By Peter Acheson, CEO, Peoplebank
July 20th 2010

As you probably know, Peoplebank yesterday lodged a scheme of arrangement offer with the ASX to acquire Ross Human Directions (RHD).

If successful, we would become Australia’s largest white collar recruitment company with revenues of over $800m, 600 employees and offices across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Combining Peoplebank’s IT specialisation with RHD’s strengths in financial services, accounting, legal, HR and other sectors would mean that we can operate across a broader market.

As a client, it is not uncommon to expect a lot from your RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) provider. Value added services such as interview; recruitment process and selection process design should come as part of the parcel when it comes to outsourcing your recruitment process.

Clients should expect a great deal of value if they are to outsource their recruitment process; including excellent customer service, reduced cost per hire, increased quality of hire and decreased time to fill, but is there a point where clients and hiring managers are expecting too much from their RPO provider?

Business partnerships of yesteryear were built on respect, honesty, integrity and of course a firm and trustworthy handshake. People valued partnerships and sought to build mutually beneficial life long relationships through connections and in their community.

Business partnerships were built on mutual respect and trust and resulted in successful win-win outcomes. Today, in the recruitment industry Clients release roles to multiple agencies, candidates in turn then apply to these multiple agencies, which results in dozens of people scrambling all over town trying to establish role fit and suitability for the same role but bumping into one another and causing all sorts of confusion along the way.