Tech Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) – The Best Way to Recruit Software Engineers. Or Is It?

The changing business landscape calls for a new way of acquiring talent. Companies have to navigate a tight labor market, manage and nurture job candidates, and gain proficiency in relevant technologies. Many are turning to staffing firms to meet their needs. But is it the best solution?

What works best for you depends on where you’re at as a company. Are you a startup working with limited resources, or are you an established enterprise that puts a lot of weight on business continuity and competitive advantage? Would you rather define your own hiring requirements or have an external firm set the parameters for you? 

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Whatever your needs or requirements may be, you can find an outsourcing solution that works best for you. Here, we’ll explore how an RPO partner and outstaffing firm can help you recruit IT specialists the cost-efficient way.

With eight years of experience in the field, Relevant has become a trusted partner firm for startups and established tech companies looking to cut their recruitment costs and scale their software teams fast. We can assemble a team of dedicated software developers, tech consultants, and designers in a timely and cost-efficient manner. Keep reading to learn more about how we can work together to meet your hiring goals.

Challenges of hiring tech talent in-house

Expected to grow by 11% from 2019 to 2029, computer and information technology employment in the United States is expanding faster than the average for other occupations. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics projected the opening of 1.4 million computer science-related jobs in 2020, with only 400,000 candidates to fill the positions. With the large gap between demand and supply, it is no surprise that recruiters in the country are struggling to find local talents.

Moreover, there is a lack of alignment between hiring managers and recruiters. While both agree on the importance of skills and finding the right match in terms of the team’s culture, they differ in what they prioritize most. Tech recruiters may have a stronger incentive to close the positions quickly, while the hiring managers benefit more from finding the perfect fit – no matter how long it may take. To find a middle ground, they should work together to find the right qualifications in the shortest time possible. 

Another major challenge in technical recruitment is that job seekers tend to be impatient. Recruiters stand to lose prospective hires if they don’t act fast enough. Robert Half found that 57% of candidates lose interest in the job if they find that the hiring process is taking too long. 

Oftentimes, recruiters are not adequately equipped to identify the best candidates. This is because those who look good on paper may not be as impressive in person. And those with the right skill set may not have the traditional credentials. Plus, not all prospective candidates are actively looking for a new role. Recruiters must be able to reach out to IT specialists who are open to accommodating an offer even if they currently have a job.

Given the fierce competition for talent, hiring companies need to find a way to stand out. They must be in a position to attract top candidates, as applicants now have the luxury to choose the most appealing job offer.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Georgetown University found that the shortage of qualified candidates has prompted US multinational companies to establish innovation hubs abroad. Find out how setting up your own team abroad can benefit your company.

What is tech recruitment process outsourcing?

A form of business process outsourcing (BPO), recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) is an arrangement where an employer hires an external service provider to handle all or part of its recruitment processes. More than just a recruiting firm, an RPO is a partner who takes responsibility for the results of their recruitment efforts. They handle staff, methodologies, and reporting, ensuring the employees can meet their job requirements. 

Working with an RPO firm that specializes in tech hiring lets you leverage expertise and experience in the field. You get to work with experts who already have a network of highly skilled talents just waiting to jump on board. Tech recruitment process outsourcing firms also have the technical know-how to properly screen people’s qualifications. A partnership with the right RPO provider creates a synergy that reduces recruitment time and expenses. It also spares you the wasted resources and frustration of having bad hires.

Tech RPO for startups

Startups reach a point where they must build a team beyond its original founders. Talent acquisition is often a challenge for young companies with limited resources. Many turn to staffing firms for support, but this often results in a high cost per hire (CpH). They also miss out on the advantages of an internal recruitment team. 

Offering a step-up from a staffing firm, an RPO firm can function as dedicated, internal recruiters. Let’s learn more about its benefits to startups.

Benefits

Still in the process of building their bottom line, startups have much to lose if they don’t capture the right talent. Technical recruitment process outsourcing firms have the wherewithal to screen candidates not only based on their qualifications but also on attributes that make them a match for the unique culture of a startup.

RPO firms know how to look for employees who can help startups confront the uncertainties that come with building a new company. Plus, they can make sure human resource policies meet regulatory requirements, allowing the startups to avoid legal ramifications and reputational damages. 

Unlike large organizations that often hire throughout the year, startups tend to make seasonal recruitments. Tech RPO firms are the perfect partners for meeting their fluctuating developer recruitment needs. Startups can employ RPO services for software developers whenever they need to scale quickly. 

The right employee value proposition (EVP) or set of benefits can help startups improve their company’s attractiveness to job seekers, allowing them to increase their chances of snagging top talent. Tech recruitment process outsourcing firms help cultivate this by handling the entire recruitment process using accurate practices and tools while offering a positive candidate experience.

Working with outsourcing firms allows companies to leverage RPO technology, expertise in recruitment, streamlined hiring processes, and proven best practices. As a result, startups gain access to a robust talent pipeline with much less time and money. 

Are you an established enterprise or a corporation? Keep reading to learn how an RPO can work for you.

Tech RPO for enterprises

As startups focus more on determining market fit, generating revenue, scaling, and acquiring funding, the software’s quality is sometimes put on the back burner. The opposite happens in enterprise software development. The quality of the development process, business continuity, and stability is crucial, making the search for the right IT specialists a top priority. Hence, enterprises and corporations are often on the lookout for rare tech talent.

Benefits

To ensure long-term success, enterprises must be quick to adapt to the ever-changing business terrain. Delays in hiring the skilled talent needed to drive objectives can derail their progress. This hiccup can prevent them from surpassing or keeping up with competing companies. Capable of hiring IT specialists within a short time frame, an RPO firm can help solve this problem. Well-established RPO service providers can tap into their extensive pool of hard-to-find personnel, helping you fill crucial job positions quickly.

Because of their substantial talent databases, RPO firms are well-equipped to analyze and predict future trends. Analytics derived from their databases allow them to provide expert advice, forecast talent requirements, and balance out the demand and supply of essential personnel.

Acting as an extension of existing human resource departments, RPO providers can function as an ambassador for the enterprise. They thoroughly research the tech employer brand and create a recruitment dialogue that highlights the benefits of working with the company. 

Employing tech RPO services enables enterprises to free up capacities from their human resource departments, allowing them to focus on tackling internal issues and improving processes within the organization. 

While tech RPO has its advantages, many established enterprises still prefer to set their own hiring needs and just have an external firm do the legwork for them. In that case, outstaffing may be your better option. 

Outstaffing to Ukraine – the best way to hire software developers

Ukraine is home to a thriving tech community. You’ll find an IT cluster in almost every city. Groups of Ruby developers, data scientists, QAs, BAs, UX designers, and Java enthusiasts regularly meet up to host seminars or conferences. Ranking fourth in the world for tech specialists, Ukraine boasts of an IT and software engineering community consisting of 166,000 professionals. Here, you’ll find a software developer for your every need.

More than quantity, Ukrainian software engineers are recognized by SkillValue as among the best in the world, scoring an average index of 91.26%. The software development teams have earned an average score of 88.7% in a range of HackerRank challenges. 

It comes as no surprise that tech giants like Microsoft, Samsung, Oracle, Huawei, and Ring have outsourced IT engineering and moved their R&D centers to Ukraine. The country has been earning accolades with more and more companies outstaffing to Ukraine. The country was recognized by the Global Outsourcing Association as the UK’s “Offshoring Destination of the Year” in 2017 and took first place in the Outsourcing Market in Eastern Europe’s ranking by Outsourcing Journal.

How outstaffing works

You can always go the traditional route and assemble an in-house team. This means your company will have to look for a bigger office and a lot more money and time for recruitment, onboarding, accounting, planning, and management. 

Or you can choose to outstaff your software development teams. In this arrangement, you forge a partnership with a foreign contractor who will do all the work for you, from gathering requirements and recruiting software engineers to integrating the team and handling all administrative tasks. 

Now let’s explore the costs of outsourcing your recruitment processes.

Cost-plus model

In a cost-plus or cost-based contract, the supplier passes on the direct and overhead costs of employing a tech team to the company hiring them. They add provisions for profit in the form of a percentage mark or fixed management fee. This model is ideal for cases where the demand is flexible, and the costs are uncertain.

In an overstaffing contract, a company sets its required number of team members, and the supplier goes out to find them. The hiring company then treats these people as part of their own team, while the suppliers take charge of providing official employment, workspaces, and benefits. 

Ukrainian developers rates

Compared to the average hourly rate of $60 to $100 in the US, hiring Ukrainian developers can result in huge savings.

Hire the best developers through Relevant

You can count on us at Relevant to set up a dedicated software development team efficiently for you. We start by hearing your requirements and taking note of everything you need to ensure we can offer the right set of specialists. 

We then proceed to assembling the team for you. If available, we will tap into our in-house specialists so you can start work immediately. If additional hires are needed, you’ll get started in around one month. Or, if you’re working on a tight deadline, we can access our extensive talent pool to meet your urgent needs in less than a week.

Our HR team enters each job candidate into a challenging selection process, closely checking their tech skills, soft skills, background, and English level. Drawing on our years of experience, we integrate the chosen team members into your ongoing project. 

Relevant’s extensive process results in a team of specialists working just like any in-house team under your complete control. The main difference is they will work remotely, and we will take the tedious administrative tasks off your hands.

We’re here to make the technical recruitment process easy for you, so you can fast-track your projects and focus on what matters. Sound perfect for your hiring needs? Contact us today for a quote.

Summary

You don’t have to grapple with the challenges of recruiting tech talent all on your own. Partnering with an outsourcing firm lets you tap into resources and expertise not available in your own company. When you work with established firms like Relevant, you can achieve better results with fewer costs and wasted resources. 

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