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Frequently Asked Questions

Several of the questions we’ve been asked over the years are listed below. If you don’t find the answers you’re looking for, please let us know and we’ll be happy to help.

What is Bessire RPO?

Bessire Recruitment Process Outsourcing is a recruitment service that helps in the Strategy, Sourcing, Screening & Selecting steps to engage top talent for organizations’ job openings, allowing their HR professionals to focus on the interviewing, closing, and onboarding phases of the hiring process.

What is the difference between RPO and the services a staffing firm offers?

There are a few major differences between RPO and a staffing firm:

A staffing firm runs and/or participates in every phase of the hiring process.  In doing so, they are able to offer a guarantee on their hire.  Their extensive involvement and the guarantee result in a cost per hire amounting to as much as 30% of the employee’s first year of salary.

Bessire-RPO works with a firm’s HR department, as opposed to replacing it.  Bessire-RPO alleviates your recruiters from the first and most cumbersome phase of the hiring process—strategy, sourcing, screening, and selecting the candidates.  The RPO solution frees up your HR professionals to manage the interviewing, closing and onboarding phases of the hiring process.  Because we leave the most important stages of the hiring process to your internal team, Bessire costs a fraction of the price for equally qualified candidates as those sourced from staffing firms.

Furthermore, Bessire does not ‘shop’ or coach candidates on the opportunity.  In order to ensure the candidates are a legitimate match for your opening, both technically and culturally, we screen them according to your qualifications and submit them without any additional training or instruction on how to best appeal to your firm.  Our RPO process gives you a much truer candidate pool with virtually unlimited possible results.

Why doesn't Bessire RPO offer a guarantee on a hire?

As Bessire is only responsible for up to 70%  of the process that results in a hire (Strategy, Sourcing, Screening & Selecting), we are unable to guarantee hires which are ultimately determined by the latter two phases in the process, engaging and closing to hire, which we have no hand in.

What sort of results can I expect?

The number of qualified candidates you’ll receive varies greatly from one engagement to the next.  Your Client Manager will do a complete assessment on the opening, your company, the industry, your past hiring experiences and your labor market prior to the RPO proposal to assess the level of difficulty we foresee in sourcing for this position.  Based on their findings, your Client Manager may give you an approximate number of qualified applicants we anticipate being able to submit for that particular opening relative to what we have seen with other projects of similar size and needs.

What if we are unable or do not wish to advertise the compensation for a given position?

Advertising the compensation information is by no means mandatory; however, our research on job seeker behavior has shown that roughly 45% of candidates viewing a posting forgo applying if compensation information is missing. Therefore, we strongly recommend including compensation information (salary, benefits, 401K, etc.) whenever possible. Make no mistake your compensation package has a direct effect on the effectiveness of Bessire-RPO services.

What sort of updates can I expect when utilizing Bessire-RPO Services? How often will I receive them?

During an engagement, you can expect to receive a midpoint update should you wish – weekly check in calls may also be used by the client to monitor the progress of the RPO campaign – feel free to call us at anytime should you need any updates. A final wrap up call as well as a final deliverable document via PDF detailing the breakdown of the talent pool, where we sourced them and next steps of the process will be sent at the conclusion.

What is a Mid-Point call?

A mid-point call is conducted halfway into the RPO work, to get your feedback on the caliber of candidates received, to assess the progress made to date, to revisit the project scope and expectations, and most importantly, to make any changes to the course of the campaign if necessary.

Is a Mid-Point call really necessary?

A mid-point call is conducted halfway into the RPO work, to get your feedback on the caliber of candidates received, to assess the progress made to date, to revisit the project scope and expectations, and most importantly, to make any changes to the course of the campaign if necessary.

What questions should I submit for Bessire to do in screening?

Your involvement in this stage of the screening process is entirely up to you.  At this “screen” step our goal is to rule out applicants, narrow the applicant pool and disqualify.  Do you have any show stopper questions like:  compensation ranges, degree or no degree,  certifications,  DMV record, background check or anything we can handle for you?

If you have a list of questions you would like us to use a screen, we will be happy to include those.  If you do not have a preset list of questions, your Project Manager will create a list of questions based on the job description and requirements. Beyond our standard “screen step” that in large part is done via email – and you may have a list of questions you would like us to use for a phone screen – we will be happy to add that for a nominal amount.

What questions should I submit for your phone screening?

Your involvement in this stage of the screening process is entirely up to you.  If you have a list of 5-10 questions you would like us to use for the phone screen, we will be happy to do so.  If you do not have a preset list of questions, your Project Manager will create a list of questions based on the job description and requirements.

What is my company’s value proposition and what sort of information should I include in it?

In short, your company’s value proposition answers the question, “why would a job seeker want to work for you?”   This information is requested by us in the form of what we call a Recruitment 101 document where we gather the following information.  When compiling the list of reasons why candidates should come to work for your firm, considering including:

  • Compensation
  • Location
  • Industry
  • Interesting assignments
  • Work / Life balance
  • Company reputation
  • Advancement opportunities
  • Training
  • Diversity
  • Travel
  • Company financials
  • Environmental consciousness
We’ve had a lot of success sourcing candidates from one of our competitors. Can we request that you source active or passive candidates from that business?

Yes, we may be able to do that.  Our Talent Strategists will be doing a thorough sweep of qualified candidates from a variety of resources, but if you’ve had a lot of success with one or more avenues in the past, we are happy to incorporate your preferences and suggestions into our recruiting strategy.   Be sure and ask us about how LinkedIn may accomplish this for you if you are not already using this source.

Do we have the option of keeping our company name confidential?

Yes, your company can most certainly be kept anonymous throughout the engagement at your discretion.  We do caution you, however, as confidential searches can decrease candidate activity and flow by as much as 50%.  If you have the option of revealing your company name, it is recommended to use full branding to advertise any opportunity.

Does Bessire cater to the need for diversity candidates?

Yes.  Bessire offers a Diversity Cross-Posting option, which feeds your diversity positions and advertising to over 90 diversity-focused websites.  However, all qualified candidates sourced from every recruiting medium must still be considered by Bessire and presented, regardless of whether the candidate meets “diversity criteria” or not.

Why should I pay you upfront before I hire a candidate?

When you engage Bessire, you are paying for a guaranteed, best-of-breed hiring process that has been tested over the years. By paying for the process rather than for the hire, you can be assured that we devote the appropriate time and effort to your hiring, and that no financial incentive exists for us to misrepresent or oversell any individual candidate. By removing any financial incentive for the hire, you can rest easy knowing that the advice and feedback you receive from Bessire is unbiased and untainted by financial motive. A significant factor in our ability to deliver extremely competitive rates (one-third of the cost of a search firm) is that we are paid for all the work we do. A contingency agency or search firm, paid only at the point of hire, must recover their sunk cost for all work not resulting in a hire from the few positions they actually fill. Because the average contingency agency fills between one in five and one in ten positions they work on, the cost of the hire is equal to five to ten times the actual cost of the work for filling that individual position. Essentially, if you hire someone from a contingency agency and pay their fee, you are paying not just for your hire, but for all the work they did on all the positions they didn’t hire that month. Some people ask us about our Guarantee?
Your RPO – Source & Screen Solution DOES NOT guarantee you will make a hire, and it is understood by employer that you, the employer is solely responsible for the success of finalizing a successful hire (obviously something we cannot control – otherwise you’d use an expensive head hunter).
If for some reason you are not entirely satisfied with the value received from your Bessire Source & Screen solution, please contact your salesperson as soon as possible. We will then discuss options to rectify the matter to your satisfaction that may include:
* An extension of your assignment to provide the delivery of additional qualified candidates to your desktop OR
* Provide you with a partial credit of “service portion” of the investment you have already paid toward an online job board posting credits to other job board.
* Or Consider using our RAR source – Retain-a-Recruiter where we will on an hourly basis call in and do as much if not more than a recruiter on an hourly basis using all the best practices of an Executive Search/Recruiter expertise at a fraction of the price. (happy to discuss)

What differentiates Bessire from other businesses and services in the recruiting space?

Bessire’s primary competitive advantage and ultimate differentiator amongst any competitors is our experience and expertise with over 30 years of experience.  Furthermore, we keep a pulse and supply of real time labor market data and compensation information to ensure we stay ahead of the learning curve.  Coupled with historic findings from hundreds of past engagements and projects across every industry, we have the experience, business intelligence and tools to optimize your recruiting budget, in order to locate and engage the top talent for your firm.

What sort of recruiting tools does Bessire RPO use? Are they all based in only one recruiting solution?

Bessire uses a wide array of recruiting resources both within and outside traditional job boards.  In addition to job posting products, we have other tools to also help in a search.  Bessire-RPO may seek out your qualified candidates using targeted online advertising, online job boards (large, small, niche and associations), passive sourcing via LinkedIn (Boolean searches, personal and professional networking, social media sites), along with any resources you specify or advise.  The recruiting strategy is highly adaptable and may fluctuate if need be over the course of the engagement, to yield the best results and optimize your recruiting budget.

What is Labor Pressure?

Labor pressure is the ratio used to estimate the level of difficulty in sourcing a skillset in a given region or market.  Labor pressure is calculated by dividing the number of available workers with that skillset, by the number of job openings seeking that skillset, within a certain geography.

How can I tell if the compensation I'm offering is in line with my competitors?

The internet is laden with salary surveys.   Job boards often have portals to provide an insider’s view of the current compensation landscape from both the employers’ and job seekers’ perspectives.  Using this information, we are able to determine competitive market pay rates, identify emerging pay trends in difficult-to-fill positions, and improve compensation decisions tied to recruiting and hiring, helping our clients to attract and retain the top talent.  We may consult these salary surveys at the outset of an engagement in order to build an effective sourcing strategy around your compensation offering.

Can you redirect candidates to our ATS using our link?

Yes, this can be done at the client’s discretion, but we recommend verbal client contact before this step occurs. Typical ATS drop-off across industries can be as much as 50%.  As a rule of thumb, we prefer to not make candidates “double apply” to an opportunity, thereby risking a significant spike in the candidate drop-off rate.

Do you perform background checks as part of your service?

Yes, we can perform background checks – this may include DMV, Criminal and credit check.  NOTE:  All background checks are done with applicants full disclosure and authorization.

Why do engagements take 30 days?

In an effort to drive maximum ROI, we tier your advertising spend over a 4-week period in order to not let candidates linger too long from when the process begins but still offer enough time for Bessire-RPO process to make maximum use of recruitment advertising.  From historical data collected over hundreds of engagements, we have found that a period of 30 days provides adequate time in most markets to uncover both pockets of active and passive job seekers.  NOTE: many online advertising solutions Bessire may partner with charge in 30-day blocks of advertisement time, so adjustments may be made in matching this window to provide our clients with even more exposure should you wish to discuss that with your sales representative.

Can you send us every candidate that was sourced, as opposed to only those who passed the screening process?

In short, yes, we can send you all candidates.  That being said, a primary value-add of Bessire is to pre-screen and pre-qualify every candidate that is submitted.  Sending every applicant to a client can bog down the process and cloud the focus that should be given to only the most qualified candidates.  Nevertheless, all applicants can be bundled at the end of the engagement should you wish.

Do you conduct behavioral-based interviews?

Due to the very personal and subjective nature of behavioral questions, Bessire opts to source, screen and help select candidates based purely on objective criteria, such as work experience, qualifications, level of education and so forth.  Additionally, responses to behavioral questions tend to be much longer and more complex.  With budget in mind, we attempt to deduce as much relevant information regarding a candidate in as short a period of time as possible.

What can I do to help ensure that my Bessire-RPO project is a success?

As with any partnership, frequent and meaningful communication is key.  We seek to under promise and over deliver. By giving us timely and in-depth upfront analysis in the “Strategy step” of our flow chart and candid feedback at the midpoint call, we can and will gradually narrow the ideal candidate profile over the full course of every campaign to deliver the best talent for your opening.

Can’t we do all of this internally?

Unless your company hires an army of people annually, you cannot match Bessire’s economies of scale, expertise and ongoing investments in technology, talent and quality assurance. Recruitment is a complex, ever-changing, specialized discipline requiring significant investments in time and resources to stay on the cutting edge. By leveraging the scale and knowledge base of the outsourcing programs we provide for the Fortune 500 companies, we are able to offer small and midsize companies a level of service and expertise simply unattainable by smaller companies.

How do we get access to a bigger pool of candidates to meet our needs? Can you source hard to find positions?

Bessire’s ability to access hard-to-find candidates begin with our deep and broad expertise. We have unmatched knowledge concerning the identification, recruitment and hiring of hard-to-find candidates. We may utilize a multi-pronged sourcing approach that also may include but not limited to research/direct sourcing, 800 phone number, career fairs, and even direct mail when appropriate. With continuous and ongoing networking, our sourcing team is able to reach even the hardest-to-find candidates, including those who aren’t even looking for work. Using the latest online tools, proven ‘headhunting-type’ techniques and intelligent advertising, we can provide better candidate reach by region, industry and skill.

What if we need a lot of people in a hurry?

No problem – many of our clients just need 1 but sometimes they need 10 or 100 in just a matter of days. Bessire can work quickly to develop a tailor-made solution for your business, and then begin to implement that solution in as little as a few days. Our personnel, technology and expertise are available to meet virtually any staffing need-On Demand.

With costs this low you must be cutting corners somewhere, right?

Our success is largely due to the fact that we don’t cut corners. With Bessire, low cost does not equal cut-rate service. We ensure that every position we handle receives the same painstaking attention to detail and service. We take the time early on in the recruitment process to build a solid foundation, starting with the Discovery session wrapped in a “recruit 101 document”, a detailed 45-minute interview with you that enables our recruiters to get a 360-degree view of your business, the position, and your ideal hire. Multiple teams of specialists then work in concert to identify, screen, interview and help you hire the right candidate, every time. Our focus on efficiency and our unparalleled scale and expertise ensure that we deliver high-quality results and world-class customer service at a competitive price.

Does Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) work for all levels of positions?

GOOD NEWS!  Bessire has tested and proven that the RPO solution works for positions at many levels and is produces success in approximately 85% of any company’s hiring needs.   We have helped clients recruit for positions such as HVAC Service Technicians, Administrative Assistants, Directors of Human Resources, CFOs, Customer Services, Information Technology and many more.  RPO is a turnkey, enterprise-level process that sources, screens and engages top talent for job opportunities, allowing companies to save time and focus on what they do best.