RPO means transferring your recruitment process, and the responsibility for running it, to a partner who operates it as a function under your KPIs. Not a batch of vacancies. A function. We run RPO programmes from Belgium across 11 countries, which matters more than it used to now that the rules on automated screening are European.
Recruitment AI counts as high-risk under the AI Act. The heavy obligations moved from August 2026 to 2 December 2027. The date moved, the classification did not.
Transparency duties have applied since. A candidate talking to your chatbot has to be told.
The AI literacy duty has applied since then to anyone deploying AI. That one never moved.
Intake and role definition
One briefing standard across hiring managers.
Sourcing and pipeline building
Direct approach, not only advert response.
Screening and assessment
The same criteria applied the same way.
Employer brand and candidate care
How rejected candidates are treated, too.
Technology and your ATS
We work in your system, not beside it.
Reporting and workforce planning
Funnel data you can act on, not a monthly slide.
AI governance in screening
Documented, because you stay the deployer.
Flexible capacity
Recruitment demand does not arrive evenly, but an internal team is sized once a year. An RPO programme absorbs the peaks without leaving you carrying recruiter headcount through the quiet quarters.
One process, not twelve
Every hiring manager briefs the same way, every candidate is assessed against the same criteria, and the funnel is measured end to end. Most of the time saved comes from removing variation, not from adding recruiters.
Accountability you can point to
One partner answerable for time to hire, quality of hire and candidate experience, against targets agreed at the start rather than negotiated after a bad quarter.
Defensible calls
Selection decisions documented, screening criteria written down, and any automated step recorded with the human review that sits over it. If a candidate or a regulator asks how a decision was made, there is an answer.
RPO with us | In-house | Agencies | Project hiring | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who runs it | Sparagus, as your function | Your recruiters | A different agency per role | Sparagus, on a defined batch |
| Commitment | Multi-year, with agreed KPIs | Permanent headcount | None beyond the vacancy | One campaign, fixed end date |
| Pricing model | Fixed fee plus volume element | Salaries, fixed whatever the volume | Percentage of salary, per hire | Priced on the batch |
| Data and tools | Your ATS, our process | Yours, fully | Fragmented across suppliers | Yours, we work inside it |
| Fits when | Steady permanent volume, thin internal team | Predictable volume you can size for | Occasional or hard-to-find roles | A one-off spike, process stays yours |
If the volume ends, it is a project. If the function needs an owner, it is RPO.
Process and funnel audit
Where roles actually stall, what each stage costs you in days, and which steps are automated today.
Scope and target setting
Which roles, which countries, which KPIs, and what stays with your hiring managers. Signed off by both sides.
Transition and go-live
Recruiters embedded, your ATS configured, hiring managers briefed. Open vacancies keep moving throughout.
Run and improve
Weekly on live vacancies, monthly on funnel performance, quarterly on scope and targets. Where a screening step is automated, the criteria and the human review over it are documented as part of the reporting rather than assumed.
Recruitment AI counts as high-risk under the AI Act. The heavy obligations moved from August 2026 to 2 December 2027. The date moved, the classification did not.
Transparency duties have applied since. A candidate talking to your chatbot has to be told.
The AI literacy duty has applied since then to anyone deploying AI. That one never moved.
IT support and service desk
High volume and high turnover, so process variation costs the most here.
Software and application
Candidates hold offers from several employers, so days lost in the funnel lose the hire.
Cloud, DevOps and SRE
Advert response is close to useless. This is direct approach or nothing.
Manufacturing and industrial
Volume tied to production plans, which makes hiring capacity a seasonal problem.
Finance and controlling
Assessment criteria are objective enough to standardise properly.
Graduate and early careers
Where automated screening is most used, and most in need of documenting.
Financial services
Group approval cycles outlast candidates, so the funnel has to be fast where it can be.
Automotive and manufacturing
Hiring waves follow production, and the internal team is sized between them.
Technology and innovation
Growth hiring where the process is the constraint rather than the candidate market.
Send us twelve months of hiring data and your current process. You get a written view of where roles stall, what each stage costs in days, and whether RPO is the right answer.
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