Both recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) providers and recruitment agencies help you hire. They work in very different ways, and the right choice depends on how much hiring you do and how much control you want.
How a recruitment agency works
An agency fills individual roles, usually on a success fee. You send a job, they send candidates, and you pay when someone is hired. It is quick to start and requires no commitment, which makes it a good fit for occasional or highly specialist roles.
The trade-offs: fees are charged per hire, so costs climb with volume; each agency works from its own pool; and you rarely get insight into how candidates were sourced or why others were rejected.
How RPO works
With RPO, a provider runs some or all of your recruitment process as an extension of your team: sourcing, screening, interview scheduling, offer support and onboarding coordination. Pricing is typically structured around the service delivered rather than a fee on every hire.
The trade-offs: setup takes longer, and RPO makes sense when you hire often enough to justify a dedicated process.
Key differences
- Pricing: agencies charge per placement; RPO is usually a retainer or a structured, volume-based model.
- Control: RPO works inside your process and brand; agencies work outside it.
- Visibility: RPO gives you pipeline reporting and consistent data; agencies share only the candidates they submit.
- Speed to start: agencies are faster to begin; RPO takes weeks to set up.
- Employer brand: RPO recruiters represent you consistently; agency recruiters represent many clients at once.
When an agency is the better choice
- You hire a few roles a year.
- You need a rare, senior or niche profile.
- You need someone today and cannot invest in a process.
When RPO is the better choice
- You hire regularly or in volume.
- Your internal team is overloaded or you have no recruiters.
- You want consistent reporting on time-to-hire and source quality.
- You are scaling a team and need a repeatable process.
A hybrid approach
Many companies use RPO for steady, high-volume hiring and keep one or two agencies for hard-to-fill specialist roles. That keeps day-to-day costs predictable without losing access to niche talent.
How to compare options
Ask each provider for their sourcing channels, their screening method, how they report, how fast they typically move for roles like yours, and how they handle candidates who are not hired. Ask for a pilot on a few roles before committing to a wider engagement.
Learn more about our RPO service, or read What Is RPO? The Complete Guide.