The Challenge
Around for over a century, telecommunications business Kingston Communications (KCOM) was initially based in Kingston upon Hull in North-East England. Hull was one of the first areas in the UK to establish a telephone service and became the home of the UK’s first all-digital network by 1989. In its previous incarnation, when it was fully owned by the Kingston upon Hull Council, KCOM played a major role in the area’s telecoms heritage. Today KCOM provides a range of integrated IT and communications services to businesses, and internet and telecoms services to consumer markets, within the UK.

Following various acquisitions from 1998 onwards, KCOM grew rapidly and recruitment for the expanding company was inconsistent. The company recognised that the HR team did not have the right technology or the right skills to co-ordinate and manage recruitment. Jason Boyle, HR director at KCOM, told Recruiter: “As we were growing and restructuring, the HR team were dealing internally with downsizing and restructuring, and so recruitment was not given the attention it deserved.”

One issue was that time-to-hire was too long. Even though KCOM had never measured the process, anecdotally it was about 60 days. And despite this lengthy period the company was still not getting the right people at the right cost. In addition, the company was relying on agencies for 90% of its recruitment usage, with no co-ordination between HR and the different business units.

The Solution
Three years ago KCOM turned to specialist HR service provider Independent Ltd through Boyle’s previous employment links with co-owner and director Phil Clarke at Marconi. Boyle recognised that the HR department needed to completely change its approach to recruitment: “Because KCOM had been going through such a rapid acquisition process, each new business we bought had a different way of recruiting. There was no consistency throughout the company.”

By brining in Independent, recruitment became co-ordinated, streamlined and more efficient, and KCOM has saved £500k year-on-year

When Independent came on board in 2006 with a team of five, Clarke soon realised that there was a lack of understanding of recruiting within KCOM: “There was a black hole of information in the company - there was no idea of the numbers of positions available even.”

Independent’s team immediately carried out an audit to gather as much information on recruiting practices within KCOM as possible. The team looked at the systems that were in place, any assessment tools and how the various business units used recruitment agencies.

“Independent’s recruitment model has to be flexible and adaptable to accommodate KCOM’s continual restructuring,” Clarke explained. “Every quarter we’re reviewed on time saved, quality of hires and cost savings - and to date we’ve delivered on all counts.”

Boyle agreed. “By bringing in Independent, recruitment became co-ordinated, streamlined and more efficient. Through this relationship, KCOM has made £500,000 gross savings year-on-year, which we can show the board in black and white. In addition, recruitment agency usage is down to below 40%; time-to-hire has fallen to around 25 days; and new-starter retention has improved by 80%.” Clarke told Recruiter “there will always be a role for agencies, despite the fact that the number has been reduced”. Independent has established new technology to manage the recruitment process and improve the HR team’s service to its customers - the candidates and KCOM’s employees. “We also give the KCOM HR team support in internal recruiting, outplacement and interview training,” Clarke said.

KCOM is obviously happy with the outsourced service provided by Independent. Boyle adds: “The HR team is ‘bonused’ on the customer satisfaction perception of candidates and employees, and we’ve seen an improvement in perception of 75%. Thanks to Independent, the HR department can now give more time to work on improving its customer satisfaction. In fact, KCOM employees don’t see Independent’s function as an outsourcer, but more as an extension of the HR team. Independent’s onsite team is totally integrated into the business.”

lessons learned

Be clear on what you want
Involve all the relevant stakeholders in the business in selecting your RPO provider, so that all the ‘detractors’ can be won over

Do your planning and research
RPOs should be given time from the outset to do enough research to assess the recruitment situation

Use a simple fee model
A flat management service fee per month is the best approach to take. Don’t add on margin as it makes it too complicated and can skew the type of people that the RPO chooses

Integrate the team into
the business Make the RPO provider a part of the overall service division. The RPO team need to understand the culture so that they can fully manage recruitment