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RPO vs. Staffing: What’s the Difference?  

Finding great employees, helping them become productive, and retaining them for the long-term are areas where every business could benefit from improvement.

Staffing services, like those offered by Insight Global, can help address these challenges, but so can our Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) services. What’s the difference between the two, and how do you know when to choose RPO vs staffing? 

In this blog post, we’ll answer: 

  • What is staffing? 
  • What is RPO? 
  • How are they different? 
  • What are the uses and benefits of each type of engagement?

Let’s get started.

WEBINAR: Transforming Staffing Relationships Into Strategic Talent Partnerships

What is Staffing?

Agencies that provide staffing services recruit, screen, and place workers in various types of employment arrangements, including:  

  • Temporary placement: Workers are placed on a temporary basis, sometimes for short-term projects or to cover leaves of absence. 
  • Contract-to-hire placement: Workers are placed on a temporary basis with the potential to become full-time employees after a set period. 
  • Direct placement: Employees are placed in permanent positions directly with the staffing agency’s client. 

The primary goal of staffing services is to fill job vacancies and connect companies with talent that aligns with their needs in terms of skills, culture, and experience.  

Staffing agencies can quickly match qualified candidates either through traditional recruitment methods or by leveraging their own internal databases, which are filled with thousands of high performers they’ve previously worked with. They can help interview and onboard those candidates, too. 

What is Recruitment Process Outsourcing?

Recruitment process outsourcing is the process of partnering with an RPO service provider to handle all or a portion of your recruiting or talent acquisition activities.  

For example, Evergreen combines the recruiting power of Insight Global with our delivery capabilities to offer an in-depth RPO service that can manage the entire recruitment lifecycle, from candidate profiling to recruitment reporting, or focus on specific areas based on a client’s needs, such as candidate sourcing, employer branding, or managing recruitment technology. 

Key Differences Between RPO and Staffing

The main difference between RPO and staffing services is that RPO offers more business-aligned, strategically focused recruitment solutions, while staffing services generally focus on filling job vacancies, supporting short-term projects, or covering leaves of absence. 

Both can be hugely beneficial for a business; it just depends on an organization’s specific needs and goals.  

When to Choose RPO vs Staffing

Staffing

A business might choose to engage a staffing agency for their services to fill one or multiple open positions quickly or to recruit for a specialized role that they don’t have the expertise or experience hiring. 

Other reasons include conducting a “trial period” with a contract worker before hiring them full-time or addressing short-term staffing needs without committing to long-term hires. 

Recruitment Process Outsourcing

Companies use RPO services to address their broader and more strategic talent acquisition needs. RPO offers a more holistic approach to hiring and all the associated tasks that come with it. 

Think of RPO as a more elevated type of recruiting service. They can screen and interview candidates for open positions, but depending on your needs, RPO service providers like Evergreen can also:

  • Develop and execute customized recruiting strategies aligned with your business goals 
  • Manage the entire recruitment lifecycle, from candidate sourcing to onboarding to performance management  
  • Integrate with your internal processes and culture 
  • Sit on-site with you to manage the recruiting, interviewing, onboarding, and engagement processes  
  • Provide data-driven insights and reporting to optimize hiring practices 
  • Become a true extension of your business 

RPO is also an excellent solution for surge staffing needs, too. Evergreen can quickly hire dozens, or even hundreds, of employees for you.

The best RPO partner truly understands your business, culture, and mission. That’s why many of our clients start with staffing services, and as our partnership deepens, they transition to RPO for a more integrated approach to talent acquisition.

CASE STUDY: Evergreen Helps a Government Contractor Hire Hundreds of Shelter Support Workers

RPO vs Staffing: Which is the Right Solution for Your Hiring Needs?

Deciding between RPO vs staffing services ultimately comes down to your business’s needs and hiring goals. Are you looking for targeted solutions to fill immediate vacancies or manage short-term projects? Staffing services can provide the flexibility and speed you need. If you’re aiming for a more strategic, integrated approach to talent acquisition that aligns with your long-term objectives, RPO might be the better choice. 

In many cases, businesses start with staffing services to address immediate needs and then transition to RPO as their business grows, or their hiring needs become more complex. 

At Insight Global, we understand that every business is unique. Whether you need temporary staffing or a comprehensive RPO solution, we’re here to support your hiring journey with expertise and a commitment to partnership-based service. Get in touch with us today to explore how we can help you find the right talent and achieve your workforce goals.