Does Direct Sourcing Solve Talent Woes?

By Shelley Luzaich | November 28, 2022

Looking to fill volumes of workers for the holiday season? Trying to prepare for the coming tax season? Planning farther down the road to staff a summer camp at a university? These scenarios and many others all are ripe for a direct sourcing solution for companies and higher education institutions.  

According to Spend Matters, direct sourcing has been growing as a business strategy, but it requires technology and a sound business plan to back it up “By adding the practice of direct sourcing to an existing talent acquisition program (or incorporating it at the outset into a new program), companies are better able to access alternative labor channels or niche talent that has not been found when relying on traditional recruiting and staffing channels.” 

Although direct sourcing has been around for a while, it has evolved. Today, Spend Matters asserts,  it is part of an emerging direct sourcing ecosystem where it’s intertwined with digitally-enabled self-service trends, maturing technologies, and enterprise digitalization coupled with a different sourcing channel.  

And as pressures mount on the client side to urgently fill contingent roles in a timely manner, direct sourcing – where clients can leverage their own brand and create a private talent cloud of candidates at their own company – can help fill those roles, reducing time-to-fill ratios with a ready-to-deploy pool of workers.  

In fact, direct sourcing is the number one trend in contingent workforce management, according to Staffing Industry Analysts’ research, with 60% of contingent leaders reporting that “direct sourcing will be implemented in their programs in the next two years”, more than any other workforce strategy.  

Facing past and present difficulties from the pandemic – the great resignation, quiet quitting, quick quitting, and now quiet constraint – direct sourcing can definitely be tapped to a company’s advantage. It can be strategically used to boost agility, increase productivity, and reinforce specific skill sets.  

nextSource insights  

In essence, adopting a direct sourcing strategy can help companies gain a competitive edge. For example, the average time-to-fill can be significantly shorter. For many positions it takes 42 days on average to fill a temporary position, according to the Society of Human Resources Management. Direct sourcing, by contrast, results in a far shorter timeframe, while quickly supporting surges in demand.  

Optimizing past applicants, past workers, interns, retirees, those with special skill sets, referrals, and others gleaned from social media sites such as LinkedIn in a company-branded direct sourcing community is key to gaining a competitive edge. nextSourcingTM – our proprietary advanced approach to direct sourcing – a company’s brand to create private talent communities of exceptional pre-qualified candidates who are available, engaged, ready for assignment, and familiar with your brand.   

Direct Sourcing is most effective when applied to high-volume, repetitive-usage areas prone to high turnover such as: 

  • Call Centers 
  • Distribution Centers 
  • Data Processing Centers 
  • Administrative Support Services / Help Desks 
  • Medical Coding and Billing Centers 
  • Facilities / Maintenance 
  • Grounds Services 
  • Research Assistants 

Seasonal or peak business needs that are recurring such as: 

  • Licensed Sales Agents for Health Insurance Providers during Open Enrollment 
  • Tax Accountants during Tax Preparation Season 
  • Retail Support during the Holiday Season 
  • Marketing Professionals in Support of a Product Launch or Event 
  • Summer Camps 
  • Athletics 
  • Academic Coaches 

Customized solutions specific to your business needs such as: 

  • Interns 
  • DEI Program to Connect with Diversity Candidates 
  • Federal Grant Writers 
  • Out-of-state Faculty, Administrators, Study Abroad and Research Global Faculty 

Companies need an efficient and effective way to attract, retain, and redeploy talent, according to Spend Matters, as do colleges and universities. Direct sourcing presents an opportunity to supplement an organization’s contingent workforce management program to create a robust ecosystem.  

If it is unfamiliar territory, a managed direct sourcing solution can mean the difference between a success or a failure. A robust ecosystem takes into consideration how to source, curate, nurture, place, and manage candidates and workers. 

Here are some tips for a thriving direct-sourcing solution:  

  • Reinforce connections. Forge long-term relationships with candidates through a nurturing approach that benefits both the client and the candidates in a true Talent Community.   
  • Ensure data is accessible. Direct sourcing can provide insights into saving money, reducing time-to-fill, decreasing onboarding time, and ensuring culture fits, especially from past hires. 
  • Brand your community. Optimize your direct sourcing solution with a branded community and branded messaging that keeps workers engaged.   
Posted in Clients, Working Knowledge