Filling the gap

To find out more, HRM spoke with Rosaleen Blair, CEO of Alexander Mann Solutions, and with good reason. Not only is the company a recognized leader in international RPO, but Rosaleen herself, as well as being Ernst & Young’s London Business Products & Services Entrepreneur of the Year, is credited with being the first person to establish RPO in Europe.

HRM. Could you start by detailing exactly what RPO is?
RB. What it means to me, or what it means to our business, is that effectively we go into major corporates and typically take over responsibility for the whole recruitment lifecycle. Everything from resource management, putting together the whole employment value proposition, and their sourcing strategy, basically every element of recruitment. Be it exec hiring, contingent, permanent, temporary – we manage the whole of that process.

We’re then responsible for unboarding the individuals into the company and internal management of the people once they’re in the organization.

This support continues right through until the point potentially they’re exiting the organization. Typically we’ll manage the exit process and in some instances out placement or redployment.

HRM. What level of staff are we talking about?
RB. Literally it’s just below board, typically the board are hired in by your top exec search organization, so it’s everything just below that.

HRM. What did you see 10 years ago that made you come to the conclusion about RPO?
RB. Probably one of the first things I spotted was there were lots of recruitment companies out there and lots of companies offering one off solutions to customers. It seemed to me the customers saying ‘I need to hire for this’ and the recruitment organization would go and find them. So I actually thought there was an opportunity for someone to take much more of a holistic approach to try and understand what the business drivers of the organization were and then actually challenge some of their thinking – what it was they thought the needed to recruit.

In some instances that’s not even recruitment. In some instances the issue is not they need to recruit more, it’s actually being better at retaining what they’ve got. So it’s really trying to understand what the business issues and plans are for the coming two to three years and then putting in the most appropriate resourcing and recruitment solution to support it.

What I identified was a gap in the market for more of a bespoke, holistic approach, which is far more consultancy driven with greater emphasis in building a long-term relationship. The contracts we put in place with our clients typically would not be less than three years, but more like five or seven.

HRM. Did it take a long time for people to buy into the idea?
RB. I was really lucky because I went out and tested the market beforehand. So the day when I started the business I had my first contract – I was very lucky – I’d already gone through proof of concept with a number of organizations who genuinely had an appetite to do this.

HRM. So why is recruitment something companies should be looking to outsource?
RB. In some instances we retain the people who are currently doing it, but in a lot of organizations recruitment is something they don’t have specialists for. I think the industry is changing and in some HR departments there are people who have a pure discipline in recruitment. But historically, certainly if you go back 10 years, but even three or five years, it was something HR generalists did but wasn’t a core competency. It wasn’t even something they had a strong interest in.

What we try to do is build a business where people who are really passionate about recruitment and want a long-term career and can actually really have a profession. I think people come to join us because we’re going to constantly invest in their learning and development so they really can become professionals in this space.

HRM. What would you say to an HR team that has been told its recruitment work is to be outsourced?
RB. If I talk about our own clients, some of them who were really passionate about recruitment now work for us. They’ve been able to build a broader career being part of an organization like ourselves. We’ll invest in their development around recruitment and they can sometimes work within the organization they were already working in. It gives them much greater career opportunity.

I think for someone who wants to specialize in this we offer the best of both worlds. Furthermore, there are often other HR generalists who have been glad to loose the recruitment component because it’s allowed them to focus far more on the judgment-based decisions in HR.

HRM. What role do you see the HR function playing in the future?
RB. Recruitment is only one small element of HR so I think HR will continue to be a key driver strategically in an organization.

The onus from the HR perspective, well, recruitment will sit as part of that. When we go into an outsource situation our people become an integral part of that HR function. So I would say as opposed to being a threat we actually compliment it.

HRM. How has the market for RPO develop over the years or are things pretty much the same?
RB. God no. Absolutely not. With the demographics and the way they’ve changed over the years and the changes in legislation we have to constantly look at challenging the norm and the way we operate our models. So I would say year on year it’s constantly evolving.

HRM. I read that you’re renowned for employing older and female staff, is this a conscious decision?
RB. It’s not a conscious decision and we don’t make a point of it. We actually make a point of hiring in a meritocracy, so we’ll hire the most appropriate individual for the role. It’s very much part of my ethos to give people opportunities who deserve them.

HRM. Is discrimination something you’ve seen in other companies and been able to positively influence?
RB. We’ve been in a position to influence but not to stop this. I hope we’ve been able to positively influence. Sometimes, the issue with an organization is that historically they haven’t had access to some of the more minority groups. One of the things I hope we’ve been able to do is enable them to access a much wider community of people that reflects their customer base more appropriately.

HRM. I assume it’s getting better though?
RB. I think people are more aware of it and I think people are much more aware of how unwittingly people were being discriminated against.

HRM. Is there any major differences in the approach you need to take for each sector you work in (IT, telecoms, financial services, retail and pharma)?
RB. The methodology is very similar, so the processes would be relatively similar, albeit there would be some bespoke features in the different industries.

In our business we’ve built industry expertise and sector expertise, so our business can operate in very distinct sectors. The reason for that is one of the critical things is hiring people who come from that industry and who’ve got the deep industry expertise. The methodologies and processes are very similar across the sectors, but it’s the IP and deep industry knowledge that’s the differentiator. And that’s what’s critically important.

Before we enter into any industry sector we invest in making sure we’ve got the best people with that knowledge in our business before we then look to build a practice for the sector.

HRM. So how do you understand a company’s ‘psyche’ to choose the right people?
RB. Part of the due diligence we do when we get to understand an organization initially is to spend a lot of time appreciating what that culture is. For us to try to service it off site would be very difficult but because our people typically sit within that organization, the people we put in would mirror that culture themselves. They would therefore have the empathy to hire the most suitable people for that culture.

That’s one of the key drivers, you’re absolutely right. That’s why we would never normally sign something for less than three years because this relationship comes with time and isn’t something that happens on day one. The more you get to know the company the more you can add value around that space.

HRM. But what about internal promotions?
RB. Although the starting point for us may be managing the external recruitment, we have become more and more drawn into the internal side. You automatically start knowing who or where to source the people internally.

I think every organization differs. Some organizations can have a culture of retaining the talent they’ve got, in others the talent often feels it needs to go outside of the organization to get the opportunity. Therefore, having an organization like ourselves fulfilling the role of managing the internal redeployment of a function often gives someone in the business the opportunity to go to a department that seems to be more independent without compromising their current role.

HRM. You work predominantly in Europe and Asia, what plans do you have for the US?
RB. For us it’s not about having offices everywhere and sticking flags in the ground. Our strategy is really simple, to partner existing clients into new territories. We would never go into a country and then hope for the customer, we’d always go in with an existing relationship.

HRM. You’ve recently opened an office in New York. Is RPO acknowledged in the region and how does it differ to Europe?
RB. Clearly there will be different challenges with legislation in each of the different countries but from a methodology perspective it tends to be quite similar. Bear in mind we would be doing RPO in the US as part of a global contract we’re doing for a customer, so it would be part of something greater and the same for Europe.

We’re operating I think in 48 countries in Europe and in each country it would tend to be quite different, but because the contracts would be with a customer we’re supporting across EMEA – there would be nuances, country by country – overall the process would be almost 100 percent replicable.

HRM. Is it as popular in the US as it is in Europe?
RB. I would say the US is maturing faster than the European market. I think there’s far more of an appetite for it already in the US. There’s a great understanding of it in the UK, and a good understanding in Asia Pacific, but it’s continental and Eastern Europe that’s really only beginning to wake up to it.