Recruitment Process Outsourcing over Recruitment Agencies in Talent Acquisition: A Literature Review

Employees are a company's most important asset, and their skills and knowledge are essential for survival, growth, and expansion. Organizations must have effective control over the talent acquisition process and its assessment to gain a competitive advantage. External recruitment assistance may be necessary when hiring for niche profiles, focusing on core business activities, or expanding. An effective recruitment partner must understand the organization's brand value, culture, and the strategic importance of talent acquisition and management. Until recently, organizations relied on recruitment agencies or consultants to source candidates for open positions. However, these agencies often struggled to meet the demands of rapid expansion, niche profile location, time-bound delivery of service, and additional reinforcement and promotion of vacant job profiles. These shortcomings led to the development of Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO). RPO is an innovative HR approach that helps organizations achieve effective talent management. RPO goes beyond simply identifying manpower gaps to ensure that each position has the right blend of skills and knowledge to outperform competitors. It encompasses the entire recruitment cycle, from sourcing to onboarding, and provides organizations with the personnel, technology, methodology, and reporting they need to improve efficiency and reduce costs. This paper will explore the differences between RPO and traditional recruitment agencies, the limitations of recruitment agencies as recruitment partners, and the benefits of RPO as a recruitment partner for talent acquisition.