Traditionally, HR recommended and purchased Recruitment Process Outsourcing while procurement purchased temporary and contingent labor, but this is changing.

Technology, economic forces, changing expectations and globalization have all contributed to shifts in where workers are found, as well as how they want to work. As a result, companies are now looking at the total “talent supply chain” rather than at individual labor silos. They are favoring a blended approach to filling varied positions, which is not facilitated by these HR-procurement silos.

This is one of the key changes that is occurring in the recruitment market, and it has the potential to significantly impact labor sourcing strategies across the world's largest organizations.

Companies are increasingly looking to streamline vendor management to save money and create greater efficiencies. HR is becoming more involved in Managed Service Provider (MSP) programs that started in procurement, leading to the concept of having one sponsor to manage hiring needs of all kinds.

On top of this, companies’ RPO needs have changed and they are now using them not only for hard-to-fill positions, but for semi-skilled and customer service positions as well. What they need is an effective overall process for attracting talent, not just a one-off solution per position.

RPO providers and MSPs recognize this shift, evidenced by the surge in mergers, acquisitions and partnerships in the past year. NelsonHall Senior HR Outsourcing analyst Gary Bragar explains, “As companies remain cautious due to continued low consumer confidence and ongoing market uncertainty, they are hiring more temporary employees and utilizing more contingent workforces than on-boarding new full-time hires.” 1

From the evidence I can see, this trend of mergers and acquisitions within the RPO space is likely to continue as hiring is predicted to remain flat, and fierce competition for talent persists.

This blog post is extracted from the Ebook: 5 Global Trends in Recruitment Outsourcing. You can download your free version here.