The core value of the talent acquisition services Hays offers is ultimately very simple, Mannall comments. “I see customers working with Hays because we are able to help them meet their objectives: the right calibre of talent at the right price, in the right place, at the right time. That may sound oversimplified, but fundamentally that’s what it comes down to.”
To support these objectives, Hays invests a lot in technological development. The area Mannall sees the most advancement happening now is in data analytics. Hays has made heavy investments that are positively impacting the delivery of their services across the region. “Regardless of whether the service we deliver is an RPO or MSP, we’ve been able to integrate various data flows throughout the processes we operate for our customers and create real-time analytics dashboards that our account teams use to proactively manage our service levels.”
“I think the more technology you try to integrate, the more you can lose sight of the fact that recruitment is about an organisation engaging with people on behalf of other people.”
“The goal of having technology that makes this possible, is to optimise the customer experience, he stresses. “I think the more technology you try to integrate, the more you can lose sight of the fact that recruitment is about an organisation engaging with people on behalf of other people. So, I think it needs to be human centric in the way it’s designed and deployed.”
Talent advisory services that assure hiring success
On top of their strengths in optimising the delivery of recruitment, Hays adds real value for its clients by being an advisor that provides insights around the strategic choices they face about how to get work done, and the location of work. “Delivering on the requirements of a set of open requisitions in a particular location is a given, a basic expectation of any good service provider, and this is an area where our teams excel. You should expect to work with a partner that can hire the staff that you want to hire.
Where Hays adds real value is when we validate the overall strategy for any given project, and work with our stakeholders to identify the right location for the skills they need to hire, to refine their branding, compensation structures and employee value proposition, so that they position themselves in the market in the right way to attract and retain the talent needed to successfully deliver their business objectives”, says Mannall. An example of this is the latest Tech Talent Insights reports from Hays that deliver real insights and data on the tech talent market across Europe, he adds.
Traditional metrics often overlook its strategic value
Is it possible to quantify added value? It’s a tough one if you only look at transactional metrics, he responds. “It’s very easy to look at a set of metrics and highlight when something’s gone right or wrong, but the true value of an RPO to the organisation is often linked to the quality of the business outcome not to a transactional metric.”
“Does what we recommend drive an improvement to the customer experience or the candidate experience? If we recommended changes to the tech stack does it become an easier process, a more engaging process?”
An alternative way of looking at value is by determining whether the advice Hays gives is delivering a positive impact. Mannall: “Does what we recommend drive an improvement to the customer experience or the candidate experience? If we recommended changes to the tech stack does it become an easier process, a more engaging process? Did the changes we propose to the cash or non-cash compensation impact the success of building out capabilities in a new location? Improving these outcomes delivers real strategic impact to the client, which is over and above whether the time to hire or the cost per hire was met or not.”
RPO has a place as a partnership with TA
In the future Mannall thinks Hays and other RPO players will be delivering this value in a partnership model with TA, rather than solely via a full outsourcing model. He thinks the industry is moving away from the question of either RPO or in-house. “Whilst full outsourcing is the path chosen by some organisations, the trend is definitely seeing a blended strategy to the way organisations deliver their permanent talent acquisition needs.”
“I honestly don’t see RPO becoming the dominant delivery model.”
“I honestly don’t see RPO becoming the dominant delivery model”, Mannall continues. “I still see customers wanting to retain a level of strategic control over their brand and over their value proposition in the market. RPO partners whose deep knowledge of TA is used as the catalyst to improve the way that organisations approach talent acquisition will prosper in this environment. I believe RPO has now proven the strategic value it adds and so we will see it form part of many more TA strategies across the region in the years ahead.”
Bio: Jon Mannall – EMEA Managing Director & Global Head of Sales at Hays
Jon Mannall is MD EMEA at Hays. This division offers both RPO and MSP services and has a workforce of about three hundred people. It serves twelve different countries, covering Southern Europe, the Benelux and CEE regions in Europe and the Middle East, as well as parts of Africa.
Hays Talent Solutions is the workforce management division of Hays PLC, providing Managed Service Programmes (MSP), Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), Services Procurement and Direct Sourcing solutions to deliver better, faster and more cost-effective access to talent. With a network of over 250 offices around the globe, Hays Talent Solutions advises on, creates, and delivers Total Talent Management solutions to progressive organisations seeking to optimise how they access skills.
Want to learn more about the RPO market?
This interview is part of a series of interviews our reporter Djaja Ottenhof has recently conducted about the value of the RPO market in Europe in 2021. Sign up for the ToTalent Newsletter to receive the full white paper The Value of RPO in Europe 2021: How RPO expands in an emerging market upon release.
