How Your Business Stands to Benefit From Direct Sourcing Contingent Workers

Direct sourcing is becoming a major disruptor in the staffing world, dramatically changing the way that many businesses engage with contingent workers. While change can certainly bring about its fair share of challenges, direct sourcing is by and large poised to provide significant benefits to the companies that enlist this method.

Direct sourcing is the process in which a company systematically builds its own private database of contingent workers that it can organize into talent pools and draw upon when it needs to fill an open position for a project.

This method is heavily reliant upon a strong employer brand, as the employer brand is what enables the company to attract and curate contingent workers in the first place. By understanding the key benefits of direct sourcing contingent workers, your business can move forward with this exciting new staffing solution.

Proven, Privately Curated Talent

The method in which contingent talent is curated for direct sourcing offers inherent advantages to the business. Direct sourcing talent pools aren’t made up of unknown job applicants. Rather, they are composed of individuals who have already engaged with you and expressed interest in working for your company.

This includes contingent workers who have worked with your company on prior projects, “boomerang employees” who once worked for you full-time but are now contractors, and “silver medalist” candidates who were vetted for a position but were ultimately the second choice for a previous opening. Your direct sourcing group could also include referrals from current employees and contractors.

Because this talent has already been “tested” with your organization, so to speak, it makes hiring decisions much easier. Hiring managers know what to expect from different contingent workers, taking the guesswork out of finding the right fit for a project.

Best of all, these workers have already expressed an interest in working with you. By sourcing through a privately curated database, you can enjoy reduced competition for their time and talent, making it easier to bring your top picks onboard.

Speed Up the Hiring Process

According to research from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), it takes most organizations an average time of 36 days to fill an open position. In today’s fast-moving business world, 36 days is a long time — especially if you need to wait for a position to be filled before you can start moving forward on a crucial project.

Direct sourcing can significantly speed up the process of onboarding contingent talent. In the case of returning talent and “silver medalist” candidates, you can skip much of the interview process, since these individuals have already been screened by your organization. Employment information for returning talent is often already on-file, further streamlining the onboarding process.

Because this talent is also easily accessible through your private talent pool, you don’t need to engage with a generalist staffing agency to post job descriptions and go through applications. You can reach out directly to the candidates who seem like the best fit for filling the position.

Finally, contingent talent who has worked with you previously is already familiar with how your company operates. This shortens the learning curve so they can reach full productivity that much sooner.

Increased Capacity to Scale

Direct sourcing is a gift that keeps on giving, particularly as you scale your organization. As you engage with more talent, interview more candidates for open positions, and obtain more referrals from employees, you can continue to grow your direct sourcing talent pools.

Providing positive experiences to contractors who work with you and maintaining contact with them will keep them engaged and ready to work with you again the next time a relevant project comes up.The flexibility and streamlined onboarding that are made possible through direct sourcing makes it much easier to scale your business operations.

Contingent workers help your company become more agile, allowing you to use additional talent as needed without the costs and compliance concerns associated with hiring full-time employees. With more people freelancing than ever before, organizations have greater capacity to curate competitive direct sourcing talent pools to take on more projects.

Reduced Overhead

The traditional hiring process can become quite costly. Working with multiple staffing agencies to distribute job postings and screen candidates requires a significant investment before you even fill a position.

Providing necessary training to get new hires up to speed also requires time and money — even for contractors who won’t be earning a full-time salary or receiving health insurance and other benefits from the company.

By going the direct sourcing route, businesses can drastically reduce the overhead associated with the hiring process. A successful direct sourcing program can reduce the need for generalist staffing suppliers by successfully filling most open positions.

By only needing to work with specialist providers to manage a direct sourcing program or to fill specialist positions, companies can lower hiring and onboarding costs.

At the same time, a direct sourced worker’s familiarity with your organization enables them to reach full productivity in a shorter timeframe. This helps projects get completed more efficiently, allowing you to deliver strong results to your clients and increase profitability. A strong direct sourcing program helps you simultaneously save money and increase your earnings.

Maximize the Potential of Direct Sourcing With an EOR

While direct sourcing can significantly streamline the talent acquisition process, it doesn’t eliminate the importance of maintaining compliance with applicable hiring laws or providing a smooth onboarding experience to contingent workers. Prioritizing these issues can require a lot of time and resources, but they are essential to avoid regulatory issues or a negative employer brand experience.

The complexities of the contingent workforce can easily create stumbling blocks for your organization, but not when you work with a direct sourcing partner that also offers employer of record (EOR) services, such as myBasePay. A comprehensive suite of back office solutions managed by a team of staffing experts ensures a smooth, stress-free experience for your contingent workers while lightening the burden on your own staff.

As you make use of the direct sourcing model and EOR services, you will gain a significant competitive advantage thanks to a greater capacity to utilize contingent 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.