A stable workforce drives productivity, safety, and long-term growth. Traditional staffing, in-house recruiting, and RPO each have their place; the key is knowing when to apply the right approach.
The Talent Challenge in Today’s Supply Chain
Warehousing and distribution operations face consistent pressure to deliver more with fewer resources. For many, the holdup isn’t equipment or space, it’s people. Skilled labor shortages, high turnover, and rising recruitment costs make it increasingly difficult for operations leaders to staff with the right workforce at the right time.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average annual warehouse employee turnover rate is 49%. Each departure is costly, with the Society for Human Resource Management estimating the average cost per-hire at $4,683, not including lost productivity or retraining. For high-volume environments, those numbers quickly compound into millions of dollars in hidden costs.
The Limits of a One-Size-Fits-All Approach
Traditional staffing models and in-house recruiting remain valuable tools for workforce management. Temporary placements, short-term contracts, and seasonal hiring provide flexibility that allows operations leaders to respond quickly to fluctuations in demand.
But when organizations face challenges such as persistent turnover, complex recruiting needs, or large-scale hiring campaigns, staffing alone may not be enough. In these cases, operations and production leaders often need a more strategic, end-to-end solution that combines the agility of staffing with the structure of a long-term workforce strategy.
This is where Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) can make a difference.
What RPO Brings to the Table
Recruitment Process Outsourcing is the practice of outsourcing part, or all, of the recruiting process to a partner with specialized expertise. It does not replace traditional staffing or in-house recruiting; instead, it complements them by taking on the heavy lifting of high-volume or specialized hiring.
Key highlights of the advantages of RPO:
• Significant reduction in time-to-hire, accelerating productivity.
• Lower turnover through better candidate-role alignment.
• Predictable costs, often lower than traditional in-house recruitment.
For operations managers, this means faster access to talent, improved workforce stability, and the ability to shift focus back to production, safety, and efficiency.
Eclipse Advantage’s Approach: Recruitment Without the Risk
Eclipse Advantage has built its reputation on helping warehouse/distribution, food production, and manufacturing operations solve their toughest labor challenges. Its RPO model extends that expertise, giving clients the option of outsourcing their recruiting needs with confidence.
Unlike conventional recruiters who charge steep upfront placement fees, Eclipse Advantage operates on a simple weekly fee structure, where clients pay only for active employees. This ensures that recruitment costs remain tied directly to productivity, reducing financial risk.
Scalability is another core strength. Whether a facility needs five hires or five hundred, Eclipse Advantage can adjust quickly. For large-scale projects, we can embed dedicated recruiters on-site to streamline sourcing, onboarding, and workforce integration.
Since no two operations are the same, our RPO model is flexible by design. Clients can engage our services for as much or as little of the process as needed—from sourcing and screening candidates to delivering a fully onboarded workforce.
How Eclipse Advantage Does the Heavy Lifting
From writing and running job ads to sourcing, vetting, and onboarding candidates, we manage the recruiting process end-to-end. This approach helps facilities:
- Reduce administrative strain on internal teams.
- Gain access to a consistently vetted talent pool.
- Improve retention by aligning candidates to operational needs.
In practice, this means that operations managers spend less time worrying about staffing shortages and more time focusing on productivity, safety, and growth.
Case Study: RPO in Action
A leading food processing company with facilities across multiple states faced a regulatory change that disrupted its temporary staffing model. They needed to maintain reliable labor support without incurring significant new costs.
Eclipse Advantage developed a customized RPO program that enabled employees to onboard directly with the client from day one while maintaining high-quality standards. The six-month implementation leveraged in-house and outside counsel to ensure regulatory compliance and smooth integration with existing technologies and onboarding processes.
The transition was positioned as a benefit to employees, allowing immediate employment rather than a delayed temp-to-hire process. The outcome: an estimated $1.6 million in avoided annual costs, zero operational disruption, and a more stable, scalable workforce that meets seasonal demand.
Choosing the Right Workforce Strategy
EA stable workforce drives productivity, safety, and long-term growth. Traditional staffing, in-house recruiting, and RPO each have their place; the key is knowing when to apply the right approach.
Eclipse Advantage offers all three, giving operation and production leaders the flexibility to choose the model that best aligns with their needs. For organizations looking to reduce risk, improve cost predictability, and achieve long-term workforce stability, RPO provides a proven pathway.