The correct answer is: The organisation has complex cultural, business and technical selection criteria for its staff, but is considering using a consultancy for the first time, because it requires new people urgently in order to exploit an opportunity

Rationale: The key factors here are the urgency, and the fact that the consultants do not know the organisation: there is not enough time to give the consultants an adequate understanding of the complex recruitment needs.

In 'The organisation has a strong, traditional culture, but is now looking to introduce greater innovation and flexibility', consultants would bring a 'fresh eye' and avoid bringing the same old types of people into the organisation.

In 'The organisation does not have a specialist recruitment function, but is looking to recruit on a large scale for the first time', consultants would provide expertise and resources to handle large-scale recruitment, which the organisation lacks in-house.

In 'The organisation uses outside consultants in many areas of its business, and is used to managing their services effectively', the organisation can be confident that use of consultants would not be resented and resisted.

Ways in: It helps if you have a checklist in your head of reasons to outsource recruitment: 'new blood', resources/expertise and internal support would certainly be on that list. 'Lead time to brief consultants on the needs of the organisation' would be on the list of reasons not to use consultants…