Saiyō framework
The Hiring Operating Model
Four mutually-exclusive delivery models: internal TA, agency, RPO and embedded headhunting.
What the framework says
Every hiring channel is optimised for a different combination of two variables: how often you hire, and how hard the market is. Recruitment agencies suit occasional roles in accessible markets. Internal TA and RPO suit continuous, attraction-led volume. Executive search suits rare, business-critical, confidential hires. Embedded headhunting sits in the fourth quadrant, recurring specialist hiring in hard markets, where the other three are structurally mispriced. Most scale-ups run two quadrants at once; the failure is applying one model to every kind of hire.
When to use it
You are deciding whether to build internal TA, retain a search firm, keep using agencies or embed specialist capability.
How to apply it
- 1Split next year's hiring plan into two axes: how often you hire that profile, and how hard the market is.
- 2Place each group of roles into a quadrant, then name the model that quadrant justifies.
- 3Expect to run at least two models at once. That is normal, not a failure of strategy.
- 4Review the mix every two quarters, because the quadrant a role sits in moves as you scale.
The common mistake
Choosing one delivery model for the whole plan, so recurring specialist hiring gets paid for at per-placement rates.
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RPO for Technology Scale-ups: Strengths, Limits and Alternatives
Traditional RPO excels at standardised operations at enterprise scale. Most technology scale-ups have a different problem: specialist market access.
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