Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/169755
HRO Today Forum APAC Source: NelsonHall cost-efficient price, and also be flexible enough to deal with changing demands," noted Wong. An RPO engagement has the ability to build an infrastructure around hiring. This allowed Wong to leverage it for sourcing capabilities in order to build a talent pipeline of quality candidates. "Because of the structure and the resources available, you can easily scale up so there is a flexibility," she noted. "I [can] bring an other person in for three days a week if there is a sudden surge in a demand." If recruitment were managed in-house and by individual country, accommodating such hiring surges would be more difficult and costly. Wong said Tetra Pak previously relied heavily on third-party agencies to fill such vacancies and has since experienced cost savings through its RPO engagement by eliminating that expense. In order to align with the goals previously set by One HR, Wong strived for process efficiency within the recruitment arm of the outsourcing relationship. "One thing that we wanted do in the design of the program was to make sure that we built in the same process regardless of whether [the hire] was blue, white collar, or contingent," she explained. "We had one uniform process to make it easier for the hiring managers." Recruitment, Executed Wong and her team decided to execute the rollout as a big bang approach, instead of piloting one country at a time. The program kicked off in a single day, which is typically unheard of for such a broad global engagement. Organisations often opt for a pilot program in order to gain knowledge on the processes efficiencies—and inefficiencies —with the rollout. But Tetra Pak's decision was highly driven by aligning processes. "When we looked at the context and situation, we were cutting over from an old way of working to the new way. So it was just unimaginable to have to allocate resources to be doing things in two different ways," said Wong. "We thought it might be better to just bite the bullet and bear with the initial pain for longerterm happiness later on. We knew that things are not going to be perfect from day one, but we just quickly identified what we needed to work on and worked on it with no if's and but's. So I thought it was an obvious choice for us." What helped usher the successful big bang execution was a keen eye on implementation. Wong emphasised the importance of having a detailed process to support implementation. She enlisted a team of tenured project managers to follow an outlined set of action steps based on a specific timeline. Wong highly advised these three steps for a seamless implementation: • Make sure you have the right dedicated resources; • Secure the correct actions and timelines; and • Monitor it like a hawk. Nicholls noted that no implementation is without its challenges and you learn to tweak approaches along the way. But he did agree that proper planning helps the process immensely. "Whether we're outsourcing HR or call centres, a lot of those challenges can be avoided if a lot is invested into the launch," he noted. The due diligence certainly paid off. The timeline for hitting key performance indicators was accelerated by six months. Instead of over the course of one year, Tetra Pak experience a decrease in cost per hire and time per hire by 26 per cent within six months, all whilst volume was up 66 per cent. As an added benefit, Wong said that the team of on-site recruiters were very integrated and engaged with Tetra Pak. She said that it was a by-product of the overall outsourcing experience, one which she calls a journey. "It's quite easy to think that once you've worked so hard on the selection and the implementation, the minute you've gone live that it's the end. The good news is that it's really only the start of a journey," she said. "You have to be able to channel energy into the right places and that your end outcome is going to work and you do what takes for it to work—rather than questioning and doubting whether it is working or not." She stressed the importance of selecting the right partner. "Work on the collaboration. It's important that you're selecting a provider that you're comfortable with and that they're going to be with you, partner with you, and be flexible." And it's due to that partnership and a solid commitment from all parties that this engagement will help to encourage a future uptick of RPO on a global scale. SUMMER 2013 | www.hroglobal.com [23]