One of our largest clients (50K U.S. employees) sends out a satisfaction survey at the end of every month. Our SLA is to maintain a 90% satisfaction rating. For all you math wizards that's 9 out 10 hiring managers need to be satisfied or more than satisfied with our service every month. The good news is we regularly hit 98% - 100% over the last 12 months.

That's all well and good, but I still wonder if it's enough. Is hiring manager satisfaction really the key to a successful hiring program? On one level, I can see the argument for that being the case. On the other hand, what if the hiring manager's expectations are so low it's hard not to meet them? What if the hiring managers are OK with it taking 45 to 60 days to hire someone? Or historically are so used to that kind of delivery that it's just the norm? That might not really fly with the corporate objective to acquire better talent quicker. It's weird to be an RPO thinking about ways to increase expectations, but how else are we providers going to sustain long lasting RPO deals if RPO's in general aren't looking for ways to continue to improve performance?

I said it before and I'll say it again, "lift and shift" is dead. All of us in the RPO space are going to be held to higher SLA's in every category as we dive into this next big wave.