Understanding Direct Sourcing: What You Need to Know

Hiring top talent influences company revenues and growth trajectories. That explains why businesses are upping their game when it comes to recruitment and employee retention. One strategy that is gaining popularity is direct sourcing. As the recruitment landscape evolves, organizations are building their internal capacity for talent acquisition instead of using third parties.

Defining Direct Sourcing

Sometimes called self-sourcing, this recruitment model eliminates overreliance on employment services by creating an individual candidate pool. Since businesses have unique needs, direct sourcing methods differ from one organization to another. Even so, the concept remains the same: Employers go to the market themselves instead of passing through a middleman.  

Advantages

Here’s how self-sourcing benefits your workforce. 

1. Cost savings: Self-sourcing saves you the commissions charged by recruitment agencies. The costs are higher when you work with different employment services at a time. Additionally, self-sourcing lets you engage candidates depending on your budget. This is unlike middlemen who might deliver professionals beyond your price range.
2. Faster recruitment: By maintaining contact with silver-medalist candidates, freelancers, retirees, and former employees, recruitment is fast and hassle-free. As such, you don’t take too long with the interviews since you already know the candidate’s capabilities. Filling vacancies faster gives you a head start on your competitors, especially if you’re chasing the same candidates. 
3. Building professional relationships: Agencies may not allow you to contact the employees they provide for future projects. However, you cultivate stronger relationships when you reach contractors directly and engage them from time to time. Moreover, you can rate the candidates according to performance, and hire top talents when opportunities arise. Contingent workers can even refer you to other professionals when they’re not available for a task.
4. Flexibility: More professionals are sacrificing the stability of traditional jobs for the flexibility of working with different organizations. By self-sourcing independent contractors, you can adapt to market changes since recruitment depends on developing needs.

Direct Sourcing Options

Self-sourcing starts with determining which option suits your business. Direct sourcing solutions include:

• Freelance Management Systems (FMS): These platforms accommodate the numerous professionals embracing freelancing. An FMS offers end-to-end tools for recording talent, invoicing, filling projects, and streamlining onboarding.  
• Online marketplaces: These sites allow professionals to advertise their skills for hire.
• Talent networks: This system enables companies to record individual contractors they have engaged before. Companies can restrict network access to hiring managers or open it to other members of the organization.

It Takes Time

Building a sourcing strategy requires patience. Do you need help developing a direct sourcing system? Let us know the recruitment areas you’re struggling with.