Recruitment Process Outsourcing for Canadian SMBs.
Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) means handing the entire hiring funnel — sourcing, vetting, scheduling, offers, onboarding, payroll, and HR compliance — to an external partner under one contract. Obelisk Talent runs RPO as the default delivery mode for every engagement: you brief the role, we own the rest, and you get a Day-1-ready hire embedded full-time on your team in roughly 10 business days.
The TL;DR
What this engagement is, in five lines.
- Single B2B Canadian contract covers source-to-hire and beyond
- 10 business days from brief to onboarded for typical roles
- Flat monthly CAD per hire · no per-placement fee, no markup
- Scales to multiple roles across Tech, Marketing, Creative, Finance & Ops
Who this is for
Founders, Heads of People, and CFOs running SMBs without an internal talent acquisition team
If you are a 5-to-50-person company without an internal recruiter, your hiring is currently a stack of agency invoices and a stalled pipeline, or you need to scale headcount faster than your local funnel allows — RPO with Obelisk is the structural fix. One partner. One contract. Multiple roles, multiple disciplines.
The full operational surface, on one contract.
Each component is a self-contained part of the engagement — sourcing, vetting, embedded delivery, and managed HR/payroll all sit on our side.
Source-to-onboarded under one contract
RPO covers the entire hiring lifecycle: requirements gathering, sourcing across our five-country network, the four-stage Obelisk Vetting Process, shortlist preparation with assessment notes, candidate scheduling, offer logistics, contract administration, equipment provisioning, and Day-1 onboarding. One throat to choke, one invoice in CAD.
Flat monthly pricing instead of per-placement fees
Traditional recruiters charge 20–25% of base salary per placement and disappear after Day 1. RPO with Obelisk runs on a flat monthly per-hire CAD rate that includes ongoing HR, payroll, and account management — the cost band is comparable for a single role and meaningfully lower once you scale to two or more concurrent hires.
Multi-discipline coverage from one network
Most RPO providers specialize in either tech or non-tech. Obelisk covers all four disciplines (Tech & IT, Marketing & Sales, Creatives, Finance & Ops) from the same five-country network. A scaling SMB hires across all four within 12 months — keeping the whole funnel in one partner reduces vendor sprawl and contract overhead.
Fully managed post-hire
RPO does not end at the offer. We continue payroll, HR compliance, equipment renewal, account check-ins, and replacement support for the duration of the engagement. The end state is closer to an embedded talent operations function than to a recruiting agency that vanished after billing.
The roles inside this engagement.
Each linked role page has the responsibilities, skills, sample profiles, and pricing tier breakdown.
Flat monthly CAD. Everything included.
RPO with Obelisk is priced per active hire at the flat monthly tier rate — same Junior $1,500–$2,000, Mid-Level $2,500–$3,500, Senior $3,500–$5,000, Lead $5,000–$6,500 CAD structure as our individual placements. There is no separate retainer for RPO; the monthly fees per hire cover the full source-to-managed delivery. Volume discounts are negotiated at four or more concurrent placements under one Master Agreement.
See full pricing breakdownCommon questions about this engagement.
If you don't see your question, every first call is with a co-founder — bring it then.
What is the difference between RPO and a traditional recruiting agency?
A traditional recruiter sources candidates and bills a percentage of base salary on placement, typically 20–25%, then exits the relationship. RPO is end-to-end: source, vet, place, onboard, employ, payroll, HR, and ongoing management — under one contract and one fee structure. The structural difference is continuity — the RPO partner has skin in the game past Day 1.
How is Obelisk's RPO model different from an Employer of Record (EOR) like Deel?
An EOR like Deel handles payroll and compliance for talent you have already sourced and selected — the hard part (finding and vetting the right person) stays with you. Obelisk's RPO covers the EOR layer plus sourcing and vetting under one contract. Think of it as 'EOR plus everything that has to happen before the EOR can do its job'.
Can we run RPO across multiple roles at once?
Yes — most clients ramp from one role to three or four within 12 months under the same Master Agreement. Each placement runs on its own monthly tier rate; the contract structure does not change. We can also stagger starts to manage cash flow across a hiring plan.
How long is the typical RPO commitment?
RPO engagements run on the same month-to-month-after-three-months cadence as individual placements. The 3-month ramp exists because that is how long it takes for a new hire to fully integrate; ending an engagement before then is unfair to either side. After three months it is 30 days' notice in either direction.
Does Obelisk RPO cover Canadian-specific HR compliance?
The talent itself is contracted through Obelisk Talent Inc. as employer of record in their country of residence — Canadian provincial employment standards do not directly apply to the talent. Your engagement with Obelisk runs on Canadian B2B contract law (Nova Scotia jurisdiction by default). For CRA-facing payroll on your own Canadian employees, you keep your existing payroll provider.
Can we transition an RPO hire to direct employment later?
Yes. Per §08 of our Terms of Service, a Client may negotiate a written buy-out to transition Talent to direct employment, typically equal to six months of the Talent's monthly fee. The non-circumvention clause prevents informal poaching — the buy-out is the canonical path.
Most clients run more than one.
Engagements scale across disciplines under one Master Agreement. These are the services Obelisk clients in your stack usually add next.
Ready to brief this role?
15-minute call, written brief same day, shortlist within 10 days. If none of the candidates are right, we go again — no cost.
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