{"id":824,"date":"2025-09-08T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flextekllc.com\/?p=824"},"modified":"2026-07-13T15:17:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T15:17:46","slug":"outsourced-recruiting-models-miss-mark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.flextekllc.com\/?p=824","title":{"rendered":"The Evolution of Outsourced Recruiting and Why Most Models Still Miss the Mark"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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By Stephen Morel, <\/a><\/span>FlexTek Founder and CEO<\/span><\/h4>\r\nWhen I started in this industry back in 1992, companies with high-volume hiring needs didn\u2019t have a lot of options. You either built your own recruiting team, or you called in a staffing agency and paid their markup. That was the whole playbook.<\/span>\r\n\r\nSince then, the industry has evolved but still faces some limitations. We\u2019ve added new terms, new models, and new tech but many companies are still running into the same problems: unclear value, high turnover, and outsourced recruiting partners who aren\u2019t really aligned with business goals.<\/span>\r\n\r\nIn this post, I want to walk through how we got here, what\u2019s broken in today\u2019s recruiting models, and the outsourced recruiting model<\/a> we\u2019ve built at FlexTek to offer a more sustainable option, for both our clients and our business.<\/span>\r\n

When \u201cStaffing\u201d Was the Only Option<\/b><\/h2>\r\nBack then, internal recruiting teams had limited focus and tools. Most in-house recruiters were juggling multiple responsibilities, so when hiring paused, momentum disappeared, and when demand returned, they were starting from scratch. Without modern tech like Indeed or ZipRecruiter, there was no way to build a consistent pipeline. Job ads went in the Sunday paper, and you hoped for calls on Monday. If they didn\u2019t come, you started over.<\/span>\r\n\r\nThat\u2019s where staffing firms came in. They filled urgent roles fast and gave companies flexibility without adding headcount. On-site staffing was considered cutting edge, dedicated teams embedded on your floor to keep positions filled.<\/span>\r\n\r\nBut it was still a traditional staffing model: placing hourly workers, billing markups, and focusing on volume. It rewarded firms for keeping people billable\u2014not for building high-performing teams. The business model was designed to keep seats filled, not necessarily to find the best long-term fit.<\/span>\r\n

RPO Was a Step Forward\u2014Until It Wasn\u2019t<\/b><\/h2>\r\nRecruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) emerged in the early 2000s as a smarter alternative to staffing. Instead of sending over temp workers, RPO firms sourced full-time candidates for companies to hire directly. It promised lower markups, more control, and better results.<\/span>\r\n\r\nBut the cracks showed early. Most RPOs billed by the offer\u2014not the hire or start date\u2014so clients paid for candidates who might never start. To cut costs, many firms offshored sourcing, leaving recruiters disconnected from the companies they were representing. I once saw a proposal where pricing varied depending on whether interviews happened in the same country as the candidate. It was complex, unpredictable, and hard to evaluate.<\/span>\r\n
I never want to lose a customer just because someone went looking to cut costs.\r\n\r\n– Stephen Morel, CEO<\/blockquote>\r\nThat lack of cultural alignment led to bad hires and high turnover. Paying a 20% fee for a $16\/hour role that turns over in six months just doesn\u2019t work, especially in environments with 30\u201340% attrition.<\/span>\r\n\r\nAnd even when an RPO or staffing firm was performing well, companies often rebid the work every few years in an effort to cut costs. I\u2019ve seen hundreds of workers moved to a new payroll in a week. That kind of churn isn\u2019t like swapping out a paper vendor\u2014these are people. It affects morale, culture, and retention across the board.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n

How We Optimized the Outsourced Recruiting Model<\/b><\/h2>\r\nAfter decades in this industry and working closely with customers through every kind of hiring challenge, we used that perspective to shape something better. We didn\u2019t start from scratch when we built FlexTek\u2019s outsourced recruiting model. We built on what we knew worked, because we\u2019d lived it.<\/span>\r\n\r\nThere were things about RPO that had real value:<\/span>\r\n
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  • A scalable approach<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t
  • A dedicated team that could plug into your business<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t
  • A long-term relationship structure<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nBut we knew it needed more.<\/span>\r\n\r\nWe brought in local recruiters who understand our customers\u2019 culture and experienced recruiters who bring specific domain expertise because hiring frontline workers isn\u2019t the same as hiring accountants or lab techs.<\/span>\r\n\r\nWe built our own software layer: not an ATS, but an outsourced recruiting performance tracker. One that shows clients exactly how we\u2019re doing:<\/span>\r\n
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    • How many candidates we\u2019re talking to<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t
    • How many make it to interviews<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t
    • How many get offers<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t
    • How many accept\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t
    • How long they stay<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nIt\u2019s not enough to say, \u201cWe hired 1,000 people.\u201d The real questions are: How long did it take? How many people did we interview to find the right one? Who stayed?<\/span>\r\n\r\nThese are the metrics clients need to evaluate hiring performance.<\/span>\r\n

      A New Way to Price Outsourced Recruiting: Service, Not Headcount<\/b><\/h2>\r\nThis might be the biggest shift. Instead of charging per candidate (like staffing) or per offer (like RPO), we flipped the model entirely.<\/span>\r\n\r\nYou\u2019re not paying for a person\u2014you\u2019re paying for the service.<\/span>\r\n\r\nThe recruiting engine.<\/span>\r\n\r\nThe metrics throughout the process. <\/span>\r\n<\/span>The ongoing support.<\/span>\r\n<\/span>The ability to flex up or down with the business.<\/span>\r\n\r\nThere\u2019s always a baseline level of support that keeps things stable, but beyond that, it scales with your needs.<\/span>\r\n\r\nThat makes it more predictable for our clients and more sustainable for us.<\/span>\r\n\r\nIt also avoids the trap of long-term contracts with no flexibility. Unlike some models that lock you in for three years\u2014whether they\u2019re delivering value or not\u2014we stay because we\u2019re earning it. Every month. Every hire.<\/span>\r\n\r\nDo we make the same margins staffing firms used to? No.<\/span>\r\n\r\nAre we keeping clients longer and building stronger partnerships because of it? Yes.<\/span>\r\n\r\nAnd that\u2019s the kind of business we want to run.<\/span>\r\n

      Final Thought<\/b><\/h2>\r\nAfter decades in this industry, I\u2019ve seen nearly every recruiting model there is\u2014and I\u2019ve learned that anything built on markups, fees, and churn eventually breaks. The costs outweigh the value, and the relationship falls apart.<\/span>\r\n\r\nWe built FlexTek to solve that. Our model is consistent, measurable, and built for long-term partnership. It helps companies build great teams without overpaying or starting over every few years.<\/span>\r\n\r\nI never want to lose a customer just because someone went looking to cut costs. We want to be the partner who scales, adapts, and grows with you. That\u2019s the kind of model companies can count on year after year.<\/span>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      By Stephen Morel, FlexTek Founder and CEO When I started in this industry back in 1992, companies with high-volume hiring needs didn\u2019t have a lot of options. You either built your own recruiting team, or you called in a staffing agency and paid their markup. That was the whole playbook. Since then, the industry has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-rpo"],"yoast_head":"\nOutsourced Recruiting: An Evolution<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Stephen Morel walks through the history of outsourced recruiting, where we are now, and why a sustainable model is critical for the future.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Outsourced Recruiting: An Evolution\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" 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