For many business leaders, recruitment becomes a strategic pressure point as the company scales. Internal teams feel stretched. Roles stay open longer. Growth plans slow down.
At this stage, leaders must decide: invest in in-house recruiting capability or outsource hiring to recruitment agencies. Each option promises relief but each carries hidden risks if chosen without a long-term view. This section summarizes the pros and cons of using a recruitment agency for growing companies in Vietnam helps business leaders make informed decisions, rather than reactive ones.
TL;DR
- Recruitment agencies can expedite hiring, but the pros and cons of using recruitment agencies often involve trade-offs in control, cost transparency, and employer branding.
- In-house recruiting provides stronger ownership and cultural alignment but struggles to scale efficiently during rapid growth.
- For growing companies in Vietnam, structured recruitment models offer a more predictable and scalable alternative.
In-house recruiting vs using recruitment agencies
At a fundamental level, the difference between in-house recruiting and recruitment agencies lies in ownership and control.
With in-house recruiting, the company owns the recruitment process end-to-end: employer branding, candidate experience, hiring priorities, and long-term talent planning. This model works well when hiring demand is stable and internal expertise is mature.
Recruitment agencies, on the other hand, operate as external vendors. They bring speed, networks, and sourcing capacity, but work across multiple clients with their own processes and incentives. While agencies can fill roles quickly, alignment with internal standards is not guaranteed.
For growing companies in Vietnam, the choice is rarely black and white. The real question becomes: how much control, predictability, and scalability does the business need at this stage?
Explore more: Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO): How It Works, Benefits, Cost and When to Use
The pros of using a recruitment agency
Quick access to qualified talent
When important positions stay unfilled, business progress slows down. Internal teams may not have the right connections or sufficient time to find candidates for niche or high-demand jobs. Long vacancies put more pressure on current staff, delay projects, and lead to missed opportunities, especially in fast-paced markets like Vietnam. Recruitment agencies utilize their candidate databases, industry contacts, and active talent pools to quickly identify pre-vetted candidates, which is especially beneficial for urgent or specialized roles.
For companies facing immediate hiring pressure, this speed can be a decisive advantage
Expedited hiring process
Internal recruiting teams often handle many tasks, such as employer branding, coordination, interviews, and onboarding, which can stretch their capacity. When hiring needs grow, it usually takes longer to fill positions. Candidates may lose interest, and competitors might hire faster. By outsourcing sourcing and initial screening, recruitment agencies can help reduce the time it takes to hire. This is especially useful when internal teams are understaffed or unfamiliar with certain roles.
However, speed should not be the only measure of success. How that speed is achieved also matters.
Workforce flexibility
Hiring needs often change. Growth periods, seasonal demand, or entering new markets can cause sudden increases in recruitment. Expanding an internal recruiting team for short-term needs raises fixed costs and long-term expenses. Recruitment agencies provide flexibility. Companies can increase or decrease hiring without adding permanent staff. This makes agencies a good choice for short-term or project-based hiring.
The cons of using recruitment agencies
While recruitment agencies offer clear benefits, there are notable drawbacks leaders must consider before outsourcing hiring.
Limited control over the entirety of the recruitment process
Recruitment is not just transactional – it shapes employer reputation. When hiring is outsourced, companies relinquish control over candidate communication, role representation, and cultural messaging. Each candidate interaction becomes filtered through a third party.
Staffing professionals represent their own firm, not the employer’s values. This can lead to inconsistent candidate experiences, misaligned expectations, or even misrepresentation of roles
Higher Costs and Potential Hidden Fees
Recruitment agencies often appear cost-effective at first glance. Over time, placement fees, replacement clauses, and volume-based commissions accumulate. Percentage-based fees per hire can quickly exceed the cost of building internal capability—especially during sustained hiring periods. Smaller agencies may charge higher fees to sustain operations, while larger agencies may prioritize volume over fit. Hidden costs often emerge only after multiple hires. Leaders must evaluate total cost of ownership, not just per-hire fees
Lack of employer branding
Strong employer branding is a long-term competitive advantage in Vietnam’s talent market. Agency-led hiring often prioritizes speed over storytelling. Candidates may engage more with the agency brand than with the employer itself, weakening emotional connection and long-term engagement. Without intentional branding alignment, companies risk filling roles quickly but failing to build a sustainable talent pipeline.
Which option is better: In-house or agency recruitment?
There is no single answer. The best choice depends on your business’s stage, the number of people you plan to hire, and your long-term workforce planning objectives.
When In-house Recruitment Makes Sense
- Stable hiring demand
- Strong employer brand
- Long-term investment in talent strategy
- Need for full control over candidate experience and culture
In-house recruitment excels when consistency and ownership matter more than speed.
When Recruitment Agencies Are a Good Short-term Solution
- Urgent or niche hiring needs
- Temporary hiring spikes
- Limited internal recruiting capacity
- Market entry or pilot phases
Agencies work best as short-term accelerators, not permanent engines.
Where Both Models Fall Short for Scaling Companies
As companies expand, they often find that neither model fits their needs anymore.
In-house teams can struggle to grow steadily. Agencies may get expensive and feel disconnected. Reports are not always clear, and hiring results can be unpredictable.
At this point, leaders begin to seek a recruitment approach that can scale with their business.
A More Scalable Alternative to Traditional Recruitment
As companies in Vietnam grow, they often find that in-house hiring and traditional recruitment agencies no longer provide them with the control, speed, or predictability they desire.
To solve this, more structured recruitment models, such as embedded or process-driven approaches, can be helpful. These models focus on:
- Process ownership
- Transparent reporting
- Predictable costs
- Alignment with internal teams and employer brand
Instead of just outsourcing recruitment tasks, companies are now outsourcing their entire recruitment capability.
Sunbytes – Accelerate Your Workforce With a Proven Recruitment Model
About Sunbytes
Sunbytes is a Dutch technology company based in the Netherlands, with a major delivery hub in Vietnam. For over 14 years, we have helped organizations worldwide transform their strategies into reliable results, consistently incorporating governance and security from the outset.
Unlike traditional recruitment providers, we see workforce scaling as essential to delivery, not just a transaction. Our recruitment and workforce solutions help businesses grow while keeping control, quality, and compliance, especially in complex markets like Vietnam.
Digital Transformation Solutions supports Accelerate Workforce Solutions
Because we design, build, and modernize digital products from start to finish, including custom development, QA/testing, and long-term maintenance, we truly understand what high-performing product and engineering teams need. This hands-on experience leads to:
- Sharper and more realistic role definitions
- Stronger alignment between business goals and technical requirements
- Better candidate fit and faster ramp-up after hiring
Hiring stops being guesswork and becomes part of your product and delivery plan.
Cybersecurity Solutions supports Accelerate Workforce.
As an ISO 27001 certified organization, Sunbytes brings a Secure by Design approach to every project. This ensures that workforce scaling follows clear standards, risk awareness, and compliance, rather than creating hidden vulnerabilities as teams grow.
Our clients benefit from:
- Strong confidentiality and data protection practices
- Clear governance in hiring and onboarding processes
- Reduced security and compliance gaps as headcount increases
This is especially important for companies in regulated industries or those handling sensitive data like financial, healthcare,etc.
How Sunbytes Accelerates Your Workforce Alongside Your In-House Team
Sunbytes provides end-to-end HR and recruitment capabilities to help international companies navigate Vietnam with confidence:
- Recruitment services for both tech and non-tech roles
- Employer of Record (EOR) services
- Payroll services cover administration and statutory compliance
- Labor law, tax, and employment advisory
With years of experience helping European and international businesses in Vietnam, we help clients avoid regulatory issues, protect their reputation, and keep operations running smoothly as they grow.
Sunbytes works as part of your internal team, not just as an outside vendor focused on speed. Our recruitment model focuses on:
- Process ownership and transparency
- Clear reporting and measurable outcomes
- Predictable cost structures
- Seamless collaboration with in-house stakeholders
You do more than just add people to your team. You build a team that is ready to deliver, fits in easily, and grows with your plans, supported by technology expertise, security, and local HR knowledge. Contact our knowledgeable team today for a detailed guide tailored to your specific business needs.
FAQs
Recruitment agencies can assess skills efficiently, but cultural alignment requires deep understanding of internal values and team dynamics. Cultural fit improves when agencies work closely with internal teams and operate under clear guidelines.
Agencies typically charge per-hire fees or percentage-based commissions. While effective short-term, costs can escalate with volume hiring. At scale, companies should evaluate total hiring cost rather than individual placements.
Key metrics include time-to-hire, cost-per-hire, quality-of-hire, retention rate, and candidate experience consistency. These metrics help leaders assess long-term recruitment effectiveness not just speed.
Let’s start with Sunbytes
Let us know your requirements for the team and we will contact you right away.
