“We have three openings, so RPO will be cheaper.” Possibly. You could also buy three months of team capacity and use very little of it. The number of vacancies starts the calculation, but it can't decide if the RPO is useful or not.
Define the work before comparing the bill
RPOA describes RPO as outsourcing all or part of recruitment, with fixed, performance-based and blended pricing models. It does not establish one price or a vacancy threshold that guarantees savings.
Ask what transfers to the provider: sourcing, scheduling, work in your ATS, reporting, manager calibration or the entire process. An RPO quote and a success-fee quote may cover different responsibilities. Their totals are not comparable until the scope is.
At EER, the engagement follows the problem. Several unrelated niche assignments may need separate searches. A continuing hiring programme may benefit from a dedicated team. The model's name cannot make that decision for you.
A transparent example
Assume, purely for illustration, a PLN 45,000 success fee per hire. The alternative costs PLN 30,000 per month for three months plus PLN 10,000 per hire. Assume equivalent scope, no additional expenses and amounts before VAT. These are not EER prices.
- Two hires: PLN 90,000 in success fees versus PLN 110,000 for RPO.
- Three hires: PLN 135,000 versus PLN 120,000.
- Four hires: PLN 180,000 versus PLN 130,000.
The break-even point is 90,000 / (45,000 − 10,000), approximately 2.57 hires. In this scenario, RPO becomes cheaper at three. Extend the project to five months and the fixed cost reaches PLN 150,000. The threshold moves beyond four hires.
The conclusion changes without changing either supplier's monthly or per-hire rate. That is why duration belongs in the comparison from the beginning.
Three assumptions that can break the case
Hiring freezes. Conditional headcount creates a risk of paying for capacity without being able to hire. Agree how the engagement can pause, reduce or end.
Internal decision capacity. Candidates arrive, but managers cannot interview. The monthly fee continues. More sourcing capacity does not create another decision-maker in your organisation.
Different kinds of roles. Ten similar appointments and ten unrelated technical niches require different work. Vacancy counts hide the effort needed to understand each market and calibrate each brief.
These are operational assumptions, not reasons to reject RPO. They are reasons to put the right conditions into the purchase.
Measure activity, not just assigned requisitions
Ask how many assignments are active, which stages they have reached and who handles research, interviews and coordination. Ashby's recruiter-capacity analysis distinguishes assigned roles from those actively worked on in a week. That distinction is useful; it does not establish a universal workload limit.
Include hiring-manager time in your own plan. If eight candidates could reach technical assessment next week, someone must have the hours to assess them properly. Buying external capacity while ignoring this internal requirement creates a queue rather than a hiring system.
Calculate two scenarios: the full hiring plan and half the expected hires. Does the engagement still make sense, and can its scope change if the plan changes?
Agree these points before launch
- Services included, team availability and ownership of each stage.
- Duration, termination rights and changes to the role count.
- Advertising, technology and any additional placement charges.
- Feedback expectations on both sides and decision authority.
- Reporting on progress through stages rather than messages sent.
Ask what remains with your company at the end: process documentation, reporting history and agreed handover materials. A productive engagement should not leave the internal team unable to understand its own pipeline.
Are three openings enough?
Enough to consider RPO, yes. Enough to declare it cheaper, no. Use actual proposals, expected hires and realistic duration. Then assess the value of internal work removed, which a simple commission comparison will miss.
For a single difficult specialist, focused search may be the cleaner purchase. For a stable stream of hiring, RPO may be more useful even when its immediate invoice is not the lowest.
Considering RPO for several open roles?
In 30 minutes, we can review the hiring plan, team workload and assumptions that determine whether the model makes sense.
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