Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) is a type of business process outsourcing where an external organization (RPO provider) supports an organization’s talent acquisition function by assuming responsibility for some or all facets of recruitment for some or all of your hiring needs.

Recruitment process outsourcing companies provide outsourced recruitment services for professional and non-professional positions to solve compliance, scalability, cost, quality, or other recruiting challenges. By assuming all or some portions of an organization’s recruitment functions, RPO companies improve recruiting effectiveness, reduce turnover and enable strategic growth.

During an RPO engagement, RPO recruiters work closely with their client’s talent acquisition and HR teams to understand the long-term talent acquisition goals, hiring challenges and objectives. The RPO provider then designs a customized recruiting program to support the client’s specific needs.  

RPO companies operate as a trusted partner and advisor, supporting multiple facets of talent programs. An RPO partner’s primary goal is to deploy a recruitment strategy that attracts, sources and hires high-quality permanent employees. Staffing agencies operate on a more reactive recruitment model, often hiring temporary or temp-to-perm talent on a requisition-to-requisition basis. Learn the top differences between an RPO and a staffing agency.

An RPO solution traditionally supports all responsibilities associated with permanent hiring within an organization, such as candidate sourcing, screening, candidate assessments, interviewing, and building talent pipelines. A Managed Service Provider’s (MSP) services are focused on contingent workforce management practices such as payroll management, staffing vendor management, procurement, and contingent workforce compliance expertise.

RPO and MSP can be blended under a Total Workforce Solution.

Here are just a few of the benefits you can experience with RPO: 

• Scalable Recruiting Resources: RPO solutions provide greater recruitment flexibility through an RPO provider’s ability to scale recruitment resources to match a client’s workforce objectives.  Scalable recruiting resources are ideal for organizations experiencing fluctuations in hiring volume, rapid growth, or who may need additional support to meet hiring demand.  
• Consistent and Standardized Recruitment Process: RPO providers can help an organization better organize and execute its recruitment program leading to a more seamless recruit-to-hire process and consistent and predictable results for job seekers and hiring managers. 
• Improved Candidate Quality: RPO providers have experience sourcing and hiring talent across all industries and skill types. An RPO provider will home in on more than a candidate’s experience and education to find candidates who best match the client’s company culture and business objectives.  

Full cycle recruiting or “end-to-end recruitment” is a holistic approach to talent acquisition where an RPO provider is involved in each step of the hiring process. From talent pipelining and delivering talent assessments to interviewing, sourcing, screening, and candidate selection, a full cycle RPO program can support a client’s strategic talent acquisition goals through the entire recruitment lifecycle.

Project RPO is a type of RPO solution where a client outsources its recruitment needs on a project-by-project basis. Project RPO is ideal for organizations looking to meet short-term talent acquisition needs without committing to long-term engagements. Project RPO can also help support one-off hiring projects where niche expertise is needed.