Question 1

What is RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing)?

Accepted Answer

RPO providers take over part or all of a company's recruiting function — embedding recruiters inside the client organization and managing the end-to-end hiring process. RPO makes sense for large enterprises hiring 50+ people annually across many role types. For SDR-specific hiring, purpose-built tools like Shortlist deliver equivalent results at 2–5% of the cost, without long-term contracts.

Question 2

How much does RPO cost compared to Shortlist?

Accepted Answer

RPO providers typically charge $3,000–$15,000/month for embedded recruiting services, with 12–24 month minimum commitments. Setup costs can add another $5,000–$20,000. Shortlist costs $199/mo with no setup fees and no contract — making it 15–75x cheaper for companies focused on SDR, BDR, and AE hiring.

Question 3

When does RPO make sense vs. a tool like Shortlist?

Accepted Answer

RPO makes sense when you're hiring 50+ employees per year across multiple departments and need embedded recruiting operations, employer branding, and ATS management. For companies primarily hiring SDRs, BDRs, and AEs in the 5–20 roles/year range, Shortlist provides the same candidate quality and faster time-to-hire at a fraction of RPO costs.

Factor	Shortlist	RPO Providers
Monthly cost	✅ $199/mo	$3,000–$15,000/mo (embedded RPO team)
Time to set up	✅ 5 minutes — post a role and go	4–8 weeks (onboarding, process mapping, system integration)
Best suited for	✅ SDR, BDR, AE individual contributors	Enterprise orgs hiring 50+ people across many roles
SDR specialization	✅ Purpose-built for SDR roles	Generalist process across all role types
Flexibility	✅ Cancel anytime, scale up/down monthly	Minimum contract terms (12–24 months typical)
Speed	✅ 48 hours to shortlist	2–4 weeks (process-driven, multi-step pipeline)
Transparency	✅ AI scores + reasoning per candidate	Varies — depends on RPO reporting cadence

Shortlist vs. RPO Providers

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Shortlist vs. RPO Providers

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