Thriving startups and  well-established firms alike depend on recruiters to achieve hiring goals and keep your company running. Recruiters help you find the engineers, coders, executive leadership, sales associates, team leaders, accountants, and other hires you depend on every day. They also help you scale teams with contingent labor when you experience business growth.
 
Recruitment process outsourcing, also known as RPO, is the solution many companies turn to when they need to fill contingent positions. Here’s why:

What Is Contingent RPO Anyway?
Contingent RPO supplies contingent labor using recruiters dedicated to your company. Most often, these recruiters are part of an RPO firm that acts as an extension of your recruiting department. Rather than competing with other vendors and pulling from the same candidate database for multiple clients (like traditional staffing agencies), contingent RPO builds a talent pipeline unique to your company. It’s a lot like direct sourcing, except that the function has been outsourced rather than being handled by your internal team.
 
Hiring the right RPO firm for contingent RPO is important. The right recruitment outsourcer will build services strategically around your needs, forming a partnership designed to strengthen your talent pipeline and retention rates over the long term. RPO isn’t just about filling positions with warm bodies. It’s also about the quality of hire. While you can count on faster time-to-fill with an RPO firm, you’ll also experience higher candidate satisfaction, better cultural fit, and longer retention than you can expect with a traditional staffing agency.
 
Why Choose Contingent RPO Over a Staffing Agency?
The reason a company chooses to recruit with an RPO firm or a staffing agency depends on its goals. Staffing agencies can be pretty efficient and quick if you want to hire just one or two employees quickly. But contingent RPO holds the high ground for strategic hiring intended for greater long-term retention, or if the volume of positions that need filled is greater.
 
Consider these three reasons for outsourced Contingent RPO for your next hiring push:

1. RPO Builds Proactive Relationships
RPO firms partner with you for long term success. The goal isn’t simply to fill an immediate need in the quickest way; it’s also to help you proactively create a talent plan that will help you grow your business. An RPO provider that partners with you for the long term will identify and fill gaps in your recruitment efforts, from evaluating your ATS to performing market analysis and ramping up your employer brand. They’ll do this while also building you a more reliable candidate pipeline.

2. RPO Emphasizes Quality of Hire
Staffing agencies have a tendency to send the first candidate that comes along with the right credentials, without necessarily evaluating long term cultural or skill set fit. RPO, by contrast, takes the time to get to know your company and your culture. Recruiters invest in finding the right fit for your team, improving both candidate and hiring manager satisfaction—along with your retention rates.

3. RPO Emphasizes Long-Term Hiring Strategies
Contingent RPO from an RPO firm will not only fill immediate needs, but also help your organization plan for the future with strategic initiatives that target diversity candidates, college grads, veterans, or specific technical skills. RPO firms also screen for cultural fit, conduct skills tests, and perform assessments designed to decrease turnover and identify high potential candidates.

Can Contingent RPO Help If I  Want to Hire Someone Quickly?
Yes! Contingent RPO helps your HR department source and screen the right candidates fast, and they do it at a lower cost-per-hire than other recruiting approaches. With an added bonus – once the position has been filled, your company owns the candidate database and any associated data. Your data won’t be shared with other clients or used to hire candidates for other companies. No competitors will get your same list of potential candidates!
 
It’s important to know the right times to opt for a staffing agency, like when you need to react to an immediate need by filling one or two positions as fast as possible. But it’s also important to pause and ask yourself if your hiring needs are short term or long term, and how important retention is for these roles. You’ll find  both the price you pay and the quality of the candidates will differ greatly based on your approach.