What is recruitment process outsourcing (RPO)?

RPO means handing your recruitment - some of it or all of it - to a specialist provider who runs it as an extension of your business. At Vermelo that covers sourcing, screening, assessment, offer management and onboarding, delivered under your brand. You keep strategic control; we run the engine. It's built for businesses hiring at volume who want quality and speed without an ever-growing agency bill.

What's the difference between RPO and MSP?

RPO manages your permanent hiring; MSP (managed service provider) manages your contractor and contingent workforce - the suppliers, the rates, the onboarding and the IR35 compliance. Plenty of businesses need both, which is where a total talent programme comes in: one partner, one data set, both sides of your hiring covered.

What is embedded recruitment (RaaS)?

Embedded recruitment - sometimes called Recruiter-as-a-Service - places experienced recruiters directly inside your team. They use your systems, carry your brand and represent you to candidates, but you switch the capacity on and off as hiring demand changes. It's the answer to hiring spikes that don't justify permanent headcount but do outgrow your current team.

How much does RPO cost compared to using recruitment agencies?

There's no single number, and anyone who gives you one without asking questions is guessing. What we can say: RPO replaces unpredictable per-placement agency fees with a model you can budget - typically a management fee, a cost-per-hire arrangement or a blend, shaped around your volumes. For most businesses hiring at scale, that means a meaningfully lower cost-per-hire and a number the CFO can actually forecast. Book a discovery call and we'll model it against what you're spending now.

Do you handle IR35 and FCA compliance?

Yes - it's designed into the model rather than added afterwards. Our MSP solution manages IR35 status determinations, right-to-work checks and supplier standards across your contractor workforce, and our screening services cover FCA pre-employment and annual maintenance checks for regulated businesses. We're not lawyers and don't replace your own legal advice, but compliance is the reason many regulated firms come to us in the first place.

How quickly can you get started?

Faster than you'd think. Embedded recruiters can usually be turned round in a matter of days; a full RPO or MSP programme takes longer to stand up properly, because doing it properly matters. Tell us what's urgent and we'll tell you honestly what's achievable - that conversation costs nothing.

VERMELO | FINANCIAL SERVICES & FINTECH RECRUITMENT SOLUTIONS

REGULATED HIRING AT THE PACE OF A SCALE UP

Financial services hiring pulls in two directions at once. The market moves fast, the best candidates have options, and yet every offer carries screening obligations, regulatory references and conduct requirements that punish shortcuts. Vermelo builds hiring engines for exactly that tension: fast enough to win candidates, rigorous enough to survive an audit.

We were named Best Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) Business at the Global Recruiter Awards 2025, and regulated financial services hiring is a large part of why.

Book a discovery call

Explore all our talent solutions

Who we recruit

Analysts across finance, risk and data
Compliance officers and regulatory specialists
Payments and product experts
Finance leaders from management to CFO
Customer operations teams for regulated environments
Technology talent building the platforms underneath it all

How we deliver it

Embedded Recruitment (RaaS) is the model fintechs reach for most: experienced recruiters inside your team through a funding-fuelled growth phase, switched off when the surge ends, with no per-hire agency fees stacking up
Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) for established financial services firms hiring at sustained volume
Managed Service Provider (MSP) for contractor workforces where IR35 status and screening standards vary supplier by supplier and nobody holds the full picture
Total Talent Solutions to run permanent and contingent hiring as one workforce
Talent Advisory for the projects in between: screening framework design, employer brand, assessment, workforce planning

Compare our solutions

Solution finder

For a single specialist hire through an agency, our sister brand Gerrard White Consulting covers insurance, technology and change, and legal.

Frequently asked questions

When you are looking for a talent partner, there’s no silly questions. Here we have convered some of the most common, but it may be easier to talk you though it.

Book a call

No, and it tends to become relevant faster than founders expect. The moment your hiring touches FCA-regulated activity, screening and conduct requirements arrive with it. Recruiters who already work to that standard cost you nothing extra when you do not need it and save you a scramble when you do.
That is precisely what the embedded model is for. Recruiters deploy in a matter of days depending on the brief, work under your brand through the growth phase, and the subscription flexes down when demand does. No permanent headcount added, no agency fees per hire.
Then the engagement grows rather than restarts. Embedded is one of five models we run, so a scale-up that starts with one recruiter can move into RPO, add MSP for contractors, or unify the lot under a total talent programme, all with the same partner and the same data.

VERMELO | FINANCIAL SERVICES & FINTECH RECRUITMENT SOLUTIONS

REGULATED HIRING AT THE PACE OF A SCALE UP

Who we recruit

How we deliver it

Frequently asked questions

Quick Links