Singapore businesses remain hesitant to outsource recruitment

Many organisations only outsource for specific projects or urgent hiring.

Lack of education regarding the benefits of recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) has made growing start-ups or traditional local companies reluctant to adopt an RPO model, according to a report by recruitment firm Hays.

Because of this, many organisations in Singapore were found to only use RPO solutions for specific projects or when they needed 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,” the report stated.

The analysis also urged further education about the differences between staff augmentation and RPO. Staff augmentation provides a recruiter on-site, with no commitment on service delivery or headcount, whilst RPO outsources the end-to-end recruitment process either entirely or partly.

“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,” Hays Talent Solutions managing director for APAC, Shane Little, commented.

Singapore is considered to be one of the most-developed landscapes for RPO services in APAC, with its status as one of the biggest decision-making hubs for multinational corporations (MNCs) found to be a focal point of RPO expansion in the region.

In particular, industries like banking & finance, IT, pharmaceuticals and healthcare continued to lead the utilisation of this model in the country.