Building a Multi-Discipline RPO Partnership That Keeps Scaling

A partnership built to scale, not just supply

This firm is a leading global professional services organization: a multinational network spanning 145 countries and around 275,000 professionals across audit, tax and advisory.

Vertage was engaged in 2013 as the firm's Tech and Digital specialist RPO delivery partner, working as an extension of its in-house team, not an outside vendor. In 2020, a competitive tender expanded that scope into a multi-discipline RPO covering every business unit.

The team is vertically aligned to each capability it serves, so resources are available on demand and scale as needs shift. Today, Vertage manages all experienced permanent hiring up to manager level, grades E to C, plus on-demand direct sourcing for senior hires at grades A and B, across:

• Tax
• Legal
• Audit
• Advisory and Risk
• Technology
• Human Resources
• Marketing
• Finance
• Secretarial

The team hires roughly 800 permanent and fixed-term employees every year. Every role is framed with data, not guesswork: go-to-market strategy, expectations and benchmarks, plus the process fixes that come from spotting bottlenecks early. Given how heavily regulated the firm's work is, the entire solution runs to the highest levels of compliance.

Scaling a service without losing the personal touch

• A service built for one discipline, needed to compound: The firm's hiring need had outgrown the original scope. Specialist Tech and Digital delivery needed to become a multi-discipline RPO, without losing the depth or care of the original service.
• Too much reliance on agencies: At the outset, agency usage was high, adding cost and diluting control over quality and consistency.
• An operating model under strain: An internal review, using Day in the Life Of and Time in Motion studies, found Recruitment Business Partners handling roughly 200 candidates each, on top of talent already managed separately by the sourcing team. That load made a best-in-class experience impossible and pointed to a model that had to change.

Don't just fill the gap. Build the edge.

A dedicated, flexible account team. A dedicated account team, mixing on-site and near-site resources, flexes with the firm's evolving hiring needs. The team spans:

• Client Services Director
• Client Services Manager
• Senior Team Leader
• Recruitment Business Partners
• Delivery Manager
• Sourcing Partner

Split by function, not convenience. Client-facing work and continuous improvement sit with a co-located account team. Sourcing and coordination run from a dedicated offsite team in London, focused on driving down cost through direct fulfilment. Talent pipelining and an always-on strategy for niche hires shifted the balance: from high agency use at the outset to 95% direct fulfilment today.

A model redesigned around real workloads. Partway through the partnership, Vertage restructured the model, splitting candidate sourcing and engagement into a standalone Talent Attraction and Delivery team. Sourcing Partners now own external candidate engagement. Business Partners work as subject-matter experts in the business and its recruitment process. The result: faster time to offer, a higher direct fill rate, and better satisfaction on both sides.

Built for the firm's talent brand, not just its roles. Vertage has invested in talent attraction to position the firm as an employer of choice, supporting its inclusion, equity and diversity strategy. A small, motivated supplier list of niche specialists is engaged early, when they are best placed to deliver.

Continuous improvement, built in. Regular Voice of the Customer exercises and end-to-end process reviews keep the experience sharp, not just at launch, but across all twelve years of the partnership.

Good work should not stop working

Scale, sustained. Vertage delivers roughly 800 permanent and fixed-term hires every year, across every business area and capability in the UK.

Direct fulfillment, at 95%. Vertage now fulfills 95% of grade E to C hires directly, with an average time to offer of 45 days: a sharp shift from a model that once relied heavily on agencies.

A first-rate candidate experience. A 4.6 out of 5 candidate satisfaction score and a 2:1 hiring manager review-to-interview ratio reflect a process built for quality, not just speed.

Diversity outcomes that matter. 47% of hires are female, and 12% identify as Black heritage: proof that inclusion, equity and diversity is built into how the partnership hires, not bolted on after.

Targeted attraction, at scale. Since the partnership began, Vertage has built a wide range of talent attraction events to demystify the firm's brand and expand its reach. A North West Audit event alone drew more than 700 online registrations and over 300 attendees, converting 40% into applicants, while cutting time to offer by 78% and time to source by 90% for that event. These events let the firm's own people talk directly to candidates about life there and what growing expertise in consulting looks like. They now run quarterly in every area, building the talent community further each time.

Continuous improvement, proven. Flexibility has always been the foundation of the service. During a period of exceptionally high hiring demand, Vertage ran a lean-based improvement program to find and fix root causes. A Day in the Life Of study found Recruitment Business Partners spending 27% of their time chasing CV feedback. An escalation process and hiring manager operational-level agreements cut that to under 7%. A new MI Analyst role built a real-time dashboard tracking stage gates, helping leads clear stalled applications faster. Together: 220 external offers a month, and time to offer down 60%.