RPO or secondment
Hire specialists temporarily or bring them on board yourself? Here you'll see honestly what secondment delivers, what it costs and when recruiting your own people is structurally smarter.
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What is the difference between secondment and RPO?
With secondment you hire a specialist who is employed by the secondment agency: quickly available, but temporary and at a hefty hourly rate. With RPO you recruit specialists who join your own payroll. Secondment fits temporary expertise, RPO fits knowledge you need permanently.
How we recruit specialistsThe comparison
Secondment and RPO side by side
| Secondment | SocialFind RPO | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | High hourly rate for as long as the secondee stays | Fixed monthly fee for the recruitment, then a normal salary |
| Knowledge retention | Knowledge and experience leave with the secondee | Knowledge stays in your own team and keeps growing there |
| Availability | Quickly deployable, that's the strength of secondment | Recruitment takes time, but delivers a permanent fill |
| Loyalty to your organization | Loyalty sits with the agency and their own career | Employees consciously choose your organization |
| Employer branding | No effect on your employer brand | Every campaign builds your name with the target audience |
| Long-term cost | The rate keeps running, extension is the rule | Recruitment costs are one-off per specialist hired |
| Suitable for | Temporary expertise, projects, bridging a gap | Building lasting knowledge in your own team |
For a six-month project requiring unique expertise, secondment is simply sensible. This comparison is about structural knowledge needs.
The core
Renting capacity or building a team?
Every month of secondment solves that month's problem. Your own specialist solves the problem for good and makes your team stronger. So the question isn't what's faster, but what you want to have in place two years from now.
See our approach for scarce talent.jpg&w=1920&q=75)
When is secondment the better choice?
Honestly: sometimes it just is. A six-month implementation project, expertise you won't need afterwards, or bridging while a colleague recovers. For temporary, well-defined jobs, a secondee is exactly what you pay for: knowledge without commitment.
Where does structural secondment start to pinch?
Many organizations use secondment not because the work is temporary, but because they can't find the specialist themselves. Then secondment becomes an expensive stopgap: the hourly rate keeps running, one extension follows another, and when the contract ends the knowledge walks out the door. Meanwhile your own team doesn't get stronger and the vacancy effectively stays open.
How do you find specialists who seem impossible to find?
The fact that scarce profiles don't respond to job sites doesn't mean they're out of reach. With active sourcing and Thought Leader Recruitment we approach passive talent personally, with a substantive story instead of a standard vacancy. That's how you build a specialist team that belongs to you, not to an agency.
What does that mean financially?
Put the annual rate of a secondee next to the salary of that same specialist on your payroll plus one-off recruitment costs. The business case for RPO helps you make that comparison cleanly, including the cost of knowledge that keeps leaving.
Frequently asked questions about secondment and RPO
Compare further
Ready to bring knowledge in-house ?
Tell us what expertise you're currently renting. You'll get an honest picture of what it costs to bring that knowledge on board for good, and whether that's wise in your situation.
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