Over on the Recruiting Animal blogroll, the Canadian Headhunter categorizes our blog as a “RPO” blog.  RPO stands for Recruiting Process Outsourcing.  I noticed that CH categorized us this way a while back, but I’ve been too busy to tell him he’s wrong.  So, Michael, you’re wrong. ;-)

A RPO company - just as any outsourcing model company – takes a piece of your business (in this case, recruiting) and does it for you.  RPOs may just do your candidate sourcing; they may just do your interviewing; they may just do your offer presentations … or they may do the whole package for you.

Zoë and I have no problem with RPO companies and the employers who utilize their services.  It can be a fine arrangement if a company doesn’t have a recruiting department and needs someone else to do the work for them.  That’s not what we do though.

We’ve always felt that the software engineering business – especially the last few years with the continued rise of virtual and in-person developer communities – was a bit of a different beast.  The need for recruiters – whether in-house or outsourced – will and should never go away.  But since the social dynamics of the software industry are unique, we strongly believe that the employers who will be most successful in their hiring endeavors during the next decade will be those who put their technical employees on the front lines to get down and dirty in the recruiting process.  From what we’ve seen, Google is living this mantra the most these days, but other smaller companies are catching on fast, too.  It’s time to watch out.

I was researching RPO companies, and I ran across one company that loudly exclaims on their website:

Concentrate on your core competency.  Our core competency is recruiting top talent quickly and effectively.

Ok, fine.  That’s cool.  But we believe that attracting and hiring top talent should be among a company’s core competencies, shouldn't it?  That competency is too important to off-load it to someone else.  We created this company to help instill that competency and belief in all employees and teach them how to help their recruiting department, RPO, or co-workers to recruit the talent even more quickly and effectively.

As a stark contrast to the RPO’s statement discussed above, let’s take the example of Microsoft.  This is a company who has always instilled a strong “recruiting religion” in its employees. Just a few months ago, Fortune printed: 

What does Microsoft run on, if not financial capital? A clue: Ask executives what the company's core competency is, and they don't say a thing about software. They say hiring.

Yes, hiring.  Each and every employee is required to be a recruiter.  Now, I do think Microsoft’s employee recruiting skills have slipped in the last few years (they need  a refresher course to keep up with the changing market, that’s all), but their passion for recruiting the stars of tomorrow is still there.

So, call us what you will, but don’t call us a RPO company. ;-)  Maybe we are a RPS … a Recruiting Process Supplement company.    Or maybe a SETME … a Software Engineering Talent Magnet Enabler company.  Ooh, I like that.    
 
Seth Godin says you shouldn’t necessarily try to fit yourself into an existing category and sometimes it’s ok to have a category all to yourself.  You just need to "pick your category and live and breathe and act appropriately for that category.”  We agree and have always tried to stick by that rule.   So with that in mind, here’s our new category:  Two really cool chicks who "get" software engineering recruitment and will blow your mind with our crazy mad skillz.  Whatcha think? ;-)

Happy Friday!

gretchen