Robert Leggett said Omni looks for innovative ways of helping clients get the right people first time round.

One example is assessment centres, designed with the help of clients themselves. “Every client is different and the type of individual they recruit is different. We tailor a package around the client,” said Leggett. It’s a measure of Omni’s focus on selection and assessment that it employs an occupational psychologist, he explained. Leggett said that such measures “help clients to recruit the right people at the beginning so they stay with the organisation”.

One client, infrastructure services company May Gurney saw its attrition rate fall by more than half from 25% to about 9% in 18 months, he said.
Leggett said another differentiator between Omni and its competitors is the speed with which his company has picked up on the business opportunities to advise clients on how to take advantage of Web 2.0 technology and social media.

Leggett attributed part of Omni’s success to the way it treats agencies as clients in the same way as candidates and end user. “The biggest frustration agencies have is that candidates go into a big black hole, and that they can’t speak to people [at the RPO]. Any agency can speak to us. We don’t hide behind a recruitment portal.”