SLAs for RPOs (Recruitment Process Outsourcers) are important for both the RPO and the client. For potential clients, SLAs (Service Level Agreements) help them become more comfortable with the idea of turning over something as important as their ability to hire the best talent to a third party.
For RPOs, SLAs set proper expectations with clients about what level of service they can expect. From the scope of services provided, to the hours of operation, to uptime for any managed systems to service and escalation procedures and beyond, the entire engagement is managed by the SLA.
With the importance of candidate experience in the hiring process, candidate satisfaction scores belong front and center in SLAs for RPOs. This is certainly a trend we see with clients and partners we work with at Survale.
Candidate Experience SLAs for RPO Clients
When an RPO takes over all or a portion of a company’s recruiting function, organizations are turning over their employer brand and their hard won goodwill with candidates. This is not a risk free endeavor. Each candidate interaction has the ability to prove employer brand or harm it. As an employer, it’s not good practice to simply hope that candidate experience standards are being met by third party recruiters.
By the time poor candidate experiences show up in your operational metrics, like time to hire, offer acceptance and the like, a fair amount of damage can be done to employer brand and, therefore, cost per hire. Remember, employer brand affinity can increase the salary required to hire and retain by as much as 10%.
Bottom line, having clear and specific candidate satisfaction targets with any RPO you engage with is a must, whether you measure it as a client or you require your RPO to measure and report on it. A number of Survale clients insist on it with their RPO service providers.
Candidate Experience SLAs for RPOs
For RPOs, providing candidate satisfaction SLAs can aid in gaining and retaining clients in a number of different ways.
Right off the bat, guaranteeing clients and prospective clients a high level of candidate satisfaction that is proven by metrics eliminates a core concern. One Survale RPO partner differentiates itself in the marketplace by the high level of care they provide to candidates. And the ability to provide data to prove it makes their offering that much stronger.
As an RPO, you invest time and money in providing clients with top quality candidates and hires. In the same way candidate goodwill can be undermined by a careless RPO, poorly trained managers, for example, can suppress hiring results. The ability to gather candidate feedback and use that data to understand and react to client strengths and weaknesses as a hiring partner can make engagements more efficient and more effective.
Using candidate feedback data provides both the RPO and the client with a shared view of the joint hiring and onboarding experience and allows each to optimize and align around better performance. Neither party has to guess what is working well and what isn’t.
Having clear candidate experience SLAs for RPOs provides a proverbial “win-win” situation. And technologies like Survale enable tracking satisfaction and optimizing experiences in ways that were previously very difficult and time consuming.
