5 Insider Success-Driving Secrets of Direct Sourcing You Need to Know About

Direct sourcing is one of the hottest current trends in the staffing industry, and for good reason. By changing the way businesses engage with staffing firms, many companies are able to make more efficient use of contingent talent through their own privately curated talent pools.

While direct sourcing can result in a more streamlined onboarding process and make it easier to fill open positions, a successful direct sourcing program requires more than just a decently-sized network of contingent talent. By focusing on key drivers of direct sourcing success, your organization can have confidence as it transitions to this specialized hiring model.

1. The Employer Brand Comes First

Direct sourcing programs live and die by the strength of the employer brand. When the employer can offer a strong value proposition, they will naturally be much more appealing to contingent workers. Competitive pay, unique benefits during their time working with the company and a flexible work environment are just a few of the qualities necessary to attract strong candidates in the first place.

However, even more important is the experience individuals have while working with your organization. Direct sourcing talent pools are largely built from individuals who already have experience with the company. This includes contractors who have worked with the brand before, former employees who are now contractors and “silver medalist” candidates who previously interviewed for a position.

Providing a positive and engaging work experience is ultimately the best way to build a strong employer brand. It is key to keeping returning talent engaged and generating referrals for new candidates.

2. Systemized Forecasting Streamlines Outcomes

Contingent workers are onboarded and offboarded as needed based on project timelines and other factors. While direct sourcing can certainly make this easier, it will be much more effective when program leaders can successfully forecast future talent needs.

While no one can predict the future with 100% certainty, organization leaders must assume the responsibility for developing a process that allows them to identify periods when they will need to bring on additional contingent talent.

By developing a clear system for predicting contingent talent trends within the organization, direct sourcing initiatives can be proactive, rather than reactive. This ensures that positions can be filled as soon as the need arises, so that projects don’t experience staffing-related delays. Timely onboarding will enhance your organization’s productivity, further increasing direct sourcing’s positive impact on your brand.

3. Constant Talent Pool Curation

Your direct sourcing talent pools should never be considered “big enough.” Workers may accept full-time positions with other organizations. They might retire. Or they may no longer be interested in working for your company.

If you aren’t consistently making an effort to attract and pre-screen candidates that could fill your direct sourcing needs, your available talent pools will only shrink over time. While direct sourcing can certainly lighten the recruiting load, this doesn’t mean that it can be put on the back burner entirely.

To that end, referrals are one of the best ways to continue building your direct sourcing talent pool. These referrals can come from current employees, contractors who previously worked with your company and other professional connections.

Business leaders should never be afraid to ask for referrals from those they already work with. These essentially serve as warm leads who are more likely to be interested in working for your organization thanks to a shared connection.

4. Leveraging Technology to Engage

Successful direct sourcing programs are highly technology driven, helping to improve the program’s efficiency and to deliver an exceptional candidate experience.

For example, utilizing AI matching with your direct sourcing talent pools will make it much easier to identify the right contractor to fill an open position. Email and two-way SMS text messaging enable more consistent outreach to contractor candidates when relevant openings become available. Many of these tasks can even be automated so that organizations can rapidly complete all necessary outreach.

Of course, these technology platforms need real humans supervising the other end. This ensures that all responses and updates from contingent workers in your direct sourcing talent pool are added to the system to further improve future efforts. Technology helps streamline their work and reduce the risk for mistakes so that contingent worker engagement is always efficient and relevant.

5. Manage Compliance With an EOR

While direct sourcing can dramatically streamline a business’s processes for hiring contingent workers, it can also add to the back office workload. Inefficiencies and mistakes can lead to negative employer brand experiences, and even leave an organization vulnerable to regulatory fines.

This makes an employer of record (EOR) even more critical for managing a direct sourcing program. An EOR will manage the contractor process from start to finish, including onboarding and offboarding, benefits distribution and maintaining contact after a contract has ended.

This helps prevent issues that commonly occur with payroll and onboarding which could delay a contingent worker’s ability to get started on their new job. A smooth, interruption-free on boarding process goes a long way in building a positive employer brand.

Perhaps even more importantly, an EOR eliminates the risk of contingent worker misclassification. Because the EOR provider legally serves as the primary employer, they handle all responsibilities and liabilities associated with the contingent workers.

This includes managing worker classifications for tax purposes. Organizations that use these services can have peace of mind knowing that such issues are being handled effectively.

Laying the Groundwork for Success

When done right, direct sourcing can create genuine win-wins for organizations and the contingent workers they engage with. By using these methods to streamline your operations, you can have confidence in your ability to deliver consistently positive experiences to your contingent workforce that further strengthen your talent pool.

At MyBasePay, our team is uniquely qualified to serve as your EOR, ensuring that all compliance and back office operations associated with your direct sourcing program are managed properly.

As a true partner in fulfilling your staffing needs, our team will give you the capacity to focus on building strong employer brand experiences so you can continue to attract and retain top talent.

 

Author: Cesar Romero
Cesar is the Head of Marketing at myBasePay, where he’s responsible for overseeing the company’s content marketing, community, and partnerships strategy. He also co-hosts The Ivy Podcast where he interviews executives from Fortune 500 companies on executive leadership. When he’s not helping startups with marketing and community strategy, you can find him paying it forward by serving as a mentor for leading organizations like StartingBloc, Hive, and Global Citizen Year.