The global Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) space is buzzing with action, with recent acquisitions announced by some industry stalwarts.

• Manpower Inc. has announced the acquisition of CRI Inc, a Los Angeles-based RPO provider. This is in addition to acquisition of Netherlands-based staffing company Vitae recently.
• Kennexa, a talent acquisition and retention solutions provider has announced the acquisition of Quorum International, a London-based RPO services provider.
• Futurestep (subsidiary of KornFerry) has launched Strategic Recruitment Process Outsourcing, a talent acquisition solution.

The growth story of RPO, an offshoot of HRO is fairly recent. With the global economy in recession post 2001, corporations were forced to resort to cost-cutting measures. Human Resources Outsourcing (HRO) was an initiative in that direction that gained prominence around 2002. Now amongst one of key segments in HR outsourcing, RPO is gaining significance and accounts for a major chunk of the HRO market. The current global market size of RPO is estimated to be over $20 b.

RPO evolved in the US and the UK and is now finding acceptance worldwide. Though still far from maturity, RPO is deemed as the biggest opportunity in HRO. Recruitment being one of the most significant, time consuming and expensive activities, corporations are warming up to the idea, especially since most companies are already familiar with outsourcing a few recruitment related processes. The typical value chain in recruitment process outsourcing services is represented in the exhibit below:

The Indian Scenario

While the global scenario in RPO is evolving rapidly, Indian offshoring has been relatively slow to take off. There are very few homebred companies prominent in this space. Elixir Web Solutions, MaFoi Consultants are few of the players that began with catering to the Indian market and are now spreading wings globally. Several other RPO claimants are extensions of recruitment agencies and do not have the wherewithal to support large scale and global clientele. Most of the recent newsmakers in Indian RPO space are global players setting up/expanding their Indian delivery base. Some of the recent ones include:

• Kelly Services, a US-based staffing and HR solutions provider is planning to launch its RPO service in India.
• Kenexa, a US-based recruitment solutions and services provider has opened a software development office in Visakhapatnam, in addition to its existing Indian facility in Hyderabad.
• Adecco India, the Indian arm of the world's largest HR Services company Adecco, recently acquired Ajinkya Consultants, an India-based staffing company.
• Futurestep expanded its Indian presence to Mumbai within a span of two years of setting up in New Delhi.
• UK-based RPO OS2i which operates its offshore center in Pune, India has recently launched an Internet Recruitment Training program for the Indian Recruitment Industry

Indian RPO will take a long time to emerge on the offshoring scene in a big way; nevertheless entry of global majors will help develop the industry and raise delivery and technology standards. In the absence of a significant Indian players however, we can expect more action from international RPO service providers looking at both the Indian market and low-cost delivery centers for overseas clients. The jury is still out on whether Indian providers can catch up with their global counterparts, as they have done in several IT and BPO segments.