Two very different ways to buy recruiting
Contingency recruiting is transactional: an agency works a requisition and earns a fee—typically 20–25% of first-year salary—only when a candidate is hired. RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) is programmatic: a partner owns part or all of your hiring process for a defined period, with dedicated recruiters and agreed service levels. Both have their place; the right choice depends on volume, urgency, and how strategic hiring is to your business.
Where contingency recruiting wins
- Occasional, hard-to-fill roles: one-off executive or specialist searches where you pay only for results.
- No commitment: engage multiple firms, owe nothing until a hire is made.
- Speed on a single role: a well-networked recruiter can surface candidates fast.
Where RPO wins
- Cost at volume: per-placement fees add up quickly; RPO program pricing usually cuts cost-per-hire substantially once you make more than a handful of hires per year.
- Consistency: one process, one candidate experience, one set of metrics—instead of a patchwork of agencies.
- Scalability: capacity flexes up for surges and down in slow periods without layoffs or new agency contracts.
- Employer brand: recruiters work under your brand, building your talent pipeline rather than an agency's.
A simple rule of thumb
If you make fewer than five hires a year, contingency search or a direct-hire partnership is usually right. If hiring is continuous, high-volume, or strategically critical—or agency spend is climbing—an RPO program deserves a hard look. Many organizations blend both: RPO for core hiring, executive search for confidential leadership roles.
Questions to ask any recruiting partner
- How will you measure success—time-to-fill, quality-of-hire, retention?
- Who exactly will work our roles, and are they dedicated to us?
- How does pricing behave if our hiring volume changes?
- What does the candidate experience look like under your process?
Mission Recruit offers both models under one roof, so you get an honest recommendation—not a pitch for the only thing on the shelf.