solutions and Hays

Florida-based SourceRight Solutions formed its partnership with UK-based Hays plc last March. “It is increasingly important for companies to more narrowly define who they are trying to attract,” says Rebecca Callahan, SourceRight President. Alistair Cox, CEO of Hays, adds, “As markets around the world recover, multinational companies are increasingly looking for recruiting experts to help them find the quality people they need to build their business in every country in which they operate. Our decision to partner with SourceRight Solutions allows us to meet those needs.”

How the partnerships work

Gulian says the key to success in these strategic alliances is to be sure they don’t become “a marriage of convenience.” allegistalent² found embedding executives in each other’s companies helped both standardize processes and encourage business development. Morton, for example, has moved from Sydney, Australia, to Stamford, Connecticut, to work in the former Allegis Group Services office.

In addition, the RPO holds various client and functional group meeting every other week in a different part of the globe. Executives from both organizations attend.

Gulian says it also helps to know your partner well. “Andrew Grant and I tend to be aligned in our thinking and approach. Both of us were willing to mute our egos in talking about what was the better approach or outcome for the client. There have been no disagreements on our goals, and we have both learned from each other’s approaches to a particular issue. With us, a disagreement on approach lasts for five minutes. It’s resolved and the resulting solution is better than either of us could have fashioned by ourselves.”

Source: Outsourcing Center

RPO outfit is Best Companies 'one to watch'

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Ochre House has been named as one of the Times Best Companies Accreditation 'Ones to Watch' 2011.

The RPO and talent management specialist was evaluated through the Times Best Companies’ unique employee assessment methodology, which identifies workplace performance and best practice according to eight key factors relating to employee satisfaction.

Jennie Emerson, a director at Ochre House, says: “It’s fantastic to be recognised for something as important as employee satisfaction, particularly as this is such a prestigious accreditation. We are a high growth business, constantly evolving our services and theatre of operations, and keeping our people engaged and informed is a vital component of our success. We pride ourselves on creating a great working environment and are delighted that our employees are as happy to be working with us as we are with them.”

She adds: “Given that we specialise in talent management, it’s great to have such a strong validation that we practice what we preach.”

Jonathan Austin, CEO and founder, Best Companies comments: “Organisations that have achieved accreditation have continued to focus on their employees and have been rewarded with engaged workforces who tell us that these are great places to work.”

He continues: “We know that the main challenge for many organisations this year will be talent attraction and retention. For accredited organisations that have demonstrated their ability to create an engaged workforce and recognise the importance of caring about their employees, they are in a good position to retain and attract the talent they need.”

Source: Recruitment International

Ochre House stands out among all providers globally for end-to-end RPO

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 00:00:00 GMT

A new report by top outsourcing analysts, NelsonHall, has named the UK’s Ochre House as one of the world’s leading providers of full end-to-end recruitment process outsourcing (RPO). The report also identified Ochre House as one of the top RPO firms for the improvement of candidate experience.

“What’s making Ochre House stand out is that it’s not just concentrating on recruitment, but on all the key related aspects of talent management, including the engagement, development and retention of employees,” says NelsonHall HR Outsourcing Research Director, Gary Bragar. “They’re providing what I like to call the richer service of value-added RPO.”

“We may not yet be the biggest provider in the talent management arena with the report naming us the fourth largest in the UK and the sixth in continental Europe,” says Helena Parry, director at Ochre House, “but it’s gratifying to get recognition of the quality of service we provide from such experienced analysts. The general revival in economic confidence has made the attraction, retention and development of staff key issues for corporate boards and we’re seeing an increasing willingness to make the investment necessary to get the most effective support possible.”

The recently published 81-page report,’ Targeting Recruitment Process Outsourcing’ also features an analysis of the global market for RPO and its constituent services, insight into the changing shape of RPO services, and the market size and growth for RPO. To purchase a copy from NelsonHall or to inquire about other research services, visit http://www.nelson-hall.com

About Ochre House:

Drawing on more than fifteen years' experience, Ochre House is a major international player in recruitment outsourcing and the wider talent management field. Named by top outsourcing analysts, NelsonHall, as one of the world’s leading providers of full end-to-end recruitment process outsourcing, Ochre House focuses on all key aspects of the talent pipeline – engagement, development and retention to deliver Total Workforce Management. More information on Ochre House is available at www.ochrehouse.com

Source: Recruitment International

Can a global approach to RPO really work?

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 00:00:00 GMT

We’re all aware that the revolution in communications over the past decade has meant that businesses of all sizes now operate, not just in domestic and regional markets, but in a truly global one. Given this, it’s not surprising that many organisations now look for global service models from their suppliers. But how realistic is it to demand a worldwide approach to the outsourcing of recruitment, let alone the wider aspects of talent management?

Although a genuinely international model might at first seem attractive, the devil is of course, in the detail – detail which suggests that a single, templated approach to talent acquisition is unlikely to work effectively. We hear a lot of talk about a global recruitment arena and the movement of talent across borders, but it would simply be wrong to believe this has eroded the key differences between key regional and even local markets. Take, for example the use of networking tools, both physical and online.

While these may be highly effective in Western European countries such as France and Germany, they are much less so in Russia and the other countries of the former Soviet Union where candidates respond better to targeted, individual approaches. Online sourcing is also fraught with difficulties in one of the world’s fastest growing economies, China, because its rigorous firewalls render many of the tools commonly used in the US and UK, such as LinkedIn and Facebook, virtually useless.

This seems to means that, at least for the foreseeable future, in-depth local knowledge combined with international reach will provide the best competitor advantage in the battle for talent. The challenge is to turn a regional partner model into an effective global solution for the client. At Ochre House we’re attempting to achieve this with our partnerships in the USA and on the Pacific Rim by combining adaptation to individual geographical markets with a common, consistent approach to those things that should be regarded as ‘universal’ – the criteria that are non-negotiable wherever hiring is undertaken.

Into this category will fall such things as buy-in to the company’s business and social philosophy, its basic standards and its commitment to diversity and work/life balance. And we tend to believe this combination of local and international is not a stop-gap or a compromise while we wait for some completely global hiring platform to be devised. Perhaps the most effective solution to international talent sourcing model is not in the pipeline - it may have already arrived.

Source: Sourcing Focus

Social media and HR

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMT

No HR professional can afford to ignore the importance of social media, either in terms of their use of it in their working life and in furthering their career, or in terms of how employees within their organisation are using it.

"HR professionals must become increasingly social-media-savvy in order to navigate a progressively more noisy digital environment," says Sarah Wynn, associate director at recruitment consultancy Badenoch & Clark.

Social media is now widely used by HR professionals to share and disseminate information with their industry peers and as a networking tool. People are using a whole array of platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, webinars.

Recruitment, outsourcing and talent management company Ochre House runs an HR network of more than 600 senior HR specialists that regularly meets and communicates through LinkedIn and webinars, sharing news, opinions and best practice. "The growth of online forums has made this sharing possible not just domestically, but also on a regional and even global basis," says Chris Hornsby, business solutions manager at Ochre House. "This collaborative approach allows practitioners to save time on basic research and keeps them from constantly reinventing the wheel."

These platforms are also a good way for HR professionals to increase their visibility in the industry and connect with peers.

Social media has had a major impact on how and where candidates are now recruited. Recruiters routinely go online to search for new talent on sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Hornsby says that it has radically altered senior level recruitment: "At more senior levels where search is the most common way of recruiting people, the proliferation of LinkedIn has meant that anyone with a profile has become a potential candidate."

Legal implications

Recruiters are also using digital technology to check candidates' details and find out more about them. But, as HR recruiter and blogger Mervyn Dinnen says, employers need to "check with caution". What are the legal implications if a candidate is refused employment as a result of something that is found online, particularly if that online information is found to be wanting?

"There are discussions all the time about 'how legal is this? how moral is this?'" says Dinnen. "Nobody knows."

Dinnen advises HR professionals to keep context in mind when viewing details and comments of candidates online. Otherwise, it is very easy to make judgements based on incomplete or misleading information.

As with all areas of recruitment, HR professionals must ensure that they make and retain good records of the selection process. This means recording how and where you found the candidates that you decided to interview. But also, if you find information online that leads you to discount a candidate from the recruitment process, record where the information was found and why it was deemed relevant. Selecting and de-selecting candidates online is still new territory and it is vital employers protect themselves from potential legal action - particularly if a candidate feels that they have been discriminated against - by having clear, transparent records that adhere to best practice.

It is not just the reputation of potential employees that is at stake on the web - organisations have just as much to fear about unsuitable information being found about them online. With employees, ex-employees and even the general public posting comments about organisations online, particularly through sites such as Facebook and Twitter, employers cannot control how they are portrayed. "A medium like Facebook can give any disgruntled employee or candidate not just a voice, but a megaphone," says Hornsby. "For that reason we use tools such as Radian 6 (a social media monitoring and engagement tool) to monitor the macro- and micro-environment and are able to react to comments about Ochre House."

However, if people are making negative comments about your organisation online, it is important not to disregard what they are saying. The first questions an HR professional should perhaps ask themselves at this point is "why are people talking about us, and are these comments true?" Protecting your employer brand online is more about using the digital platforms to listen to what is being said about your organisation - and where and why it is being said - and then engaging with the audience in the most appropriate way to address any issues.

Source: Personnel Today

Dinnen says that social media gives employers a window on what is being said about them. "If employees go on Facebook and say you are a rubbish place to work, the problem isn't Facebook. They are probably saying this at the coffee machine, in the pub, in the supermarket - at least now you can hear the conversation."

And if you can hear the conversation, you can do something about it to protect and improve your brand, continues Dinnen: "This is why social media is an opportunity, not a threat."

Hire for the future and recruit through social media, experts say

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMT

People using HR software for recruitment purposes have been told to find future-proof candidates by one think tank, while another expert has encouraged firms to take full advantage of social networking sites.

The Ochre House Network has recommended companies hire personnel according to their attitude to the future, rather than their current ability.

Foresight and the capacity to change were within the attributes the think tank's latest meeting decided were important.

These conclusions were made on the basis that the quick pace of transformation within businesses means recruitment staff cannot easily predict what their workforce will look like 18 months down the line.

Ochre House Network includes more than 650 major employers, including 02, which established the People for the Future programme. This initiative saw business leaders questioned on how they thought their area of work and their company would change in the next three years.

Some of the qualities the exercise found to be important in candidates included the ability to adapt, insight, analysis skills and plenty of enthusiasm.

However, managing director of Ochre House Sue Brooks said: "It is essential that the picture of the corporate environment painted in the hiring process is an accurate one or there could be a significant risk of attrition."

"Attracting new types of people to an organisation will need to be based on selling a vision of the future and how they can help to shape it," she added.

The expert also said recruitment of personnel should be made "at all levels" in order to prevent current employees from becoming resentful of the process.

Some of the other companies involved with the Ochre House Network include Aviva, RWE npower, Nokia and GE Capital.

Elsewhere, firms have been advised to forge ongoing relationships with potential new personnel over online networking sites in order to gauge their suitability for roles.

Matt Alder, digital recruitment specialist, recently spoke at HR Magazine's Social Media Week, saying companies were aware of the power of the internet platforms but were not yet using them to their full advantage.

The benefits recruitment professionals can receive from using professional social networks (PSNs) as a hiring tool are the building of a good reputation and strong connections between potential future staff, suppliers and other businesses, Wayne Gibbons, partnerships director at PSN Viadeo wrote in an article for HR Magazine.

By creating links with industry professionals, firms will be more easily able to identify those who would fit in well with the company, lowering the risk of hiring personnel only for them to be unsuitable for the role, seeing the position lie vacant again within the near future.

"If you are looking to employ a manager to start working at your company in four weeks' time, you're starting a year too late," chief sales officer at Viadeo Pete Crosby said.

Mr Gibbons reported that many experts attending its Social Media Week were in agreement with Mr Crosby, noting that networking platforms attract a large amount of people, particularly young individuals.

"If the experts are to be believed, it is the future of recruitment, a future that could also see the death of the traditional CV and, it is to be hoped, a happier, more enthused workforce working for companies they want to work for," he concluded.

Source: Sage

Hiring should shift from skills and abilities to behaviours and attitudes

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Firms needs to shift from recruiting skills and abilities to behaviours and attitudes, according to the Ochre House Network.

The think tank, which comprises Ochre House and 650 employers, including Aviva, GE Capital, Nokia, O2 and RWE npower, concluded that, to effectively align people and business strategies, organisations will need to attract and retain individuals who have ‘future proof’ skills and behaviours.

The think tank says skills in demand include foresight, insight and analysis, innovation and agility and capacity for change. Desired behaviours are adaptability, enthusiasm and energy, and focus on delivery.

Ochre House managing director Sue Brooks says: “Attracting ‘new’ types of people to an organisation will need to be based on selling a vision of the future and how they can help to shape it.

However, it is essential that the picture of the corporate environment painted in the hiring process is an accurate one or there could be a significant risk of attrition. Or as one delegate put it, ‘organ rejection’. People must be allowed to be the people they were recruited to be. At the same time, the case for recruiting ‘new’ people must be made at all levels. Failure to do so could lead to resentment on the part of the current workforce.”

Source: The Recruiter Magazine

IT head-hunters reject 'open' recruitment report

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The suggestion from an influential think-tank urging firms to take a more strategic approach to recruitment probably would not work for many technology-focused vacancies, say IT recruitment specialists.

The recently published report from the Ochre House Network think-tank, which includes members from more than 650 major employers including Nokia, O2, Aviva and GE Capital, recommends that HR departments shift their hiring methods from a current focus on skills and abilities to more general behaviours and attitudes. It painted in the hiring process is an accurate one or there could be a significant risk of attrition. Or as one delegate put it, ‘organ rejection’. People must be allowed to be the people they were recruited to be. At the same time, the case for recruiting ‘new’ people must be made at all levels. Failure to do so could lead to resentment on the part of the current workforce.”

The report is seen as a criticism of the ‘cardboard cut-out' approach to recruitment which precisely matches the requirements of a vacancy with the qualifications and experience of candidates.

Often this results in firms limiting recruitment to candidates who have done exactly the same job at a competitor, ruling out any opportunity for change or development.

But the rapid pace of change in the business world means that HR departments can no longer realistically predict the nature of the workforce more than 18 months ahead. So they should "attract and retain individuals who have ‘future-proof' skills and behaviours", the report advises.

However, that approach would not work in the IT sector, say technology recruitment specialists.

"IT is different from other business support functions in that candidates need experience of the systems you have or they cannot add value," Oliver Gibbons, director of recruitment firm Twenty Technology, told Computing.

"For example, if you recruited a C++ developer to a Java environment, it would be difficult to see how they could be functional," he added. But where candidates are recruited to more strategic positions, a broader approach to recruitment can pay off, said Gibbons. "In organisations undergoing change, you need a mix of core technical skills to support strategic and analytical people," he said.

Truly global RPO: fantasy or fantastic?

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Globalisation is making the world a smaller place for recruiters and clients alike. But does this mean that the days of the single global is any nearer?

Despite becoming commonplace across much of the globe, we are still waiting for the first truly recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) deal that covers North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America, according to Rajesh Ranjan, research director at the Everest Group, a consultancy that studies the RPO market.

Ranjan says that of 117 major RPO deals signed in 2010, 10% were global (covering several continents), while 16% were regional and 74% local.

Such ’global deals’, were actually down by around 5% compared to the previous year, he explains, as multinationals were put off by the prospect of having to wait until the second year after implementation to realise the expected cost savings. However, Ranjan believes this decline will be short lived: “I expect to see that number grow to 20-25% over the next three to five years.” Yet he says he is not expecting to see “an explosion” in the number of global RPO deals, but “a gradual increase”.

He says the main driver for outsourcing recruitment on a global scale is to standardise processes and technology across different countries. Not only does this deliver economies of scale, it also offers international companies an effective way of consolidating high level information on how the recruitment function is performing, he explains. This is useful for global heads of recruitment and can help them to drive improvements.

“Technology has removed the barriers to communication. It just takes a telephone call and you are placing talent,” says Amit Somaiya, global chief executive of IMS, an Empresaria Group operating company that provides back office recruitment services for staffing companies in the UK, US and Australia.

And with the cost of using an RPO firm based in India anything between 40% and 60% lower than using a UK-based RPO, it is no surprise that IMS has been growing at 30% year-on-year.

In a world of global communication and mobility of talent, the prospect of combining the advantages of an RPO with international coverage has become increasingly attractive to large corporates, says Helena Parry, market development director at Ochre House. “Probably a year ago, we started to see the trend for companies to look for global RPO solutions,” says Parry. That said, she estimates that no more than 10% of ’benchmark’ international companies are considering a single global RPO provider.

Zachary Misko, global director at KellyOGC, cites his own company’s RPO cross continent deal with GE, as one that “touches on all three regions [the Americas, Asia Pac and Europe]”. According to Misko, the deal covers the US, Canada, Latin America and China, as well as a less formal arrangement to supply 100-200 managers a year in Europe.

Accenture’s seven-year BPO deal with Unilever, including the provision of recruitment services and covering 23 countries, among them China, is another notable example.

Matthew Rodger, client services director, contingent workforce solutions at Alexander Mann Solutions (AMS), adds that using the same technology (applicant tracking system [ATS] or similar) allows recruiters in different territories to collaborate and work together in a much easier way. “We are seeing a lot of large corporate enterprises thinking about how they engage with prospective candidates on a global scale,” says Rodger - internal as well as external.

For Rodger, the mainattraction of a global solution for clients is wider reach across a global candidate marketplace and a recruitment function that is scaleable - ie that can flex according to recruitment volume.
However, this does not necessarily mean that a global solution is best for all clients. “It very much depends on the end user,” says Rodger. Some prefer to organise their recruitment regionally, say in Asia Pac. “There is no generic answer; some will and some won’t.”

Alain Proietti, talent acquisition director Europe at global pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb, warns that clients must overcome challenges if global deals are to be successful. “The change management agenda is huge,” he says. It can take time to build trust between the hiring manger and the RPO based perhaps in a contact centre in another part of the world, particularly when RPO staff are not familiar with the core values and behaviours of the client company, he says.

Hiring mangers, used to working alongside an HR generalist, may also need to adjust to having to work more independently. “The challenge is to make the recruitment process more agile,” says Proietti.

Paul Maxin, Unilever’s global resourcing director, says the challenge for any recruitment function is to enhance the experience of the candidate, and the capability to deliver the employer brand proposition. The client also needs a supplier that helps it meet it strategic objectives. In the case of Unilever, he says this is rapid expansion of the business. “I think there is the potential for more global deals provided there is sufficient innovation, flexibility, process improvement, greater cost effectiveness and a candidate-centric approach to deliver great talent to an organisation,” says Maxin.

It’s a tall order for any RPO to provide a global solution, says Tom Mason, managing director EMEA Allegistalent2, an alliance between business processing outsourcing firms Allegis Group, and Talent2, designed to provide international clients with a global RPO solution. Among the challenges, Mason points to cultural and language differences between countries and regions, as well as different employment laws. These exist even within single regions, such as Europe, never mind between different regions.

It is also vital that people in the local country concerned are consulted rather than having an RPO model imposed on them simply because it works in another part of the globe. However, despite these obstacles, Mason argues that the RPO model is evolving and that more global deals are the way forward.

Even behaviour of candidates in different countries can be a challenge, adds Ochre House’s Parry. “For example,” she says, “in Germany people don’t change their jobs regularly and they are very values driven.”

In contrast, in the Czech Republic, she says candidates send in their CVs indiscriminately for jobs even when they are not interested in them, forcing recruiters to spend time trying to gauge their genuine interest. “One size won’t fit all in Europe,” says Parry.

“It’s the old adage: think globally act locally,” says Jacques Bossonney, Kenexa’s vice president RPO sales EMEA. “Recruiting in France is not the same as in India.”

And China can be particularly problematical, he adds. While the sheer size of the workforce makes China a good prospect for RPO, a provider that simply focuses on quantity, which might work in another part of the world, could ignore important cultural issues. “Sometimes, working as part of a team doesn’t come naturally in China,” he says.

Adapting to the differences in recruitment volume is another barrier to a ’one global RPO supplier’ approach. While recruitment volumes are massive in India and in South Asia, in Estonia, for example, numbers may be as few as 20, he says. “The service needs to be customised and flexible,” says Bossonney.

Misko argues that it is “unrealistic” to have one process that works globally. Instead, he describes a model in which the ATS “works right across the globe, with global RPO metrics and a common sourcing tool tailored to the specific region, position and industry”.

However, while he points to Kelly’s deal with GE, as an example of a single provider meeting the needs of a single client across several continents, many other RPOs have responded differently.

Instead of trying to provide a global solution on their own, many have reacted to the need to deliver locally, while offering international coverage, by partnering with RPOs in other regions. In many cases, this is where they themselves lack presence or are relatively weak. A case in point is Ochre House’s partnership with Pinstripe in the US and Career International in China.

Others RPO providers, such as SourceRight solutions with Hays, and IBM with Manpower, and AMS with The RightThing have adopted a similar strategy. Some, however, have chosen to integrate their local and regional RPO services, while others again have taken the acquisition route.

While partnerships are unlikely to provide a multinational with the same consistency of approach and service as a single RPO, there are “certain things you can do”, says Parry. In Ochre House’s case, this includes global governance boards, made up of staff from each of the RPOs, as well as from the client concerned.

The aim of these boards is to ensure that Ochre House and its partners in other regions adopt a similar methodology, technology and performance measures, and a common way to look at the client’s employer brand and employee brand proposition, says Parry.

There is some evidence of growing demand from large international companies for a single-vendor multi-region provider to meet their RPO requirements. However, as long as partnerships between RPOs provide the required consistency of service and the promised efficiency savings, it must be considered rather a moot point whether a global RPO service is provided by single company, through acquisitions or by RPOs working together.

Or as Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Proietti puts it rather succinctly: “You can have a global RPO but not necessarily by using just one RPO.”

Why global RPOs fail

’One-size fits all’ approach
Lack of buy-in from the top
Rigid business model fails to take account of differences in culture, candidate behaviour, attraction methods etc
Absence of client global talent strategy
Lack of local expertise across all geographies
Failure to involve local people

Different strategies to achieve global RPO coverage

In 2008 AMS signed a partnership deal with US RPO provider The RightThing to provide RPO services to MedImmune, the global biologics unit of AstraZeneca. Under the agreement, The RightThing services MedImmune’s hiring needs from sourcing through verbal acceptance across the globe.

Some RPO firms, such as Futurestep (part of Korn/Ferry), are integrating their local/regional offerings into one global solution.

Other RPO providers have chosen acquisition. For example, Kenexa’s purchase of Quorum International to strengthen its reach in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia (EMEA).

Also AMS’s acquisition of Capital Consulting to enhance its ability to serve the European and Asian markets, and Adecco’s purchase of TalentTrack to buoy its position in North America.

Source: Recruiter