Risks perceived regarding recruitment process outsourcing: stakeholder concerns

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore various risks that are associated with recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) strategy in the Indian information technology (IT)/IT-enabled service (ITes) industries.Design/methodology/approachPurposeful intensity sampling was used to select respondents from IT/ITes organizations. Twenty-eight respondents were interviewed through face-to-face semi-structured interviews and telephonic interviews. Each interview lasted for approximately 65 min. All interviews were audio recorded with the permission of the respondents and were then transcribed. The data were analyzed with the help of a qualitative technique, thematic analysis.FindingsResults show that the stakeholders associated with RPO are not satisfied with several issues such as violation of initial contact between the applicant and the potential employer, violation of contracts by the vendor, unfair practices by the vendor, poor quality service provided by the vendor, plausibility that the vendor does not understand the culture of the client organization, inappropriate placement of human resources by the vendor, low morale of the employees and loss of managerial control due to RPO.Research limitations/implicationsSmall sample size and qualitative research design reduces the external validity of the findings to certain extent.Practical implicationsCompanies deploying RPO should be wary about the plausible negative consequences. This paper offers various solutions to mitigate such risks.Originality/valueThis paper is a novel attempt which details various risks due to deployment of RPO from multiple stakeholder perspectives.