Solve by Talent named finalist for RPO Agency of Year

Solve by Talent has been named a finalist for RPO Agency of the Year at the SEEK Annual Recruitment Awards. It is the third consecutive year the Talent Group brand has made the shortlist.

The recognition follows a previous win in the category and comes amid what SEEK described as a high volume of entries from across Australia's recruitment industry.

Solve by Talent, part of Talent Group, provides advisory, embedded recruitment, managed service provider and recruitment process outsourcing services. The business works with organisations in Australia and New Zealand and also supports clients across Asia-Pacific, North America and South America.

Its awards submission covered a 12-month period and focused on embedded recruitment partnerships designed to improve hiring processes as well as fill roles. Across its RPO clients, Solve by Talent delivered more than 500 hires, recorded an average offer acceptance rate of 93%, generated more than AUD $2 million in client cost savings and achieved a client net promoter score of +70.

Client results

Several client examples formed part of the entry. In one case, Solve by Talent worked with a fast-growing health-tech company to build a talent function across Australia and the US, delivering 63 hires, or 150% of target.

That engagement also lifted 12-month new-hire retention to 100%, from turnover previously running at about 40%. The company estimated the result avoided AUD $1 million in mis-hire costs.

Another project involved a global software-as-a-service company that asked the firm to recruit senior technical staff through headhunting only, without inbound applicants or a pool of previous candidates. Solve by Talent made 46 senior technical hires in six months and achieved a four-to-one interview-to-hire ratio, compared with the client's internal benchmark of six to one.

At a major television network, the business built and now runs the internal talent acquisition function. It reported 115 hires through periods of hiring freezes and hiring surges, while reducing average time-to-hire from about 70 days to 23 days. Candidate experience scores reached 9.1 out of 10.

A separate project with a leading Sydney university focused on employer positioning for an information and communications technology transformation. The company said in-house employer brand assets produced a candidate net promoter score of +71 and a 100% offer acceptance rate.

Hybrid model

Solve by Talent also highlighted a hybrid RPO model aimed at clients that want external recruitment support without adopting a full-scale outsourcing arrangement. Four clients adopted the model within seven months of its launch, according to the business.

The move points to a broader question in recruitment outsourcing: cost, flexibility and how far employers want outside firms embedded in internal hiring operations. RPO models have often been associated with large-scale programmes, but smaller and more selective arrangements have become more common as companies respond to uneven hiring demand.

Tom Mackintosh, Managing Director, Solve by Talent, said the finalist placing reflected the team's work and the nature of its client relationships.

"Being named a finalist alongside some of the best in the industry is a real credit to the Solve team. RPO done well isn't about filling seats faster. It's about getting inside a client's business and fixing how they hire. Taking a fast-growing health-tech business from around 40 per cent turnover to 100 per cent retention, or improving on a global SaaS organisation's internal benchmark on a headhunt-only brief, is what that looks like in practice. Our clients trust us to act as an extension of their team, and that's not something we take lightly. This one's for them as much as it is for us," said Mackintosh.

Cameron Robinson, Head of Enterprise, Solve by Talent, said demand for the hybrid offer reflected changes in the market.

"The market has changed. Employers see the value of specialist RPO, but plenty can't justify the cost of a traditional full-scale model. Our hybrid model was built to solve that, and four clients came on board within seven months of launch. That tells us the demand is there," said Robinson.

The shortlist places Solve by Talent among agencies competing in a category that measures outsourced recruitment delivery at a time when employers are rethinking internal hiring structures, recruitment costs and retention outcomes. For providers in the sector, evidence of retention, offer acceptance and time-to-hire has become increasingly important as clients seek measurable returns from outsourced hiring arrangements.

"Making the SARAs finalists tells us the market is ready for a more embedded, more strategic way of doing recruitment. We're excited to keep pushing that conversation forward, wherever our clients need us," said Robinson.