INTRODUCTION: Outsourcing the human resource (HR) processes is the latest practice being followed by middle and large

sized organizations. It is being witnessed across all the industries. In India, the HR processes are being outsourced from nearly a decade now. Outsourcing industry is growing at a high rate.

Human Resource Outsourcing refers to the process in which an organisation uses the expert services of a third party (generally professional consultants) to take care of its HR functions while HR management can focus on the strategic dimension of their function.

Many organizations have started outsourcing its recruitment process i.e. transferring all or some part of its recruitment process to an external consultant providing the recruitment services. It is commonly known as RPO i.e. recruitment process outsourcing. More and more medium and large sized organizations are outsourcing their recruitment process right from the entry level jobs to the senior level jobs.

The present value of the recruitment process outsourcing industry (RPO) in India is estimated to be $2.5 billion and it is expected to grow at the annual rate of 30-40 per cent for the next couple of years. According to a recent survey, only 8-10 per cent of the Indian companies are handling complete recruitment processes. However, the number of companies outsourcing their recruitment processes is increasing at a very fast rate and so is the percentage of their total recruitment processes being outsourced.

Outsourcing organizations strive for providing cost saving benefits to their clients. One of the major advantages to organizations, who outsource their recruitment process, is that it helps to save up to as much as 40 per cent of their recruitment costs. With the experience, expertise and the economies of scale of the third party, organizations are able to improve the quality of the recruits and the speed of the whole process. Also, outsourcing enables the human resource professionals of organizations to focus on the core and other HR and strategic issues. Outsourcing also gives a structured approach to the whole process of recruitment, with the ultimate power of decision making of recruiting with the organization itself. The portion of the recruitment cycle that is outsourced range from preparing job descriptions to arranging interviews, the activities that consume almost 70 per cent of the time of the whole recruitment process.

In India, the trend of outsourcing recruitment is also catching up fast. For example: Vodafone outsources its recruitment activities to Alexander Mann Solutions (RPO service provider). Wipro has outsourced its recruitment process to MeritTrac. Yes bank is also known to outsource 50 per cent of its recruitment processes.

TITLE:

Role of Recruitment Portals in Sourcing Candidates to Companies, from the Perspective of Recruitment Agencies

NEED OF THE STUDY:

Recruitment consultancies, agencies or intermediaries are witnessing a boom in the demand of their services, both by the employers and the job seekers. With an already saturated job market, the recruitment intermediaries have gained a vital position acting as a link between the job seekers and the employers.

But at the same time, one of the major threats faced by this industry is the growing popularity of e-recruitment. With the changing demand, technologies and the penetration and increasing use of internet, the recruitment consultancies or the intermediaries are facing tough competition. To retain and maintain their position in the recruitment market, the recruitment intermediaries or consultants (as they are commonly known) are witnessing and incorporating various changes in terms of their role, functions and the services.

According to a survey amongst top employers, most of them agree with the growing influence of technology and the Internet on the recruitment processes. 70 per cent of employers reported the use of application portal on their companys official website. Apart from that, the emerging popularity of the job portals is also growing.

But the fact that the intermediaries or the consultants are able to provide their expert services, economies of scale, up to 40 percent savings in the recruitment costs, knowledge of the market, the candidates, understanding of the requirements, and most importantly, the assess to the suitable and talented candidates and the structured recruitment processes. The recruitment intermediaries save the organisations from the

tedious of weeding out unsuitable resumes, co-coordinating interviews, posting vacancies etc. give them an edge over the other sources of recruitment.

To retain their position as the service providers in the recruitment market, the recruitment intermediaries are providing value added services to the organizations. They are incorporating the use of internet and job portals, making their services more efficient.

Despite of the growing use of the internet, the recruitment intermediaries are predicted to continue dominating the recruitment market in the anticipated future.

Recruitment consultants will have different sources and strategies to source the right candidate for the organization requirement and few of them are;

Head Hunting Sourcing profiles of job portals Reference from the right candidate Campus Interviews Database Creation The source and the strategy depends on the nature of candidate required by company, out of various sources mentioned above souring profile from job portals is extensively used source for most of the consultants. So it is very essential to know the effectiveness of subscribing to job portals by paying huge subscription fees and understanding the role of job portals towards success of recruitment agencies. Few of the top job portals include Naukri.com, Monster India, Timesjobs, Naukrihub, NaukriGuru etc.The study will help us to understand the effectiveness of job portals in enhancing the closures or providing right candidate to the companies.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

1. To analyze and understand the Recruitment Process outsourcing (RPO) of various organizations. 2. To study the strategies applied by recruitment agencies to remain as most preferred vendor. 3. To study the success ratio of agencies with respect to providing right candidate and closure. 4. To understand and analyze the dependency of recruitment agencies on job portals for sourcing profiles.

5. To analyze recruitment agencies success and worth of subscribing to job portals.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The research design and methodology is presented as follows;

Primary data Through self administered questionnaire. The questionnaire will be administered on heads and senior sourcing executives selected from leading recruitment agencies. Secondary data The secondary data will be collected through existing studies on RPO through various journals books, & internet and other sources. Sample frame A list of recruitment agencies Sample unit Agency Head or Senior Sourcing Executive or Team leader or any one who has more than 3 to 5 yrs of experience in sourcing. Sample method In order to achieve the objectives of research the random sampling method can be followed. The sample size will be 100 in total. SCOPE OF THE STUDY The proposed study identifies and provides inputs on various important issues like; How companies are selecting agencies, which will help agencies to understand requirements. Study also reveals on what are the different strategies adopted by recruitment agencies to achieve high closure ratio which will help to decide on which I the best source for sourcing. Study also gives a kind of cost benefit analysis of investing in job portals so that agencies can make professional decision before while subscribing to job portals. Overall study will help to revamp total RPO process and hit ratio of agencies in terms of providing right candidate and closure.