The role of insurance RPO and insurance MSP
Insurance hiring comes in every shape at once. A claims operation that needs forty handlers by March. An underwriting team that needs one specialist in a line nobody else writes. A pricing function that can't find analysts at any price. A transformation programme staffed by contractors whose IR35 status someone has to own. No single recruitment model covers all of that, which is why insurers tend to end up with two: an RPO for the permanent hiring and an MSP for the contingent workforce. Here's what each does, when you need which, and how they fit together.
What is insurance RPO?
Recruitment Process Outsourcing hands part or all of your permanent recruitment to a specialist who runs it inside your business, under your brand, as an extension of your HR or talent team. In insurance that means the whole range: actuaries, pricing and data analysts, underwriters, claims specialists, risk and compliance, and the customer service and operations roles that come in volume. The provider covers sourcing and attraction, screening and selection, the compliance checks that regulated roles need, and onboarding, and reports on all of it. It can be everything, or a defined slice: a graduate intake, a new site, the roles your own team can't reach.
What is insurance MSP?
A Managed Service Provider runs your contingent workforce: contractors, interims, temps and the suppliers who provide them. For an insurer that means one process and one view across every contractor and every agency, covering supplier management, the status determinations and paperwork the off-payroll rules require, right-to-work and pre-employment checks, compliant engagement and payroll routes, and reporting on contractor spend, tenure and compliance status. The point is control over a population that, in most insurers, has grown one agency at a time and is understood by nobody.
What both give an insurer
Access to people who know the sector: Insurance vocabulary, insurance networks and a view of what the market is paying this quarter, which is what moves a pricing or claims role that has sat open for months.
Compliance built in, not bolted on: Regulated roles carry checks the rest of the economy doesn't: fitness and propriety and regulatory references under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime, right-to-work checks with real penalties behind them, and the off-payroll rules for every contractor. A good provider builds those into the process and keeps the evidence; it doesn't promise the regulation away.
A cost you can see: A management fee or cost per hire instead of a placement fee on every role, consolidated contractor spend instead of six agency margins, and reporting that shows where the money goes.
Capacity that flexes: Up for the claims campaign or the programme, down when it's done, without permanent headcount you'll regret in the quiet year.
A candidate experience that reflects the brand: Insurers' candidates are often their customers. A slow or silent process costs both.
Which model, for which part of the hiring?
RPO when permanent hiring as a whole is the problem: hard-to-fill specialist roles, a graduate scheme, a process that has grown by accident, the reporting nobody has.
Project RPO when the hiring has a start and an end: a claims operation for a new contract, a customer service intake for a seasonal peak, a new site. The same model as RPO, scoped to the campaign and stood down when the intake is done. The Project RPO solution page covers how it runs.
Embedded recruiters when what you're short of is capacity rather than a whole function: your own team keeps the roles and relationships, and embedded recruiters for insurance join it for the months the plan needs them.
MSP when the contingent workforce is the problem: a transformation programme staffed by contractors, several agencies with nobody owning the total, a compliance question you'd rather answer before HMRC asks it.
In a mid-sized insurer it's usually a combination, and the mistake is choosing one model and forcing every kind of hiring through it. The insurance sector hub sets out how we run each, and insurance hiring in 2026: building a talent engine covers the wider picture.
How Vermelo does it
Insurance is where most of our work is and where we have the deepest bench: recruiters who have hired underwriters, claims teams, pricing analysts and contractors for insurers, not just for "financial services". The RPO handles permanent recruitment end to end so your team can get on with the business; Project RPO runs the campaigns; embedded recruiters add capacity when the plan spikes; the MSP consolidates suppliers, documents every contractor's status and gives you real-time visibility of contingent spend and compliance. All of it reports the numbers that matter, and all of it is built around your operating model rather than a template. If the gap is pricing talent specifically, and there isn't any to hire, our sister brand FlarePeople builds it through Recruit-Train-Deploy.
Tell us the shape of your hiring and we'll tell you which model fits which part of it. Get in touch. 01892 553360 | info@vermelorpo.com
Insurance RPO and MSP, answered
In our experience, pricing and actuarial roles first, then data science and analytics applied to insurance, then specialist claims (large loss, complex liability, fraud) and underwriting in niche lines. The common thread is a small pool of people who already have the sector knowledge, all of whom are approached constantly. For those roles an RPO or MSP helps by running a proper search and a fast process; when the pool simply isn't there, building the talent is the alternative, which is what our sister brand FlarePeople does for pricing.
Yes, and volume is often where it pays for itself first. Customer service, claims handling and operations hiring in insurance comes in campaigns: a new contract, a seasonal peak, a new site. A project RPO runs the campaign end to end, from advert to assessment centre to offer, with the screening and checks built in, and stands down when the intake is done. Graduate and early-careers schemes work the same way with an annual rhythm. Specialist and senior roles need a different approach, closer to search, and a good provider tells you which is which rather than treating every role the same.
Evidence they have done it in insurance, not just in general: recent hires in your kind of roles, references from insurers, and recruiters who can hold a conversation about pricing models or claims reserving without a glossary. Familiarity with the compliance that comes with regulated roles, from SMCR fitness and propriety checks to the off-payroll rules for contractors, and a process that documents it. Reporting you can put in front of a board. And, for an MSP, one view of every contractor across every supplier, because that is the thing insurers most often lack. The general checklist is in how to find a reputable RPO provider; the insurance test is whether they know your market before the first meeting.