The Market

To get some context we asked Harris to share how he sees the current market.

‘The evolution of RPO models continues to evolve at pace and the US, UK and Europe are still the key locations for decision makers. LATAM and APAC are growing but are still more like ‘advanced staffing’ markets, with a couple of exceptions.

Mexico and Brazil are increasingly developing their service centre capability and moving roles out of the US. Europe is still hugely important but can be held back by complex legislation. The UK is in danger of going the same way.

Likewise, HR, TA and procurement are the key corporate decision makers. Decisions are increasingly driven by the flexibility/agility of the RPO provider. There is an increasing willingness to explore advisory services, especially around areas such as tech assessment/deployment and skills. This can lead to ‘fact finding’ RFIs and providers need to maintain good bid discipline.

The market continues to evolve slowly towards more of total talent model, for example, with MSP increasingly evolving to incorporate statement of work (SOW) and services procurement. This evolution has previously been held back by poor tracking and metrics but the number and quality of tools and technology solutions available to define, measure and track SOW and spend has increased in recent years’.

Evolving models

It’s clear from the above that market trends are driving employers to demand a much more ‘unpacked service’ where they can choose from a menu of options – some of which will include traditional sourcing and staffing activities. This is a change from traditional thinking where activities tended to be dropped into silos. This is the demand that PageGroup’s Enterprise Solutions approach is designed to address.

Historically, staffing has fed into the RPO service, or worse, operated unofficially outside it, even within the same organisation. Harris says ‘Enterprise Solutions is a specialised offering that leverages the full power of PageGroup. From traditional staffing to end-to-end outsourced solutions like RPO and MSP, to global and regional contracts, or advisory services, we can partner with our customers to deliver agile talent solutions. This collaborative, borderless approach allows us to create individual, customisable solutions to meet the very specific needs of our large-scale clients’

But as he also recognises, whilst the modern talent outsourcing provider needs to be equipped for clients to access some or all their services, this can be easier said than done. He continues ‘whilst large scale agreements can be covered from a contractual basis with a Master Service Agreement supported by Local Service Agreements to take account of in-country customs and practice.

The real challenge for traditional staffing firms is their own processes and practices when working cross border, as this often results in activity and placements happening in a specific country which is managed from a different location. Questions around ownership, control, headcount, costs allocations all rise to the surface and it requires a very strong company culture to put clients first over and above a local country approach.

“The critical difference with this model is that the RPO and staffing elements of the overall business work side by side in a far more integrated way. This has them sitting side-by-side, in a much more unified way.”

Delivery across multiple markets is another opportunity but it can also be high risk

As Harris points out, PageGroup has a physical presence in 37 markets so ought to be able to blend global scale with local expertise, whether it’s speaking the language, or understanding local laws and cultural nuances. Enterprise Solutions can activate local solutions, with the full weight of PageGroup’s global data and insights and 24/5 delivery capability.

Harris also adds ‘conventional infrastructure and mindset – for example not having the right data and insights or being reluctant to go to market as the client brand rather than the agency brand – can be significant barriers to an enterprise-based approach for the traditional staffing firm’.

Likewise effective internal communications and external marketing have a key role in managing what is a complex change process.

Clearly there are some big organisational challenges for the provider in adopting this type of strategy but, the upside could be enormous.

In summary, Harris offers some key guidelines:

• Make sure the go-to-market strategy is clearly tied to the corporate strategy
• Identify the key criteria for largest existing or new clients (they may not all want to be an enterprise client)
• Be clear about what you want to measure e.g. growth of fees and net fee income vs. ‘share of wallet’, revenue from new regions/countries and service lines
• Pay particular attention to fees generated from delivery centres
• Define your quality metrics from candidates (for example, NPS scores) and clients (share of wallet, growth of fees, SLAs) and tie them to compensation.

The move to a blended ‘enterprise solutions’ model and expert provider can potentially deliver enormous benefits to clients.

However, there will be different perspectives: Pure-play outsourcing providers may contend that such a model dilutes the powerful operational capability they can bring; whilst traditional specialist staffing firms may say it doesn’t have the laser like focus on specific sectors or job roles so dilutes the depth of knowledge and hyper-personalised candidate service they can provide.

Whatever your take, in a market where growth is at a premium and clients are adapting to a world of ‘transformation as usual’, a model that can deliver packaged or unpacked services quickly, and effectively at scale undoubtedly has relevance.

Done well, this could be a much more common way.