The business case
Recruitment always costs money, even if you outsource nothing. The question isn't what a partner costs, but what your current approach costs. Here's how to run the numbers, without the sales pitch.
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How do you calculate the business case for RPO?
Start by mapping your actual recruitment costs: fees per hire, job boards and tooling, internal recruitment hours and the cost of vacancies that stay open. Set those against one integrated approach with a predictable cost model, and manage on cost per hire and time to hire instead of individual invoices. RPO becomes interesting when your staffing need is structural or recurring.
See our pricing logicWhat does your current approach really cost?
Most organizations only know their recruitment costs from the invoices: a fee here, a job board subscription there. But the biggest costs rarely show up on an invoice.
A vacancy that stays open for months costs production, revenue or project progress, and meanwhile weighs on the colleagues who absorb the work. Internal recruitment hours disappear into intakes, writing, screening and calling, without anyone ever pricing them in. And every individual recruitment fee buys exactly one hire, leaving nothing behind for the next vacancy.
From scattered costs to steering metrics
A business case starts with two numbers you probably don't have sharp right now: your cost per hire (all costs per hired candidate, internal and external) and your time to hire (how long a vacancy stays open). How we define and measure them is documented in our measurement methodology, so you compare apples to apples.
With those two numbers, the comparison suddenly becomes simple. What does an extra month of lead time cost per vacancy? What are you effectively paying per hire today, all hidden hours included? And what happens to those numbers when employer branding, media, sourcing and follow-up form one system instead of loose actions? We also make that comparison concrete in RPO versus recruitment and selection.
When does RPO pay for itself?
Honest answer: not always. If you have one straightforward vacancy without time pressure, a standalone solution is sometimes more logical. RPO becomes financially interesting when your staffing need is structural: multiple or recurring vacancies, different role types, repeated fees that keep stacking up, or an internal team short on capacity and expertise. Then you replace unpredictable costs per hire with an approach that gets better and cheaper with every campaign, because data, content and brand awareness stay in place.
Where the costs really sit
If you want an honest business case, include these items.
- Open vacancies
- Missed production, revenue or project progress, plus the pressure on colleagues who absorb the work. Often the biggest cost of all.
- One-off fees per hire
- Every recruitment fee buys one candidate. Nothing carries over to the next vacancy: no data, no content, no brand awareness.
- Hidden internal hours
- Intakes, job ads, screening, calling, scheduling: hours from recruiters, HR and hiring managers that are rarely priced in.
- Media without strategy
- Job boards and campaigns running in isolation, with no funnel and follow-up behind them, rarely pay off.
- Slow follow-up
- Candidates who wait days for a response drop out. And the budget that brought them in is gone.
Step-by-step plan
How to build the business case
- 1
Map your current costs
All fees, tooling, media budgets and internal hours from the past year, plus how many vacancies you actually filled with them.
- 2
Price your open vacancies
Determine per role what a month unfilled costs: missed revenue, production or progress, and the pressure on the team.
- 3
Compare against one integrated approach
Set the total against an RPO partnership where strategy, media, sourcing and follow-up form one system.
- 4
Manage on cost per hire and time to hire
Make these two numbers leading in every evaluation, not the individual invoices.
For management, finance and HR
Calculate the business case for your organization
In one session we map your current costs, vacancies and time to hire and show you what the comparison looks like for your situation.
Frequently asked questions about costs and returns
Further reading
Run the numbers with your own figures
No standard presentation, but your vacancies, your costs and your lead times. Then you decide for yourself whether the business case holds up.
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