Both models add capacity. They fail in different ways, and the shape of your hiring demand tells you which one to pick.
The five engagement models we offer collapse, for most first-time buyers, into one question: do you want a person, or do you want a push? The honest answer depends on the shape of your demand over the next two quarters, not on the size of your company.
Demand that is steady wants a person
If you expect a consistent flow of requisitions, a dedicated recruiter is the model that compounds. The value is accumulated context: after eight weeks they know which hiring manager wants three profiles and which wants ten, which objection kills a candidate at stage two, and which sourcing channel produced the last two hires.
That context is the asset, and it is why the model is charged for continuity rather than per hire. It also means the model is a poor fit for demand that arrives in one burst and stops: you would be paying to maintain context that has nothing left to act on.
Demand that is lumpy wants a push
A hiring campaign, a new site, a funded expansion, or a seasonal spike is a defined problem with a start and an end. Project RPO matches that shape: a team sized to the volume, an agreed finish, and no standing cost afterwards.
The failure mode here is under-specifying the end. A project without a defined completion either stops abruptly with candidates mid-process, or drifts into an open-ended arrangement nobody planned or priced. Write down what done means before the first search runs.
When the answer is neither
If only one stage of your process is the constraint, taking a whole recruiter or a whole team is over-buying. Modular RPO exists for that case: hand over sourcing alone, or coordination alone, and keep the rest. It is the least-discussed model and often the correct one for a team whose problem is specific rather than general.
You can see all five models side by side on the Solutions page.