Recruitment Process Outsourcing

An embedded recruiting team, built into your business.

Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) is a talent acquisition model in which an employer transfers all or part of its recruiting function to a specialized external provider. Unlike a staffing agency, an RPO partner works as an embedded extension of your HR team — managing your employer brand, your ATS, your compliance documentation, and your candidate pipeline under your company’s name.

Catapult HR delivers RPO services purpose-built for mid-market employers in North Carolina and South Carolina — typically companies with 50 to 500 employees hiring 10 or more roles per year. Whether you need to fill a surge of open positions quickly, build a repeatable hiring engine, or satisfy OFCCP and E-Verify obligations as a government contractor, our RPO team plugs directly into your operation and drives results from day one.

Talk to an RPO Specialist
Successful candidate shaking hands with a Catapult recruiter at the conclusion of an interview.
$3,500–$6,000Catapult cost-per-hire range
1–2 weeksFrom contract to live pipeline
50–500Employee sweet spot
NC & SCDeep local market expertise
The Model

What is recruitment process outsourcing?

A strategic HR partnership in which an outside firm assumes responsibility for some or all of a company’s recruiting activity — supplying the people, processes, and technology to source, screen, interview, hire, and onboard, all as a seamless extension of your internal HR function.

Model 01

Full-cycle RPO

The RPO provider manages every stage of talent acquisition end-to-end: workforce planning, job description creation, sourcing, screening, interviewing, offer management, compliance, and onboarding coordination. Best for companies ready to hand off recruiting entirely.

Model 02

Project RPO

A time-boxed engagement for a specific hiring initiative: a plant opening, a team build-out, or a seasonal surge. Catapult stands up the full recruiting infrastructure, fills the roles, then transitions or winds down.

Model 03

On-demand RPO

Flexible recruiter capacity you activate when internal hiring volume exceeds what your team can handle. Pay for recruiter time and output, not a full-time headcount or agency markup.

Compare

RPO vs. staffing agency vs. internal recruiter

Understanding where RPO fits requires comparing it directly to the alternatives most mid-market employers already use.

FactorRPO (Catapult) BEST FITStaffing AgencyInternal Recruiter
Cost StructureFlat monthly fee or cost-per-hire; no placement markup20–35% of first-year salary per placementFull-time salary + benefits (~$75K–$110K/yr)
Employer BrandRecruiter presents as your company; you own all brand assetsAgency recruits under their own brand; candidates may not know your companyFull brand ownership; may lack sourcing scale
Speed to FillFast ramp (Catapult live in 1–2 weeks); scales with volumeFast on commoditized roles; limited for specialized hiresDependent on one person; bottlenecks under volume
ScalabilityFlex up or down with business need; no re-hiring cycleAdd agencies, but cost multiplies with each placementHard to scale; one recruiter = one throughput ceiling
ComplianceI-9, E-Verify, OFCCP, VEVRAA, FCRA background check protocols built inHandles their own workers; your hires are your compliance riskDepends on recruiter knowledge and HR infrastructure
ATS / DataYou own all candidate data, pipeline reports, and ATS configurationCandidate data lives in agency database; you see only finalistsFull ownership; setup and admin burden falls on internal team
Long-Term CPHDecreases as pipeline matures; benchmark $3,500–$6,000/hireStatic per-placement cost regardless of volumeLow CPH at scale but fixed cost even when hiring is slow
A diverse business team representing the kind of recruiting outcomes Catapult RPO delivers.
Built for your team

Recruiters who work for your brand — not under their own.

What’s Included

Every Catapult RPO engagement, end-to-end.

Comprehensive scope — no hidden project fees, no per-service add-ons.

01

Talent Sourcing & Attraction

  • Job description writing and optimization for search and AI
  • Compensation benchmarking using market data (Mercer, ERI, BLS)
  • Multi-channel sourcing: LinkedIn Recruiter, Indeed, ZipRecruiter, Handshake, niche industry boards
  • Passive candidate outreach and talent community building
  • Diversity sourcing: HBCUs, SHRM, NSBE, SHPE, veteran hiring programs
  • Employer brand messaging, careers page content, and job ad creative
02

Screening, Selection & Offers

  • Resume review and applicant tracking
  • Phone and video screening against role-specific scorecards
  • Interview scheduling and candidate communication
  • Structured interview guide development for hiring managers
  • Reference checks and background check coordination (FCRA-compliant)
  • Offer letter drafting and total compensation presentation
03

Compliance & Technology

  • ATS implementation and administration (Greenhouse, Lever, BambooHR, Workable)
  • I-9 and E-Verify enrollment and processing (NCGS 64-26 compliant)
  • OFCCP and VEVRAA documentation for federal contractors
  • EEO data collection and adverse impact monitoring
  • Hiring manager training on interview best practices and legal compliance
  • Monthly analytics: time-to-fill, cost-per-hire, source-of-hire, offer acceptance
Fit Check

Who is RPO right for?

Recruitment process outsourcing delivers the strongest ROI for mid-market employers who are outgrowing reactive, transactional hiring. Catapult’s RPO clients typically share one or more of the following characteristics:

10 or more open requisitions per yearAt this volume, the economics of RPO consistently beat both staffing agency placement fees and a dedicated internal recruiter salary.
High turnover in hourly or skilled-trades rolesManufacturing, healthcare, distribution, and food processing employers with revolving-door positions benefit most from a structured, always-on sourcing pipeline.
No dedicated internal recruiterHR generalists and office managers pressed into recruiting duty lose focus on compliance, culture, and strategy. RPO returns those hours.
Rapid growth or planned expansionOpening a new location, launching a new service line, or scaling from 50 to 150 employees requires hiring infrastructure a generalist team cannot build in time.
Government contractors (OFCCP, VEVRAA, Section 503)Federal contractors must maintain documented good-faith efforts for protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. Catapult builds those audit-ready records into every RPO engagement.
NC / SC industry verticalsHealthcare systems, financial services firms, tech companies, and precision manufacturing employers across the RTP corridor, Charlotte MSA, and Upstate SC manufacturing belt.

Why RPO outperforms staffing agencies for sustained hiring.

Staffing agencies serve a purpose — they can fill a single urgent opening quickly. But for employers with ongoing hiring needs, the economics and strategic limitations of the staffing model become a drag on business performance.

Typical Staffing Agency
20–35% of salary
A $65,000 role costs $13,000–$22,750 per hire. Every hire resets the fee. No equity building, no brand ownership, no candidate data that stays with you.
Catapult RPO
$3,500–$6,000 / hire
Flat retainer or cost-per-hire structure that declines as your talent pipeline matures.
  • Candidates experience your employer brandnot a third-party agency. That matters for offer acceptance rates and Day 1 engagement.
  • All ATS data and candidate records belong to you.When an RPO engagement ends, you walk away with a populated talent database, configured workflows, and reporting history.
  • Compliance documentation is yours.I-9 records, E-Verify case numbers, OFCCP good-faith effort logs, and background check authorizations are organized in your systems — not buried in an agency’s back office.
  • Hiring managers get better at hiring.Structured interviewing frameworks and scorecard training — skills that persist in your organization long after the engagement ends.
A diverse team placing hands together, symbolizing an embedded recruiting partnership.
An embedded partner

We don’t parachute in — we plug in.

Local Expertise

NC and SC market expertise, built into every engagement.

Catapult HR is headquartered in North Carolina with deep roots across both Carolinas. Our RPO recruiters work local talent markets daily — not as remote generalists who parachute in, but as practitioners who understand where candidates live, what they earn, and how competitive your openings need to be to win.

North Carolina

Research Triangle Park

Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill compete hard for technology, life sciences, and financial services talent. Our RPO team knows the compensation benchmarks, the competing employers, and the talent pools that generic national job boards miss.

North Carolina

Charlotte MSA

Financial services, corporate headquarters, healthcare systems, and a fast-growing technology sector. We know what it costs to recruit a CFO candidate in Ballantyne versus a plant supervisor in Gastonia.

South Carolina

Upstate South Carolina

Greenville, Spartanburg, and Anderson form one of the most active advanced manufacturing corridors in the Southeast. BMW, Michelin, GE, and hundreds of suppliers compete for the same skilled trades talent — we have the local networks to succeed here.

NC & SC

Compliance specifics

NCGS 64-26 requires NC private employers with 25+ employees to use E-Verify. South Carolina’s Illegal Immigration Reform Act mandates E-Verify at 100+ employees. Catapult builds state-specific compliance checkpoints into every workflow.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about RPO.

What is the difference between RPO and a staffing agency?
A staffing agency finds candidates and places them for a one-time fee — typically 20–35% of first-year salary. You get a hire, but the agency owns the sourcing process, the candidate relationship, and all the data. RPO is fundamentally different: the RPO provider works as an extension of your HR team, recruits under your employer brand, configures and manages your ATS, builds your talent pipeline, and gives you full ownership of every record and process. The result is a lower long-term cost-per-hire and a recruiting infrastructure that makes your company stronger over time.
How much does RPO cost compared to hiring an internal recruiter?
A mid-market internal recruiter typically costs $75,000–$110,000 in base salary plus benefits, tools, and job posting fees — whether or not they have roles to fill. Catapult’s RPO model is structured around your actual hiring volume: a monthly retainer that scales with activity, a cost-per-hire rate, or a hybrid of both. For companies hiring 10–50 roles per year, RPO almost always delivers a lower fully-loaded cost and eliminates the single-point-of-failure risk that comes with one internal recruiter.
Can RPO handle E-Verify, OFCCP, and I-9 compliance for government contractors?
Yes. Catapult’s RPO team has extensive experience supporting federal contractors subject to OFCCP, VEVRAA, and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act. We build compliant job postings (including required equal opportunity language), maintain good-faith effort documentation for protected veteran and disability outreach, manage I-9 and E-Verify processing in alignment with North Carolina General Statute 64-26, and organize audit-ready hiring records. If your company holds federal contracts and is approaching a compliance review, RPO with Catapult significantly reduces your risk exposure.
Is RPO right for a company with fewer than 100 employees?
Absolutely. Some of Catapult’s most successful RPO clients employ 50–80 people. The deciding factor is not headcount — it is hiring volume and hiring pain. If your company is making 10 or more hires per year, spending meaningful time and money on recruiting without a system, or struggling to compete with larger employers for talent, RPO will deliver a positive return. Catapult offers on-demand and project RPO models specifically designed for smaller employers who need flexible capacity rather than a full embedded recruiting team.
How quickly can Catapult start filling open positions with RPO?
Most Catapult RPO engagements are fully operational within one to two weeks of contract execution. During the onboarding sprint, we conduct intake meetings with hiring managers, audit or configure your ATS, build role-specific scorecards, activate sourcing channels, and post optimized job descriptions. For most positions, qualified candidates are in the pipeline within the first two weeks. More complex roles — senior leadership, highly specialized technical positions — typically see first qualified candidates within 3–4 weeks. We provide weekly pipeline reports from day one so you always have visibility into progress.
Close-up of a handshake symbolizing a partnership agreement.

Ready to build a smarter recruiting operation?

Catapult HR’s RPO team is ready to learn your business, assess your current hiring pain points, and propose a model that fits your budget and growth goals.

Request an RPO Consultation No long-term lock-in required to get started.