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Rethinking How We Hire: Why Recruitment as a Service (RaaS) Is Gaining Ground.

By  Saiyo Consulting  ·  3 minute read

Rethinking How We Hire: Why Recruitment as a Service Is Gaining Ground.

Hiring has always been one of the most critical parts of building a company and one of the hardest to get right.

As businesses grow, especially in fast-moving industries like SaaS or tech, the pressure to build teams quickly and effectively can break even the best-designed plans. Traditionally, companies have had two main options: build an internal talent team or outsource to recruitment agencies.

Neither approach is perfect. In fact, both are starting to show their age.

The Cracks in the Traditional Models

1. Internal Talent Teams: Built for Stability, Not Agility

Internal hiring teams can be great. They know your company, they live your values, and they can offer a more consistent candidate experience. But they’re not without challenges.

  • They’re expensive. Building an in-house team takes time and money, especially when you factor in tech, tools, employer branding, and management overhead.

  • They’re hard to scale. When you’re in a growth sprint, they often can’t keep up. When things slow down, they’re underutilised.

  • They don’t always stay. TA is often the first department hit in a downturn, which means you lose momentum (and hard-earned knowledge) just when you need to regroup.

2. Recruitment Agencies: Fast but Fractured

Then there’s the agency route. Many companies turn to agencies to fill urgent roles. Some agencies are excellent. But in general:

  • It’s transactional. You’re one of many clients. The focus is often on filling a role fast—not necessarily on the best long-term fit.

  • It’s expensive. Fees of 20–30% per hire can pile up quickly, especially in high-growth environments.

  • It’s shallow. Agencies often lack deep context on your culture or internal dynamics. That can lead to misfires and friction with hiring managers.

The result? You either burn cash on external help or burn out your internal team trying to do it all.

Something Needed to Change

In the last few years, a new model has started to emerge, somewhere between fully in-house and fully outsourced.

It’s called Recruitment as a Service (RaaS).

Rather than paying per hire or carrying a full-time team, companies subscribe to recruitment support like they would any other operational function. Some models are project-based; others are embedded. But the common thread is flexibility, continuity, and context.

So What Is RaaS, Really?

RaaS means having an external partner work as if they were your internal team, but on flexible terms. They join calls, sit in on planning meetings, work in your tools, talk to your hiring managers, and build your pipeline, often end-to-end.

It’s not just about sending CVs. It’s about building and managing a hiring process that works.

When Does It Work?

Like any model, RaaS isn’t right for everyone. But it’s proving especially effective in these situations:

  • Early- to mid-stage companies that are scaling fast but not ready to build or rebuild an internal team

  • Companies with spiky or unpredictable hiring patterns

  • Businesses expanding into new markets or functions

  • Teams that care about brand, candidate experience, and long-term fit, not just quick placements

  • Founders and hiring leaders who need more than a CV service but aren’t ready to bring everything in-house

The Pros (and the Tradeoffs)

✅ Pros:

  • More cost-effective than traditional agencies

  • More flexible than full-time teams

  • Better embedded than typical external recruiters

  • Can ramp up or down with hiring needs

  • Often includes added value like talent market insights, process improvements, and employer brand input

⚠️ Tradeoffs:

  • Monthly fees mean you need clarity on hiring goals—if things go quiet, the value can drop

  • Not every provider offers deep integration; some just repackage agency work under a new label

  • It still requires internal alignment—if hiring managers don’t engage, the model underdelivers

The Bottom Line

RaaS isn’t a magic fix. It won’t solve all hiring problems, and it’s not the right tool for every business. But it’s an option that sits between two extremes—one that reflects how modern companies actually operate today: leaner, faster, and with more uncertainty baked in.

For companies tired of the traditional agency grind, or wary of bloating their internal structure too soon, RaaS offers a different way to think about hiring: not as a one-time transaction or a sunk cost, but as a service that adapts with you.

In a world where everything else is becoming more flexible—why shouldn’t recruitment be too? 

Use this useful hiring cost calculator, to see how much RaaS can save you Vs traditional recruiting models: https://cost-calculator.saiyo.io/