RPO of Recruitment Agency: What Is the Difference and Which Do You Choose?

Do you need support with recruitment and are you torn between RPO and a recruitment agency? What is the difference between RPO and a recruitment agency and how do you choose the approach that suits your needs, target audience, and growth path? In this article, we explain what Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) entails, how it differs from a traditional recruitment agency, and when to use each solution. You will gain a clear understanding to make the choice easy.

What is a recruitment agency?

A recruitment agency, also known as a recruitment/selection agency, assists you in filling vacancies. You issue an assignment: "find an HR manager", "find a marketing manager", "find a programme manager for project X". The agency uses its network: through job boards, active sourcing, and headhunters, candidates are sought. Subsequently, the agency presents the best selection, you choose and close the intake, and the agency charges a fee (often a percentage of the first year's salary).

Advantages and disadvantages of working with a recruitment agency

A recruitment agency can be a solution when you need to move quickly, for example in times of peak demand or for hard-to-fill positions. It is a flexible solution, but there are also limitations to consider. These are the main advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages:

• You receive immediate results in the form of targeted advice or qualified candidates for a specific profile.
• You employ the agency based on needs, without long-term obligations.

• You only pay upon success: per fulfilled vacancy, without ongoing costs.

  Disadvantages:

• Working with multiple agencies simultaneously can lead to inconsistent candidate experience and unclear reporting.
• You generally do not gain insight into sourcing channels used, conversion rates, or overall recruitment performance.
• The agency is only active as long as a recruitment budget is available. Sustainable knowledge building within your organisation is lacking.

A recruitment agency offers speed and flexibility, but often lacks the structural insights and continuity needed for sustainable recruitment improvements. Therefore, consider carefully whether you need a quick solution or structural control over your recruitment process.

What is RPO?

Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) means that you outsource the entire or partial recruitment process structurally to an external partner. We can be that partner. HeadFirst takes control of the complete recruitment process: from drafting job profiles and labour market communication to sourcing, selection, onboarding, and performance analysis.

Unlike one-off CV submission, RPO is a fully integrated approach. We work closely with your organisation to ensure processes seamlessly align with your internal practices and culture.

What you can expect from us:

• A dedicated recruitment team with expertise in your sector;
• Full control over lead time, quality, and candidate experience;
• Insight into data and performance through dashboards and reports;
• Scalable capacity, tailored to your needs.

With RPO from HeadFirst you bring not just a supplier, but an extension of your own HR organisation, focused on results, continuity, and growth.

Process and responsibilities

With a recruitment agency, the responsibility for sourcing, selection, and intake usually lies with the agency. You align profiles, and the agency gets to work. Then you receive a shortlist and interview candidates. The process mainly focuses on candidates.

With RPO, the distribution of responsibilities is different. Together you determine who to look for, the RPO team integrates into your HR or hiring department and owns the recruitment channels, structure, and data. You gain full control over the process and results. The RPO team takes over components on a strategic level, with its own expertise and a methodical approach.

Cost Model

A recruitment agency charges per successfully filled position. This is usually 15 to 25% of the gross annual salary. That is attractive for occasional hiring. RPO usually works with fixed monthly fees, depending on volume or workload. Sometimes there are incremental onboarding costs or setup fees. The advantage? This is scalable, you can count on a predictable budget and no surprises if you suddenly need to hire many people.

Flexibility and Speed

If you are looking for staff occasionally, a recruitment agency is useful. You can switch quickly, without long-term commitment. With RPO you choose continuity. During spikes (for example with more than 10 vacancies at the same time), you can easily adjust on volume or capacity, without hassle. During downturns, you can adjust or temporarily halt recruitment. That flexibility is a substantial plus.

Candidate Experience and Employer Branding

A recruitment agency presents candidates per vacancy. Sometimes communication is standard, sometimes inconsistent because agencies handle multiple recruitment processes. RPO, on the other hand, monitors employer branding. Candidates receive honest, timely feedback, clear communication, and a professional experience. Your recruitment process exudes quality. This strengthens your market reputation and increases the chance of successful recruitment.

Data and Insight

“I do get candidates through the agency... but I have no idea through which channel.” or: “there are too few responses, but you don’t hear anything back.” are typical statements from companies that engage with recruitment agencies. With RPO you get monthly insights. The number of candidates per channel, any bottlenecks, the processing time and shortages are all visible. You can compare multiple recruitment channels on performance. This goes much further than the recruitment agency model.

Strategic Guidance

An agency works towards fulfilling a vacancy. RPO helps strategically: Is the title good? Is your job description effective? Do you use a recruitment calendar? Can you do forecasting? RPO takes recruitment to a strategic level. And this is evident in organisations where finding staff is difficult, where a tight labour market is structurally felt, or where internal HR is limited.

When to Choose Which Approach?

For occasional vacancies, a recruitment agency is often the logical choice, especially for specialist profiles where you need a niche agency with specific expertise. However, as soon as you deal with large volume hiring, a recruitment agency becomes inefficient and the risk of fragmentation arises. RPO is ideal for large volumes because it works in a scalable and consistent manner. 

Do you have a continuous recruitment need? Then RPO offers the resources, capacity, and structure you need, while multiple recruitment agencies lead to fragmentation. When the labour market demand rises, you run the risk of interruption in your recruitment process with traditional agencies. RPO combines predictability with responsiveness by using data, employer branding, and structured processes. Also, take a look at our Total Talent Management and Interim Management solutions.

Practical Application of RPO

A successful RPO approach starts with a thorough recruitment scan. Together we analyse your current processes, goals, and expectations. Based on this intake, we set up the collaboration, and once everything is in place, the recruitment process goes live.

The RPO team at HeadFirst works intensively with your organisation. We take over open vacancies, build talent pipelines, conduct workforce forecasting and document everything in clear recruitment playbooks. Then we start collecting data, conducting candidate experience surveys, and continuously optimising the workflow.

Sometimes only the sourcing phase is relevant to outsource, or just the final selection process. That's possible too. But you achieve the most impact with a complete RPO approach where HeadFirst acts as a full-fledged recruitment partner: productive, scalable, and results-oriented.

Why Choose HeadFirst as an RPO Partner?

Are you stuck in your recruitment, despite all efforts? Then it’s time for a fundamentally different approach. Do you recognise one or more of these situations?

• You have difficulty filling vacancies on time, despite active recruitment.
• You regularly look for the same profile, but always through different agencies.
• You lack overview and structure in your sourcing approach and reporting.
• Your recruitment process pays little or no attention to employer branding.

Without control, recruitment quickly turns into a series of separate actions and ad hoc solutions. No strategy, but symptom management. RPO breaks that pattern.

With HeadFirst you choose a partner that thinks along with you, moves flexibly, and actively contributes to your growth goals. Recruitment no longer becomes a reactive process, but a strategic force within your organisation. That is the real value of RPO.