SINGAPORE REMAINS FORERUNNER IN ASIA’S CLIMB TO RPO MATURITY
While other Asian countries are quickly catching up, Singapore leads the brigade as one of the most-developed landscapes for Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) services in the region. Having gained much of its elevation in this sphere through its time as a regional hub for MNC’s, the island nation still faces educational challenges but may be best placed to foster true understanding of RPO and its benefits in the region.
A promising but slow climb upwards
These are some of the findings from The Inside Story of Singapore, a monthly regional recruitment analysis undertaken by global recruitment expert Hays. Focusing on ‘Recruitment Process Outsourcing’, the analysis found that Singapore’s status as one of the biggest decision-making hubs for global MNCs has been a focal point of RPO expansion in the APAC region. But while industries like banking & finance, IT, pharmaceuticals and healthcare continue to lead the utilisation of this service in the country, expanding start-ups or traditionally local companies (like locally headquartered banks) are still exhibiting reluctance in adopting the RPO model. The reason for this can pinned down to a prevailing lack of education on the benefits of a full-fledged enterprise RPO solution.
‘Quick-fix’ approach to RPO could hold organisations back
This lack of education has resulted in many organisations in Singapore seeking RPO solutions only for specific projects or when they need help filling vacancies in a short period of time. This ‘quick-fix’ approach could hold organisations back from exploring or understanding RPO in terms of improving processes and the tangible value add of outsourcing and evolving with their RPO provider. More education is also needed around the subject of staff augmentation vs RPO, where RPO refers to outsourcing the end-to-end recruitment process of an entire talent acquisition function (or a defined part of it), as compared to staff augmentation which is the provision of a recruiter on-site, with no commitment on service delivery or headcount.
Understanding the true value of RPO
Organisations are guided to look out for the true value of an RPO provider, which lies in its ability to strategically advise a business. The right RPO partner must thus have substantial knowledge and presence in a number of markets, along with ensuring that all of its knowledge and data of the market is real-time and accurate. To make this possible, the provider would need to have the right technology and experts on board, where it becomes possible to influence trends rather than reactively advise a client on responding to them.
Speaking on these findings, Shane Little, Managing Director for Hays Talent Solutions APAC, commented, “The true value of RPO lies in its end-to-end solutions. Despite the market leaning in the direction of staff augmentation, it is imperative that RPO providers stay true to the expertise and value they can bring to the market. However, people are increasingly understanding that the real players are investing and are ready to grow in this market. The current RPO market in Singapore is better than ever before and its future growth remains extremely positive.”
To read the full Inside Story of Recruitment Process Outsourcing in Singapore, please click here
About Hays
Hays plc (the "Group") is a leading global professional recruiting group. The Group is the expert at recruiting qualified, professional and skilled people worldwide, being the market leader in the UK and Asia Pacific and one of the market leaders in Continental Europe and Latin America. The Group operates across the private and public sectors, dealing in permanent positions, contract roles and temporary assignments. As at 30 June 2019 the Group employed 11,500 staff operating from 265 offices in 33 markets across 20 specialisms. For the year ended 30 June 2019:
– the Group reported net fees of £1,129.7 billion and operating profit (pre-exceptional items) of £248.8 million;
– the Group placed around 81,000 candidates into permanent jobs and around 254,000 people into temporary assignments;
– 18% of Group net fees were generated in Australia & New Zealand, 27% in Germany, 23% in United Kingdom & Ireland and 32% in Rest of World (RoW);
– the temporary placement business represented 57% of net fees and the permanent placement business represented 43% of net fees;
– Hays operates in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, the UK and the USA