Time to Hire

Ep 32 Heather Siler on Why Smart Healthcare Leaders Prefer Flexible Recruitment Solutions

• Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association (RPOA)

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Heather Siler from Hire Velocity joins Lamees Abourahma to discuss how Project RPO can solve healthcare's most pressing talent challenges, from managing workforce fluctuations to scaling teams rapidly across multiple geographies. They explore real-world examples of successful implementations, the evolving role of AI in recruitment, and why the human touch remains irreplaceable in healthcare hiring. This is a conversation you won't want to miss.

Key Takeaways Include:

  • Project RPO offers flexible solutions for time-sensitive, geography-specific, or volume-based hiring needs
  • Healthcare organizations can maintain their existing TA functions while leveraging specialized project teams for unique challenges
  • Technology enhances efficiency but human interaction remains critical for quality hiring
  • Successful RPO implementation requires strong leadership buy-in and clear communication
  • RPO partners act as brand ambassadors, going to market as your organization rather than just providing candidates from a "black book"

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About the guest: 

 Heather Siler, Vice President of Talent Solutions at Hire Velocity

Contact the RPO Association at info@rpoassociation.org

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Go here for more information about Hire Velocity

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Whether you're a seasoned talent acquisition professional or just starting in the field, "Time to Hire" provides an invaluable platform to expand your knowledge, learn from industry leaders, and stay up-to-date with the rapidly changing world of recruitment.


Welcome to the Time to Hire from the Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association. 

I'm your host, Lamees Abourahma.

Today, we're exploring the world of talent acquisition for health care with Heather Siler, Vice President of Talent Solutions at HireVelocity. 

We'll discuss the critical challenges facing talent acquisition leaders, unpack the evolving role of Recruitment Process Outsourcing, and specifically spotlight Project RPO - a flexible solution transforming how organizations approach hiring. 

Heather brings over 20 years of industry expertise and will share insights on how technology, strategic partnerships, and innovative approaches are reshaping talent acquisition in healthcare. 

Get ready for a conversation that goes beyond traditional recruiting and reveals how the right talent strategy can drive organizational success.

Welcome Heather. I’m looking forward to our conversation, and want to start with the high-level view. Help us understand some of the challenges that talent acquisition faces today, specifically in healthcare.

Heather Siler

Sure. Healthcare specifically is similar to other industries. The economic challenges that we've seen, the roller coaster of ups and downs over the last couple years - attracting and retaining talent is a struggle no matter where you sit. Specifically in healthcare, though, I think many of us have sat through COVID and the post-COVID uptick, and then now we're seeing a little bit more of a leveling off. And what does that look like going forward?

I think organizations are still trying to understand what the right recipe is for their talent acquisition team, and a lot of that is driven by the need out there. Healthcare, of course, is one of those industries that has a constant need. If you look at some of the trends, you'll see healthcare as a top talent indicator over the past I don't even know how many years. Finding the right recipe for talent acquisition leaders within those organizations is a constant struggle, so they oftentimes look to RPO organizations to help augment their internal talent acquisition team or outsource fully to have a better hold on cost controls, time to fill, and overall management of the ins and outs of the employment base within the organizations.

Lamees Abourahma 

Thank you. You alluded to this recipe for managing this challenge of talent acquisition, and you alluded to a possible solution. You referenced RPO, but for those who are not familiar with RPO, help us understand what is Recruitment Process Outsourcing. What does that mean?

Heather Siler

Sure. RPO - Recruitment Process Outsourcing - is outsourcing all or part of the recruitment process. That can be outsourcing for a portion of your organization's hiring or all of it. Companies like Hire Velocity work with clients to solve their talent attraction and retention challenges. A lot of the times, it is a hybrid of certain aspects of the recruitment process.

It can run the gamut of an organization outsourcing 100% of their talent acquisition team to an RPO provider, or portions like a geography, a portion within the process (meaning only sourcing or screening), as well as a specific skill set within their organization. There are many different flavors, and there are a lot of providers like Hire Velocity out there that can solve those problems.

Lamees Abourahma 

Awesome. So RPO has been around for a while. It's not a new thing, even though there are still people who are not familiar with RPO, and this is a big mission for the association to continue to educate the marketplace about RPO and its evolving value proposition, because it has been changing as well since it started. Now, one of the trends that we've seen recently is an uptick in demand for a specific engagement type of RPO, specifically project RPO. Can you talk about that?

Heather Siler

Sure. To define project RPO, it is deviating slightly from your traditional RPO model. Project RPO, in the name "Project," does define either time constraints, which might be: I have a short amount of time to get a team up and running; to fulfill a build-out for a location or facility; to support a ramp-up or a specific product we're delivering; to triage a certain area within my business that is struggling with retention or quality employees.

A project RPO solution can be put in place with certain parameters to solve for these scenarios. But it's not always time. I will say often that time is an indicator for Project RPO, but sometimes it is more of "we have a need to hire a specific number of individuals with a skill set." I don't care how long it takes, but we need to hit this certain number, and that is defined as the project. Project RPO is a fluid model defined by different parameters, but the constant is that there are parameters in place where there's a start and a finish based on specific criteria.

Lamees Abourahma 

Yeah. Another parameter, if you will, is geography as well, correct?

Heather Siler

Yeah.

Lamees Abourahma

Can you talk about that? I feel like it's also specifically relevant for healthcare, because unlike most industries where remote work is prevalent, healthcare has less remote work than other industries, right?

Heather Siler

Absolutely. We do see, especially from a facility standpoint - hospitals, acquisitions, things of that nature - new regimes come in, they need to focus on specific locations. Geographies are where a project RPO can be put in place to spend specific time and dedication to support those ramp-ups and build-outs, all while maintaining your existing talent acquisition function, focusing on whether that's an internal TA team or another RPO, but focusing on the day-in and day-out, where the project RPO team can focus on this nuanced geo ramp-up, build-out, whatever it may be.

Lamees Abourahma 

Yeah, we kind of touched on what makes project RPO attractive, or some of the benefits, and some of that is the flexibility, right? Because when organizations have fluctuation in hiring, they don't have to build and contract their internal team. You can bring in a partner. Do you want to talk about some of the benefits of project RPO?

Heather Siler

Sure. The ability to have visibility into cost, into timelines, deliverables, all while not disrupting the organization's existing talent acquisition function is important for Project RPO. You generally have an RPO provider such as Hire Velocity succinctly map out what you can expect within that project, so your expectations and the deliverables are clearly outlined. We talk about time again, a lot here, but meeting certain timelines is very important. And generally, carving this project out specifically and handing it to a project RPO engagement will alleviate some of the stress and avoid pushing something like this down to your existing talent acquisition team.

Lamees Abourahma

If you're enjoying this podcast from the Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association, I'd love to invite you to join us in person at the 2025 RPOA annual conference this September in Chicago. 

This year's event is all about the powerful stories shaping strategic talent acquisition in uncertain times. Over a day and a half, RPO leaders, talent acquisition executives, and industry innovators will come together to learn, connect and grow. Hope to see you there andnow let's get back to our podcast.

Lamees Abourahma 

So Heather, we talked about the solution in general terms. I love examples and real-life examples. Do you have one or two that you can share with us?

Heather Siler

I do. From a healthcare standpoint specifically, we have been working with a behavioral therapy organization that is online, based in the US for quite some time. As they are expanding on a global level, they have partnered with us to ramp up the skill set that we are currently recruiting for in certain countries in Europe.

While there might be a long-term need for us to support turnover and maybe some expansions, the need came towards the end of last year for us to quickly build a team based in the locations they've specified, to meet a certain target of hires per country by a certain period. So we had a timeline presented to us, a very precise number of individuals needed, identified and hired by a certain period of time per location, knowing full well, once we met that number, this "triage team" kind of disbands and goes back to steady state. We are actually in our fourth month of this engagement. It's going very well, but we are looking at the end date for this project coming up, while hoping to continue to maintain day-in and day-out everyday business with them long-term.

Lamees Abourahma 

Yeah, and that's part of the attractiveness of that solution, right? Because you can turn it off and bring it back up, it has flexibility.

Heather Siler

Exactly. Oftentimes, when something like that would come up, an organization would either have to hire or have to overburden their existing team, whereas we have the ability to flex up and flex down seamlessly with our trained, equipped individuals, and it's much less of a heavy lift on the end-user client side than it would be if they tried to do it all themselves.

Lamees Abourahma 

I love that. Thank you. Let's talk about technology, because technology has become an important aspect of recruiting in general, but definitely something that RPO buyers and employers look for in their RPO partner. Tell us why that's important. What's the role of technology in that?

Heather Siler

It's funny, I've had about 20 years in the industry, which is insane, but technology just continues to be table stakes at this point with any program, not just project RPO. With Project RPO, the role that AI plays, especially when you have a time constraint around the project that you're delivering on, AI in certain areas is designed to help cut out time, to help take the administrative tasks off of the individual so they can focus elsewhere.

We're seeing a lot of use of AI in candidate matching, in screening and first-level interview questions and interactions, and in scheduling so we don't have to have the human interface of trying to go back and forth with interviews. You can just have AI do that for us. And then even post with any kind of assessments or some onboarding technologies we're seeing come to market. Especially with time constraints for Project RPO, anywhere we can clip away at that time to fill gives us the opportunity to find better matches to do the human part of recruiting that much better.

Lamees Abourahma 

Yeah, and I know even with AI and more adoption of technology, Heather, I know you agree with this, but I'll give you the chance to elaborate. This does not replace recruiters - the human touch. I hear this from all of our members, that it is not going anywhere. It works in tandem.

Heather Siler

I agree, and I hope that's the long-term plan. There is always going to, in my opinion, be the need for the human interaction. Yes, the front-end sourcing and screening can be heavily impacted by AI. But at the end of the day, if you are expecting and looking for that white-glove treatment, the human interaction cannot be replaced.

Having eyes visibly on someone, having that conversation, being able to feel the energy, being able to really scrutinize resumes or CVs, those types of things, while enhanced by AI, the human piece is extremely important.

Lamees Abourahma 20:18

Awesome. Thank you. One probably we can close with this question, unless you have other thoughts that you would like to add: what kind of organizations would benefit most from Project RPO, in your opinion?

Heather Siler

A project RPO would fit fine in most organizations, most industries. I think it just is a matter of what is being defined by the project - certain skill sets or volumes or timelines may or may not work, but if you're working with the right RPO provider, you could find a nice match.

I don't think it really excludes any types of organizations or industries. There's probably some that are better than others, but again, the right RPO provider can solution something that will meet and exceed your expectations, in my opinion.

Lamees Abourahma 

Let me probably ask a better question. For an employer that probably has not experienced project RPO, how would they know that's the right solution for them?

Heather Siler

For employers who haven't experienced project RPO, I think they need to do their research to understand: What's the benefit? What's the ROI? Why would they need to not take this project on internally? What would they gain from having a project RPO or an RPO provider support them in this initiative?

I think the expectations and the communication around setting up and implementing a program like this are key for success, but organizations need to understand and be realistic about what the end goal is for both parties involved.

Lamees Abourahma 

Yeah, leadership buy-in is also important, would you agree?

Heather Siler

Exactly. Without the top level encouraging and enforcing the adoption, the ultimate success is at risk.

Lamees Abourahma 

Well, one thing we know about RPO is that an RPO is more of a partner. It's consultative, right? And this is what RPO is evolving into, because a big part of working with an RPO versus a staffing organization is an RPO promotes the employer brand of their partner. Can you talk about that? Maybe the role of an RPO in supporting the employer brand and employee value proposition for an organization?

Heather Siler

Absolutely. My standpoint and viewpoint is the difference between an RPO and a staffing firm is that the RPO really does go to market as your organization. They put the organization's hat on.

They're in the market, in the job boards, doing the advertising representing the employer, and hoping to attract talent in that aspect. Many RPOs don't have a "black book" of candidates that they're handing over to each of their clients. Not saying that that's a bad thing. But a lot of RPOs operate that each individual-requisition-or-search is a start from scratch. We're going to go out and find the best match for the descriptions and the skills in this requisition.

Lamees Abourahma 

So I feel like we've made all these points. Any last words of wisdom that, thinking about the audience and the talent acquisition leaders in healthcare, anything we want to leave them with?

Heather Siler

I think we touched a little bit about the implementation and the leadership buy-in. My advice to first-time RPO users, buyers, whether it be project or traditional RPO, is change management and communication are the key components whenever you are embarking on any kind of engagement like this. To ensure adoption, to ensure a successful program, there has to be communication from the top, as well as continuing through implementation and during the engagement. That's, to me, the only way the success is seen at the end of what a program, project, long-term engagement, whatever it may be.

Lamees Abourahma 

Cool. So I'm going to end with this question. This is going to be a personal question, Heather, but you've said you've been in the industry for 20 years. What do you like about RPO?

Heather Siler

What do I like? I like solving problems. For me, being able to work with organizations in many industries, in many walks of life, understanding how talent can make an impact on these organizations, meeting their business goals is extremely interesting. And no two organizations are alike. No two organizations have the same goals or obstacles. So for me, it's always about putting on that solutions hat and how do we solve for the challenge ahead? It's always exciting and always fun.

Lamees Abourahma 

I love it. I worked in consulting for a period of time, and I can completely relate. It's never the same. It continues to change. Doesn't get boring, right?

Heather Siler

For sure. That's for sure.

Lamees Aboutahma

I hope you enjoyed this episode of The Time to Hire podcast from the Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association. Give us a review wherever you listen to the podcast and always stay connected, stay engaged and stay informed of what's happening in the talent and recruiting world by tuning into the RBOA, the place to go for RPO™.