Resource Process Outsourcing (RPO) in banks

Recruitment in the banking and financial services industry is particularly competitive, as are the markets in which banks operate. To provide a distinct point of differentiation for consumer and corporate brands, there needs to be a key focus on staff.

Naturally, recruiting the right people is critical to the ongoing success of a bank’s customer-centric business.

Recruitment is most commonly done in-house but increasingly, to enhance recruitment processes and talent management practices, banks appoint strategic resource process outsourcing (RPO) partners to centralise their various recruitment and resourcing processes, provide valid and measurable HR metrics, leverage their strong employer brand and drive efficiencies across the entire recruitment portfolio in their respective regions.
 

The primary scope of services that such RPO partners provide includes permanent recruitment – from entry-level roles to specialist financial services hiring and senior management-level staff.

Partners provide recruitment and resourcing support in the following areas:

• Temporary/contractor recruitment (including payroll services);
• Executive search support;

• Redeployment services and career transition support programs;

• Training support to rollout ‘Hiring Essentials’ training program;

• Providing support to conduct exit surveys, delivering continuous improvement projects, technology optimisation and psychometric testing, as needed.

To accommodate peaks and troughs in hiring demand, the partner’s recruitment team size has to be increased and decreased as needed. This scalable solution ensures cost efficiencies remain consistent despite fluctuating business demands. Candidates are sourced through direct channels and that reduces cost and saves time spent on sourcing individually.

Additionally, aggregate time-to-hire and cost of hire can be reduced; translating into significant cost savings over the lifetime of the solution compared with third party recruitment agency fees.

One of solutions to boosting recruitment is to deploy the partners’ staff to the various business locations either globally or regionally to support recruitment requirements at those locations.

This support work done on the ground is extremely beneficial to the smooth running and sustainability of operations in the respective locations. It gives partners a clearer outlook on the ground to better allocate the necessary resources and ensure the swift rectification of roadblocks if any, along the way.

Another tried and tested solution would be to implement a career flexibility program which allows part-time workers to job-share. Partners will support the execution of the program and provide ongoing support for resourcing initiatives, upgrades and re-engineering of processes.

As part of a bank’s Corporate Responsibility program, they can make arrangements for staff with disabilities to work for them.

The recipe for success is to have a strong strategic alignment between the corporate cultures of the RPO partner and the bank.

The partners’ recruitment teams at the banks need to integrate seamlessly into the bank’s internal teams. Consistent feedback is recommended among the respective teams to allow room for further improvements.

If the feedback is acknowledged and attended to, it is likely that the satisfaction rating of hiring managers will increase gradually as the right talents are picked for interviews. This is very beneficial for staff morale as it shows that the company is progressing and moving in the right direction for continuous growth.

Finally, the transition and hand-back phase is very important to maintain the processes in place.

This can be done by transitioning the resourcing team in-house and to build an in-house global recruitment function. It is imperative for the partner to possess the expertise in managing large-scale change projects, implementations and transitions to ensure a complex service transition proceeds smoothly.