Forget the terminology, concentrate on the outsourcing, advises Simon Ward, head of UK recruitment at insurance giant Legal & General (L&G).

Speaking at the KellyOCG-sponsored RPO & e-Recruitment Forum in London last week, Ward told delegates the “jungle of phraseology” surrounding recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) could be overwhelming.

“We were going to outsource a part of our recruitment. Outsourcing can be whatever it needs to be – design your own solution,” he advised, and ignore the confusing terminology of managed service providers, neutral vendors etc.

Working alongside L&G’s RPO partner Rory Jeffcock, solutions director at hyphen, L&G had only gone live that week [3 October 2011] with its RPO offering from hyphen, and Ward joked with the audience that “it was all going well so far”.

If companies were new to outsourcing, a strong message that came across from Ward was to go and see as many outsourcing firms as possible. Referencing was key to the L&G and hyphen partnership. “Go and see your suppliers in action,” he suggested.