Pros
Client I worked with has a great reputation and Yoh has several clients that are industry leaders or at least companies that are recognized names within their industries. They continue to grow into different market segments within their RPO business. Positions vary from working onsite with the client, or working from home - where you work would depend on the client's preferences. Benefits were decent and I was classified as a full staff employee. You can rollover all vacation time from year to year. I was paid on a timely basis and HR was good about answering questions I had about benefits, pay, etc. When my first assignment ended, they found me something else within a month doing similar work. Eventually, I was "promoted" into a different role with my client, leading to more money. In RPO, I was classified as "Professionally Exempt" which meant that if I worked over 40 hours, I was paid for each hour at my regular rate of pay (not time and a half like traditional OT). This could be viewed as good or bad depending on your perspective, some see it as getting screwed out of OT at 1.5 x your hourly rate. Others like it because if you were 100% salaried, you would not get anything over 40 hours. Working OT usually involves getting approval from the client. If your assignment ends with Yoh and they cannot place you, you will be "laid off" and they will not challenge your unemployment claim (unless you really screwed up). Additionally, if they find something else for you after being laid off, you regain your seniority, meaning, you basically pick up where you left off in terms of benefits, vacation time accrual, 401k vesting time, etc. Lastly, you are not able to roll-over sick time each year (you can roll over vacation), however, Yoh places it in a short-term disability account, which is nice. If you have prior working as an agency recruiter or a staffing firm, working in RPO will be a natural transition, if you are looking for a stable salary because you understand how to work with clients. Also, you would understand why (from a business perspective) the RPO firm will be more pro-client than employee.
Cons
I was part of the RPO business, which seemed to be disorganized and constantly in flux. Rarely did we receive feedback from our group leads. When we were given our annual "performance appraisals" they were laughable since they did not know me or what I did very well (the client new more about my performance than the lead). This was a theme among those working in the field. I am sure it would be different if I worked onsite with my team lead. Field team leads and managers serve dual roles to the customer and to their teams and often more customer dedicated and managing their teams are more of an afterthought. This was not a bad thing for me, as they did not get in the way of doing my job, for others it could be an issue. The only time this was an issue was when they were delivering my performance review, since they were not directly involved with my activities. The pay structure is based on contracts negotiated with the client. If you live in an expensive area and your client is in a less expensive area, you are likely to be "underpaid" for your area if you work in the field. Overall, being a RPO recruiter is not going to be for everyone. I could see working in RPO being a difficult adjustment for those without an agency/staffing firm background if the bulk of your experience has been on the inside of the company. There are more challenges when pushing back on hiring managers, as they are the RPO's clients and you represent the RPO firm, so you find yourself standing on the edge of a knife in sticky situations. The RPO is there to make the client happy, so they are not going to readily "back you" when there are escalations. Currently, I am an RPO Recruiter based in the RPO firms head office, so I feel that my manager has a good handle on what I am doing. However, in spite of challenges being a field RPO recruiter, I would go back to it, as working from home is a great benefit for me. So would I go back to Yoh? Yes, for a field opportunity.