Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)

We run your hiring function — as an extension of your team, under your brand, using your process or one we build with you.

For a related Monitask resource on employee computer activity, see this resource.

Suited to companies hiring at volume, scaling faster than internal capacity allows, or spending more on agency fees than a dedicated function would cost.

The arithmetic

This is the whole case for RPO, so it is worth being blunt about it.

Contingency recruitment charges a percentage of each salary. At ten hires a year that is manageable. At forty it is a large number, and it does not fall as volume rises.

RPO is priced per hire or as a monthly engagement. The cost per hire drops as volume grows, which is the opposite behaviour.

The crossover point depends on your role mix and salary levels, but it exists, and we will model it honestly — including the case where it shows you should keep using contingency.

What an engagement includes

Sourcing and screening across your open roles.

Process design. Interview structure, scorecards, stage definitions, decision criteria. Most hiring problems are process problems, and this is where an RPO engagement earns more than the sourcing does.

Employer brand support. Job postings, careers content, candidate communications — written to attract rather than to describe requisitions.

ATS management. Working in your system, keeping it clean, so your data stays yours.

Reporting. Time to fill, source effectiveness, pipeline conversion, offer acceptance, and where candidates are dropping out.

Hiring manager training, where the constraint is interviewing quality rather than candidate volume.

Models

Full RPO — the whole hiring function.

Selective RPO — specific departments, locations, or role families.

Project RPO — a defined burst: a new site, a funded expansion, a seasonal ramp.

Most engagements start selective or project-based. It is the sensible way to test whether the arrangement works before committing the whole function to it.

Pricing

Per hire — a fixed fee per placement, agreed by role band.

Monthly management fee — a fixed monthly cost covering an agreed recruiter allocation, plus a smaller per-hire fee.

Project fee — a fixed price for a defined hiring programme.

Whichever model, the cost is visible and predictable rather than proportional to salaries.

What we need from you

ATS access and a clear picture of your current process.

Hiring manager availability. RPO does not fix a hiring team that will not interview.

Honest baseline data. Current time to fill, offer acceptance rate, and agency spend. Without it, neither of us can tell whether the engagement worked.

A named internal owner. Someone on your side who makes decisions.

When RPO is wrong for you

Under roughly ten to fifteen hires a year — contingency is cheaper
Highly specialised, low-volume searches — retained search fits better
Hiring is paused or uncertain — an engagement with no volume costs money and delivers nothing

Recruitment process outsourcing