All businesses have different recruitment needs, and an RPO isn’t always the right answer. For startups, it can be tricky trying to gauge which recruitment solution is right for your organisation when there are so many options. Should you employ an agency, hire your own internal recruiters, or start a partnership with an RPO provider?
To help you understand when an RPO provider is the right choice for your agency, we’ve summed up some tell-tale signs of an agency ready for growth.
When you’ve secured more funding
You’ve got more money behind you, and you need to invest it wisely in the future of your organisation. The people you hire as you move forward will be the backbone of your company. Setting up a relationship with an RPO at this point in your growth strategy is a great way to ensure you make quality hires.
As well as this, utilising an RPO can reduce your time-to-hire due to already having access to a talent pool, reduce your cost-per-hire, increase retention rates and improve your recruitment processes overall. An insight-led, digital marketing strategy backed up by the experience of an RPO provider can help you attract top talent and help you establish your employer brand.
When you have product/market fit
According to Medium, product/market fit “means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.” So, essentially, if you have product/market fit, your product is what people want. This means your company needs to scale to meet pressing demand. You need a flexible partner, as the market can change on a whim and your needs may change. So, you need a flexible RPO.
Taking on in-house recruiters can be a risk when you can’t be entirely sure how many hires you’re going to need in the long run. With a flexible RPO solution, you can safely plan to take on a large number of hires, then scale that right down should the market turn in the opposite direction. Or, should demand for your product increase, a flexible RPO can then scale up, putting more recruiters on the job to fill your open positions.
As a result, a flexible RPO could save your company money with a risk-free solution that responds to the market place, just like your hiring needs.
To meet your growth plans
If you have plans in place for the future of your organisation, an RPO partnership can create a talent pipeline so you can fulfil those plans when the time comes. Hiring, after all, is not just about the here and now. A good hiring strategy requires businesses to think about the future, about what roles they will need filling and when, ideally, they’d like them filled by.
Working with an RPO partnership can give you tools to identify the suitability of internal candidates. So, you can prepare them for future progression, and create a talent pool of external candidates for other roles. Then, when the time comes, you can fill positions swiftly, reducing both your cost and time-per-hire and improving retention rates.
Why is RPO the best option for start-ups?
An RPO partnership can enable you to scale your start-up at the rate you need, providing you with a dedicated recruitment team without requiring you to build your internal recruitment resources. Working with a provider is all about implementing solutions to help your company attract and retain top talent. An RPO partnership can turn your recruitment processes around, making your startup an employer of choice in an overcrowded market.
As we know, tech talent is in high demand, and the market is candidate-driven. Roles in tech are set to increase 13% up to 2026, but there is a shortage “of people who know how to code” and Universities are only just mobilising to fill the current talent gap. So, make sure your company is ahead of the game with a flexible RPO solution, filling your vacancies now and planning ahead for the future of your company.
There’s loads more to know about RPO, and we know it can all get a little bit confusing. So, check out our RPO eBook to help you understand the benefits of an RPO solution.
