• Common values and hiring philosophy
• Best practice shared across both countries and regions
• Consistent platform and tools
• Compliance, control and management information
• Maximising access to global talent pools

But how achievable is this ‘holy grail’ of resourcing?

Well certainly not if you approach resourcing in the same way that IT or ITO is often modeled. Namely on a ‘one size fits all’ basis focused on scale, costs and efficiencies and supported by near-shore or off-shore support centres. I simply don’t believe this can work because when it comes to resourcing talent, the products we are talking about are knowledge workers, who don’t behave in the same, consistent way across the world that, say, a computer programme would. Try taking the same approach to talent attraction or engagement in the US as in, for example, Germany or Japan and just watch it fall apart under the impact of local cultural influences, the complexities of local legislation and regulations such as workers councils and data protection laws. When it comes to people, one size most definitely does not fit all.

Talking to CEOs and heads of HR over the past months I’ve noticed a growing realisation that deep local knowledge and expertise is essential for any effective talent resourcing model. But with it seems to have come the feeling that this means that any form of global approach is consequently impossible. However our experience is that you can get the best of both worlds with local expertise combined with global governance. Ochre House has several examples of global customer success stories working with Pinstripe, our local strategic partner in the US, and other local partners in APAC, but still providing global consistency. The key is to combine adaptation to individual geographical markets with a common, consistent approach to those things that should be regarded as ‘universal’ – the criteria that are non-negotiable wherever hiring is undertaken. Into this category will fall such things as buy-in to the company’s business and social philosophy, its basic standards and its commitment to diversity and work/life balance. And we tend to believe this combination of local and international is not a stop-gap or a compromise while we wait for some completely global hiring platform to be devised. Perhaps the most effective solution to international talent sourcing model is not in the pipeline – we think it may have already arrived.

The system uses short fibers, such as wool, linen or acrylic, mixed with polymers to bind them together. A solvent which evaporates on contact with a surface allows the fibers to be sprayed out of can as a liquid. The spray can be applied using an aerosol can or high pressure spray gun and the texture can be varied by changing the fibers and the numbers of layers of spray.

Interestingly, this ‘spray on solution’ concept was discussed at last year’s RPO Summit.

I remember a discussion at the annual event with several leading RPO companies discussing the proliferation of novice Recruitment Process Outsourcing firms. One member of the dialogue felt very strongly that many of the recent newcomers to the RPO market were capitalizing on RPO’s upward trend and these firms were not really in the same business as us. Instead, they were taking their existing search business models and simply rebranding it as Recruitment Process Outsourcing. Another member of the circle, who was good at analogies, added “it’s like they took a can of spray paint and covered up their old, outdated offering by applying a thin coat of RPO!”

I truly love this kind of debate; however, I tend to be a lot less judgmental of other companies and much more focused on Pinstripe. So my feeling about start ups (regardless of their competency) is ’so what.’

We live a free market society where any company can enter (and exit) and survive based on their merits. If these firms are simply just spraying on a thinly coated RPO solution then customers will quickly see through this deficiency and move to others companies that are providing a proper coating of RPO.

We would like to thank Barry Diamond - VP, Business Development Pinstripe ( strategic partner of Ochre House) - for this great blog.

The first is not hard to figure out why as many business needed to increase capability where perhaps divestment had been the order of the previous 2 years.  There has certainly been much greater interest in “Outsourcing” resourcing but perhaps not for the obvious reason of increased flexibility (of cost base) and reduced overall costs.  The key driver we are seeing is that businesses are seriously concerned about being able to compete for, win and retain the best talent in the market place.  They realise that resourcing is becoming more and more complex with a need for good, flexible resource planning to try to deliver against often ever-changing needs of the businesses, coupled with high levels of engagement and innovation in the attraction and selection processes in order to bring the best talent in.   If they can’t deliver these then they may well be left constantly on the back foot and with little chance of delivering what the business demands.

The other key driver has been globalisation with larger businesses wanting to increase economies of scale whilst maximising cross-border mobility for internal talent.  The big challenge in Europe has been how to create efficiencies in such a diverse region, whilst delivering leading-edge service locally to candidate community, hiring managers and HR alike.  Europe really is the antithesis of the homogenised market place and therefore requires wide spread local knowledge and engagement, which often creates cost challenges.  There is no one way that works best as each company culture is unique, and we are fortunate to have spoken to many organisations who do things quite differently,  which makes for very rich debate!

At Ochre House we are running 2 workshops in the next 2 months to address these topics http://www.ochrehouse.com/HR-Network-Knowledge-Centre/Event-Schedule-81.  Please let us know if these are challenges you are facing, and if you would like to add to the debate.

Most of these arrangements were subsequently abandoned and we have witnessed a decade or so of “keep it local”.  So, listening to the debate, I have to ask whether we are again flirting with the same dangerous concept.  Having listened and contributed to the debate I would contend that there is value in developing a global or international focus for a broader or integrated talent management agenda. 

Society and corporations have changed forever; the mobility of talent across the globe and it is now commonplace for hiring managers to request interview shortlists comprising candidates form at least three nationalities. Suppliers of RPO or integrated talent management services have also become more sophisticated.  I believe corporations can now enjoy the best of both worlds; effective governance from a lead partner who is responsible for designing and delivering those components of a global solution which logically could be universal (e.g. technology, values, selection criteria, MIS to name but a few) whilst also coordinating the efforts of remote partners or their own regional operations to deliver best practice in their local markets.  For this to succeed, the focus should be firmly on more effective attraction and deployment of talent rather than on efficiencies. Watch this space for space for case studies.