Recruitment process outsourcing
Recruitment process outsourcing for growing U.S. teams
Hand us all or part of your hiring, from the first brief to the signed offer, run under your brand and your rules.
- A team of 50+
- Working with U.S. businesses nationwide
- Scope and fee agreed in writing
- Rules checked
What is recruitment process outsourcing (RPO)?
Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) is when an employer hands all or part of its hiring process to an outside provider. Digital Storming runs that process for small and mid-size U.S. businesses: job intake, sourcing, screening, scheduling, offers and reporting, using your brand and hiring rules. You choose end-to-end, selective or project scope. Pricing depends on the roles and the scope, and you see it in a written quote first.
- Who it’s for
- Businesses hiring steadily without a recruiting team
- Scope options
- End-to-end, selective or project RPO
- Who decides
- You approve every hire and every offer
- Pricing
- Set by roles and scope, in a written quote
Compare
RPO, a staffing agency or an in-house recruiter
How the three ways of filling roles differ.
| Compare | RPO | Staffing or search firm | In-house recruiter |
|---|---|---|---|
| How the work is scoped | All or part of your recruiting process, under an agreed scope | Usually one opening at a time | Whatever your own hire can cover |
| Who runs the process | The provider runs it with your rules and, if you want, your brand | The firm sends candidates; you run the rest | Your employee |
| Who decides | Your managers approve every hire and offer | You choose among the candidates sent | Your managers |
| Best fit | Hiring that never really stops | An occasional opening | Steady hiring big enough for a full-time role |
RPO models
Three recruitment process outsourcing models
The RPO Association defines RPO as a form of business process outsourcing in which an employer transfers all or part of its recruitment processes to an outside provider. How much you transfer is the choice below.
End-to-end RPO
We act as your recruiting function for every opening, from intake to accepted offer, plus the reporting. The RPO Association calls this full talent lifecycle RPO.
Best fit: Steady hiring across many roles, with no recruiting team
Selective RPO
We take a set of roles, a location or a stage such as sourcing and screening, and your people keep the rest. The RPO Association describes this as adding to internal recruiters for specific jobs, business units, locations or processes.
Best fit: An HR team that wants to hand off certain jobs or steps
Project RPO
A fixed number of openings, in one location, on a set timeline, such as staffing a new branch. Some employers use it as a first trial of outsourced recruiting before going wider.
Best fit: A defined batch of hires on a deadline
What our RPO services include
We take on the recruiting work and leave the decisions with you. We already recruit truck drivers, CDL and non-CDL, through truck driver recruitment, a field where good people are hard to find.
Intake with each hiring manager
A short, standard conversation for every opening that settles the duties, must-haves, pay range and interview panel before anything is posted.
Job ads and sourcing
We write and post the ads, search for people who aren’t applying, and look back through past applicants already in your files.
Screening and scheduling
Phone screens against the agreed criteria, interview calendars booked, and every candidate kept informed in your company’s name.
Your applicant tracker, kept tidy
We work in the tracker you already use. If you don’t have one, our CRM development team can build an applicant tracker or HR CRM for you.
Offers and handoff
We prepare offer details for your approval, coordinate the checks you already use, and hand the new hire to whoever runs onboarding.
Regular reporting
A report, on a schedule we agree, showing open roles, candidates at each stage, where hires came from and where searches are stuck.
Pricing
How a RPO quote is worked out
Digital Storming has no price list for RPO: the fee depends on the roles, the hiring volume and the scope, and you get it in a written quote before any work starts. The quote is based on:
- Which roles you hire for, and how many hires a year
- Which parts of hiring we take on
- Whether we work under your brand
- How long the engagement runs
How it works
How an RPO engagement starts
Step 1: Map how you hire now
We walk through your roles, tools, approvals and recent searches to see what works and what doesn’t.
Step 2: Agree scope and quote
We recommend end-to-end, selective or project scope and put the roles, tasks and fee in a written quote.
Step 3: Set up
We write job briefs and message templates, get access to your tracker and agree how we appear to candidates.
Step 4: Run the hiring
Recruiters work your openings day to day, with a standing check-in with your team.
Step 5: Review and adjust
At each review we go through the reports together, then add roles, scale back or hand the process back to you.
Who it is for
Who hands off their recruiting
RPO makes sense when hiring is a regular part of the business but nobody owns it full time. It sits alongside our other HR and staffing services.
Owners doing the hiring themselves
You post the ads, read the résumés and run the interviews between everything else, and openings sit unfilled while you’re busy.
A one-person HR team
Payroll, benefits and employee questions already fill the week, so recruiting gets whatever time is left.
A new location or department
You need a batch of hires by a fixed date, and your normal process wasn’t built for that volume.
Too many agencies, no single picture
Several firms work different roles their own way, and you can’t see where candidates come from or why searches stall. One provider can also run one structured process across every role, the way inclusive hiring asks.
Recruitment Process Outsourcing FAQs
Recruitment Outsourcing
What is RPO, in the industry’s own words?
The RPO Association, the industry’s trade body, describes recruitment process outsourcing as a form of business process outsourcing where an employer transfers all or part of its recruitment processes to an external service provider. The provider can bring its own staff and tools, or work with yours.
How is RPO different from a staffing agency?
A staffing or search firm usually works one opening at a time and sends candidates. An RPO provider, in the RPO Association’s words, takes ownership of the design and management of the recruitment process itself. With us, that means one process for all your roles, run the same way each time, with reporting you can check. If you only need one person, permanent staffing may suit you better.
How much does RPO cost?
Pricing models vary from provider to provider. Ours depends on the roles, the volume and the scope you hand us, and you’ll have it in a written quote before we begin. We don’t publish prices for HR services.
Is RPO worth it for a small business?
RPO can be worth it for a small business when hiring never really stops: a few openings every month, or a growth plan with a list of roles. If you hire once or twice a year, a single search is simpler. Project RPO sits in between, for one burst of hiring with an end date.
Do your recruiters work under our company name?
Yes. Digital Storming’s RPO recruiters can work under your company name. If you want candidates to deal with one brand, we agree email signatures, templates and wording during setup. If you’d rather they know Digital Storming is recruiting for you, that works too.
What do you need from us to get started?
To start RPO, Digital Storming needs a list of open and planned roles, access to the job boards or tracker you use, a contact for each hiring manager, and your rules for approving offers. If some of that doesn’t exist yet, building it is part of setup.
Who makes the hiring decisions?
In a Digital Storming RPO engagement, your company makes every hiring decision. We recommend, screen and schedule; your managers interview, choose and approve every offer. The new hire is your employee, on your payroll.
What should I ask an RPO provider before signing?
Ask who your recruiters are and whether they work under your brand, which parts of hiring they take on and which stay with you, how often you get reports, who owns the candidate records, and what the quote covers. Our answers: named recruiters, your brand if you want it, the scope you choose, a regular report, your records, and a written quote before any work starts.
What is the difference between RPO and on-demand recruitment?
With RPO we design and run all or part of your hiring process to a standard we agree. With on-demand recruitment you add recruiter time that works inside your own process, for as long as you need it. Senior roles usually run as a separate executive search.
Sources
Definitions on this page come from these industry sources (checked ). They are general information, not legal advice.
- 01What is Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)?, Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association (RPOA)
- 02What Does Recruitment Process Outsourcing Mean to You?, Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association (RPOA)
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