What is RPO?
Three letters you hear more and more often when it comes to hiring, and which mean something completely different in IT and broadcasting. Here we explain in plain language what Recruitment Process Outsourcing is, what it covers, which forms exist, what it costs and when it becomes interesting.
What is RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing)?
In recruitment, RPO stands for Recruitment Process Outsourcing (not to be confused with the IT term Recovery Point Objective): you place your hiring process with one external partner on a structural basis. That partner runs the full funnel, from employer branding and campaigns to sourcing, screening and follow-up, under your name. You pay for the process, not per placement.
This is what that process looks likeWhat does RPO include?
In an RPO partnership, your partner takes the entire recruitment process off your hands, or an agreed part of it. Think of sharpening your story as an employer, creating content, running campaigns, personally approaching latent talent, screening candidates and following up right through to the interview. At SocialFind, all of that happens under your own name: candidates get to know you, not us.
The big difference with standalone services: one team looks at the whole. If a campaign delivers lots of applicants but few hires, you see it in the numbers and the approach gets adjusted. Nobody points at another agency.
How does RPO differ from an agency?
A recruitment and selection agency delivers you a candidate and sends an invoice per placement. Fine for a single vacancy, but you build nothing with it: the knowledge, the candidates and the network stay with the agency. With RPO you work with a fixed team that gets to know your organization, and every campaign makes your employer brand stronger. The full comparison, including when an agency actually makes more sense, is at RPO or recruitment and selection.
Who is RPO meant for?
RPO is built for organizations that structurally need people: multiple vacancies per year, recurring inflow or hard-to-fill roles. If you have one common vacancy without time pressure, outsourcing recruitment in a lighter form is often more logical. Not sure? On who is RPO for we lay it out honestly.
Who does what in an RPO partnership?
RPO is a partnership, not a takeover. Your team remains the owner of culture and decisions, the RPO partner provides the recruitment engine around it.
Your team
- Organisational knowledge, culture and hiring managers
- Interviews and the final selection decision
- Terms of employment and the offer
- Internal processes and stakeholders
The RPO partner
- Labour market strategy and target group analysis
- Employer branding, content and campaigns
- Sourcing and personal candidate outreach
- Application funnels, screening and fast follow-up
- Data, reporting and continuous optimisation
This is what an RPO partnership includes
Which components we deploy differs per vacancy. This is the toolbox.
- Employer story and content
- We sharpen why someone would want to work for you and create the videos and content that tell that story, on your own work floor.
- Campaigns and visibility
- Vacancy campaigns on the channels where your audience really is, from Meta and TikTok to LinkedIn.
- Sourcing and personal outreach
- Latent talent that doesn't respond to vacancies, we approach in a targeted, personal way.
- Application funnels
- Short, mobile funnels that let candidates respond in a few minutes, without resume hassle.
- Screening and follow-up
- Fast phone follow-up and substantive screening, so you only speak to relevant candidates.
- Data and adjustment
- Every step is measured. What doesn't work goes, what works gets more room.
Which forms of RPO are there?
THE VARIANTSRPO is not a standard package. These are the four forms you come across in practice, and how they differ.
| Full RPO | Project-based RPO | RPO alongside internal team | Recruitment marketing only | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What is taken over | The complete process, from strategy to hire | The process for one defined need, such as a new site or a peak | An agreed part: reach, sourcing, funnels and follow-up alongside your own recruiters | Only visibility and applicants; screening and follow-up stay with you |
| Duration | Ongoing | Defined, with an end date | Ongoing | Per campaign or per month |
| Payment model | Fixed monthly fee | Fixed fee for the project period | Fixed monthly fee | Monthly budget plus media budget |
| Who steers towards hires | The RPO partner, together with your hiring managers | The RPO partner, for the duration of the project | Shared: your team selects, the partner fills the funnel | You; the agency steers towards applicants, not hires |
| Best suited to | Structural intake and several types of roles | One-off large hiring need with a deadline | Strong internal team that lacks reach or speed | Well-running internal process, too little visibility |
| At SocialFind | Yes, this is the standard partnership | By arrangement, for example for volume recruitment | Yes, one of the most common forms | Only as part of the recruitment mix, not as a standalone product |
All forms of outsourcing, including those outside RPO, are shown side by side on the page Outsourcing recruitment.
RPO next to the familiar alternatives
AT A GLANCEAn honest overview: every model has situations where it's the best choice.
| Recruitment and selection | Interim recruiter | RPO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you buy | One candidate per assignment | Extra capacity for your own process | A complete recruitment process |
| Payment model | Fee per placement | Hourly or monthly rate | Fixed monthly rate |
| Employer branding | Not included | Only if you arrange it yourself | Core component |
| Who candidates get to know | The agency | Your organization | Your organization |
| What you build | Little, knowledge stays with the agency | Knowledge leaves with the person | Brand and talent pool in your name, data available to you |
| Best suited for | One single, common vacancy | A temporary capacity gap | A structural staffing need |
You'll find the detailed comparisons per model under Compare, including the situations where you don't need us.
What does RPO cost?
The price of RPO depends on the size of your hiring need: how many vacancies, which types of roles, how scarce the target group is and how much media budget is needed to reach them. Most RPO partners work with a fixed monthly fee, sometimes supplemented with a fee per hire. At SocialFind you pay no placement fees: the partnership starts at EUR 6,500 per month, all-inclusive within the agreed scope. How that price compares to your current recruitment costs is calculated in the business case for RPO; the packages are on our pricing page.
When is RPO interesting, and when not?
RPO pays off as soon as you structurally need people: several vacancies a year, recurring intake or roles that have been open for months. Then, for a fixed fee, you pay for a system that builds knowledge, data and an employer brand in your name. If you have one common vacancy without time pressure, a lighter form of outsourcing recruitment is often more logical, and we will say so. The honest checklist is on who is RPO for. How the partnership works with us is explained on the RPO page and at our way of working.
The terms used here are explained one by one in the recruitment glossary.
Further reading on RPO
RPO at SocialFind
What you get, what it costs and how the partnership works.
RPO at SocialFindHow RPO works at SocialFind
The full process from intake to hire, step by step.
How RPO works at SocialFindWho is RPO for?
The honest checklist: when RPO suits and when it does not.
Who is RPO for?Outsourcing recruitment
All forms of outsourcing side by side, from agency search to RPO.
Outsourcing recruitmentCompare the recruitment models
RPO next to agency search, no cure no pay and more.
Compare the recruitment modelsOur pricing
One fixed monthly fee, no placement fees.
Our pricing
Curious whether RPO fits your vacancies?
Tell us who you need. We determine how to find, convince and hire them.
Frequently asked questions about RPO
No. A recruitment and selection agency delivers a candidate per assignment and charges a fee per placement. RPO is an ongoing partnership in which one partner runs your entire hiring process, under your name. You pay for the process and build your own employer brand and talent pool.
That depends on the scale of your hiring needs. SocialFind works with a fixed monthly rate without placement fees, so you know exactly where you stand up front. Our pricing page lists the packages and what's included, along with the media budget for campaigns.
Yes, that happens all the time. Your recruiters know the organization, the hiring managers and the culture. We add labor market knowledge, content, campaigns, sourcing and speed in follow-up. Together that makes a stronger recruitment engine than either one alone.
After the introduction and intake we set up the partnership, and the first campaigns typically go live within a few weeks. Exactly how fast depends on your vacancies, the available content and how quickly we sharpen the proposition together. We walk you through this step by step during implementation.
RPO stands for Recruitment Process Outsourcing: outsourcing your hiring process to an external partner who runs it for you on a structural basis. The same three letters have other meanings outside recruitment. In IT, RPO is the Recovery Point Objective, the maximum amount of data you may lose in an outage, and in the Netherlands RPO is also the umbrella organisation of regional public broadcasters. If you are looking for a recruitment partner, it is the first meaning.
RTO and RPO in this combination are IT terms, not recruitment terms. RTO (Recovery Time Objective) says how quickly a system must be running again after an outage, RPO (Recovery Point Objective) how much data you may lose at most. If that is what you are looking for, you are on the wrong page with us. Here RPO is about Recruitment Process Outsourcing: placing your hiring structurally with one partner.
An RPO recruiter is a recruiter employed by an RPO partner who recruits from there for one or more clients, under the name of that client. Unlike an interim recruiter, he or she does not work alone: behind an RPO recruiter is a team that takes care of content, campaigns, sourcing and data. At SocialFind these are the people who run your funnel every day, in consultation with your hiring managers.
RPO recruitment is hiring according to the Recruitment Process Outsourcing model: not buying a candidate per vacancy, but having the entire hiring process run structurally by one partner. That partner determines the approach per role, runs campaigns, sourcing, screening and follow-up, and reports on hires. The term is also used for vacancies at RPO agencies themselves; for employers it is about the form of partnership.
An RPO provider takes over your hiring process on a structural basis, instead of filling individual vacancies. It builds the recruitment strategy, generates inflow through campaigns and sourcing, screens and follows up candidates and reports on hires. This usually happens under your employer brand and for a fixed fee for an agreed capacity, without a placement fee per candidate. You keep the final decision on who you hire.