HOWZAT

“Choosing the most suitable supplier or group of suppliers and getting the contract right is as important as taking the decision to outsource in the first place,” says Ann Bevitt, a partner and head of the employment group at law firm Morrison & Foerster. “The client must, for instance, retain the power to move people off its RO account if it feels things are not working as well as they should.”

Providers of recruitment outsourcing services claim their clients can save about 10% by reducing supplier margins such as agency fees. Cost savings of up to 35% are possible by contracting out other tasks, such as the assessment of CVs and interviewing. Industry sources estimate that more than half of the FTSE 250 companies outsource some of their recruitment.

RO can help firms manage peaks and troughs in their recruitment requirements and provide insight into a client’s business practices where there is a mix of temporary, contract and permanent staff.

“What outsourcing doesn’t do is replace the in-house recruitment function where HR professionals still have the final say on which applicants fill which positions,” says Yvonne Emmerson-Pierce, representative for individual professional training at the National Outsourcing Association, a trade body that represents outsourcing end users and vendors.

Box: On Message

SPINVOX outsourced its recruitment because it was struggling to attract high-level staff. The Marlow-based company helps businesses to turn voice messages into texts or e-mails and staff numbers have risen from 54 to 336 in 12 months. It has signed deals this year worth £150m, up 500% in a year.

The recruitment for roles in its operations, IT development, finance, marketing, HR and quality control departments is now managed by Guildford-based Project IT. SpinVox’s global director of human resources, Jeff Wellstead, says the arrangement has brought cost savings of about 20%.

“Cost is a driver but this is about finding the right people to match our speed of growth,” says Wellstead (pictured centred with Anne-Marie Leggatt and Geoff Myatt from Project IT)

“It is a one-year rolling contract and we measure whether it is taking less time to hire people and recruitment costs per head. I don’t think it is right to judge Project IT on how the people it recruits are performing after 90 days. That is our managers’ job.”

SpinVox is also using recruitment as a marketing tool to raise awareness of its brand so it is perceived as a more attractive employer.

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