How often is "we need more people" actually the wrong diagnosis?

I've been thinking about a pattern I keep seeing with outsourcing companies.

A client says:

We need to hire 20 more people.

So the outsourcing partner starts recruiting immediately.

A few months later...

They're hiring for the exact same roles again.

In many cases, the problem wasn't a shortage of talent.

It was something else:

- High employee turnover.

- Weak onboarding.

- Managers who aren't equipped to lead teams.

- Unrealistic workloads leading to burnout.

- Compensation or career progression that doesn't match the market.

Hiring more people only masks the problem for a while.

If employees keep leaving, recruitment becomes a treadmill instead of a growth engine.

I'm curious how outsourcing leaders see this.

How often do you discover that the client's hiring problem is actually a retention or operational problem?

What's the biggest hidden issue you've uncovered after a client asked for "more people"?