"We keep hearing about RPO. Is that just a fancy word for an agency?"

That's one of the most common questions we hear from owners and operations leaders. It's a fair one. The recruiting world is full of short letters and long contracts, and most people running a 20 to 200 person company don't have time to learn the vocabulary.

So here's the plainest version we can give you: instead of hiring your own recruiter, you outsource one. A partner like My Expert Recruiter hires, trains and supports the recruiter. The recruiter works for your company, on your open roles, in your tools. You pay a fixed monthly fee for that capacity instead of a fee every time someone is hired.

The rest of this guide explains what that means in practice, how it compares (fairly) to an agency and to an in-house recruiter, and what an RPO recruiter actually does each week.

What RPO means, in plain words

RPO stands for recruitment process outsourcing. Break it into pieces:

• Recruitment process: all the steps between "we need someone" and "they started on Monday." Writing the job post, finding people, screening them, scheduling interviews, collecting feedback, making the offer and getting them onboarded.

• Outsourcing: an outside company does that work for you, as part of your team, instead of you doing it with your own employees.

That's it. With RPO, an outside partner takes on some or all of your recruiting process, usually for an ongoing fee rather than a fee per hire.

Big RPO programs are often built for large corporations hiring hundreds or thousands of people a year, with teams of recruiters, project managers and reporting layers. A smaller company doesn't need all that. The version that works at 20 to 200 people is simpler: one dedicated recruiter who works only for you, full time, backed by a partner who hired them, trained them and stays behind them.

Why more small employers are asking about it

Most small companies don't have a recruiter at all. Hiring lands on the owner, the COO, an office manager or an HR generalist who already has a full job. That worked when a job post brought in a handful of applicants. It works much less well now.

• Openings stay open. In August 2026, 35% of small business owners reported job openings they could not fill, and 82% of owners who were hiring or trying to hire said they got few or no qualified applicants [1].

• The pile is bigger, not better. In an LHH survey of 500 US HR and talent acquisition professionals, 79% said applications per role have gone up compared with two years ago, and 76% said the share of their time spent sorting and screening applications has gone up [2].

• Real conversations get squeezed out. In the same survey, 64% agreed that screening and administrative work leaves them too little time for real conversations with candidates [2].

Put those together and you get the problem most growing companies feel: there are applicants, but nobody has the hours to find the right ones, call them back quickly and keep the process moving. RPO is one way to buy back those hours.

How RPO compares to an agency and to an in-house recruiter

There are good ways to hire through all three. Each one charges you for something different and fits a different situation.

A recruiting or staffing agency

An agency works on your role alongside roles for other clients and sends you candidates. On contingency, you only pay if you hire someone. SHRM reports that contingency recruiters usually earn a fee in the area of 20% to 25% of the role's first-year cash compensation, and retained searches about 33% [3].

Where agencies shine: one-off searches, senior roles and specialized positions where a recruiter's existing network in your niche is exactly what you need. If you hire a controller once every few years, a good agency is often the smartest call.

What to know: the fee applies to each hire, so the total grows with your hiring volume. And because the agency serves many clients, its database and relationships usually stay with the agency.

An in-house recruiter

You hire a recruiter as your own employee. They learn your managers, your culture and your roles, and they build a pipeline that belongs to you. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts recruiters as human resources specialists, an occupation with a median annual wage of $75,940 in May 2025 [4], before benefits, tools and job boards.

Where in-house shines: steady hiring volume, plus someone experienced on your team who can hire, train and manage a recruiter.

What to know: it's one person. If they leave, the seat is empty, open roles stall, and you start over with posting, interviewing and training a replacement.

Sourcing is a different skill. Many in-house recruiters are hired mainly to coordinate: post the job, screen who applies and schedule interviews. Finding the people who aren't applying, like the experienced superintendent or the night-shift nurse who is happy where they are, is a separate skill that agency recruiters practice every day. That's why it's common to find companies that have an internal recruiter and still pay agency fees to fill their hardest roles.

RPO with a dedicated recruiter

An outside partner provides a recruiter who works only for your company, full time, on all your open roles. The partner handles hiring, training and support for that recruiter. You pay a fixed monthly fee.

Where it shines: companies that hire every month, don't have a recruiter (or keep losing the one they have), and want the pipeline and candidate relationships to stay in-house. It's also an attractive option for companies looking for a more affordable way to hire. One fixed monthly fee often costs less than paying agency fees on every hire, or the full salary, benefits and overhead of an in-house recruiter.

What to know: it's a full-time recruiter, so it's built for steady hiring. If you make two or three hires a year, it's more capacity than you need.

What to look for: sourcing skill. A dedicated recruiter is only as good as their ability to find and approach people who aren't applying. Before you sign with any RPO partner, ask how their recruiters are trained to source, and how they fill the roles nobody applies to.

At a glance

If you want to see how agency recruiting works from the inside, and where a dedicated recruiter fits as an option, My Expert Recruiter founder Mariane Amorim, a Registered Professional Recruiter (RPR), walks through both in her video "How Recruitment Agencies Work (And A Smarter Option)".

What an RPO recruiter actually does each week

"Outsourced" can sound distant. In practice, a good dedicated recruiter feels like a member of your team. Full cycle usually means:

You still make every hiring decision. The recruiter's job is to make sure you're choosing between good people, quickly.

What this looks like in real life

ATC Healthcare of NW Florida, a healthcare staffing company, went through three in-house recruiters in eight months. For a business where recruiting is the product, every empty desk meant lost momentum.

ATC added Tassia, a dedicated Expert Recruiter from My Expert Recruiter. She was trained on ATC's software before her first day, so she started working candidates right away. Candidates she found were hired in her first week. ATC is now adding a second recruiter.

Want the full story? Read the ATC Healthcare case study.

One of our clients, a roofing company, had been relying on expensive agencies alongside an internal recruiter who was still learning the job. With a dedicated recruiter from MER, candidates were submitted in week one, hiring managers were interviewing in week two, and all open roles were filled within the first month.

Two different industries, same idea: one trained recruiter, working only for them, every day.

Want to see how My Expert Recruiter works?

If you want to know how My Expert Recruiter works, including how we hire and train your dedicated recruiter, visit our homepage. If you'd rather talk it through, book a conversation with the My Expert Recruiter team.

The short version

RPO sounds complicated, but the idea is simple. Instead of hiring and managing your own recruiter, you outsource one. Agencies are great for occasional or senior searches. An in-house recruiter is great when you can hire, manage and keep one. A dedicated outsourced recruiter fits the space in between: steady hiring, no one whose full-time job is recruiting, and no appetite for starting over every time a recruiter leaves.

If you're not sure which one fits your company, that's a good conversation to have before you sign anything. Book a call with the My Expert Recruiter team, or send us a message on LinkedIn. Bring your open roles and how often you hire, and we'll tell you honestly which option makes sense, even if it isn't us.

Sources

1. NFIB, "Jobs Report," August 2026, survey conducted through Aug. 31, 2026 (35% of small business owners reported job openings they could not fill, seasonally adjusted; 56% were hiring or trying to hire; 82% of those hiring or trying to hire reported few or no qualified applicants). nfib.com

2. LHH, "Candidates ghosting employers," July 29, 2026. Survey of 500 US HR and talent acquisition professionals at US companies (not recruitment firms), conducted by Censuswide, June 23 to July 2, 2026 (79% say application volume per role has gone up compared with two years ago; 76% say the share of their time spent sorting and screening applications has gone up; 64% agree screening and administrative work leaves too little time for real conversations with candidates). lhh.com

3. SHRM, "How to Work Effectively with an Executive Search Firm," Mark Feffer, July 18, 2016 (contingency fees in the area of 20% to 25% of first-year cash compensation; retained search about 33%). shrm.org

4. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, "Human Resources Specialists," last modified August 27, 2026 (median annual wage $75,940 in May 2025; recruitment specialists are included in this occupation). bls.gov

Contacts
+1 (470) 387-8333