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Webinar Recap: Enabling Total Talent Acquisition With Direct Sourcing

Broadleaf and LiveHire recently partnered to host a webinar discussing the details of direct sourcing and how this solution can be leveraged by companies to acquire talent in today’s challenging labor market.

What is direct sourcing?

With a proactive recruiting approach, direct sourcing builds employer-branded talent communities from which to hire. It is frequently called Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) for the contingent workforce and is critical to a company’s total talent acquisition success.

  • By accessing an organization’s own candidate pool—former workers, retirees, and silver medalist applicants from its applicant tracking software (ATS)—direct sourcing can be leveraged to place contingent or direct hire employees within a company.
  • Direct sourcing artificial intelligence (AI) technology platforms, like LiveHire, can be used to leverage a combination of candidate sources—including a client’s ATS, job boards, LinkedIn, referral networks, and social media. Using AI platforms, talent communities are generated that are vetted and active for specific locations, job functions, and/or titles. Once the candidate pool is curated, workforce solutions program talent curators organize the data and candidates based on classifications such as experience, qualifications, and skills to promote further optimization of this talent pool.

In other words, direct sourcing is a service line that fills the gap between Managed Service Programs (MSP) and Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) programs.

Related: What is Direct Sourcing?

Related: Direct Sourcing Services

Using direct sourcing to complement MSP and RPO programs

  • To implement a direct sourcing program successfully and seamlessly, Broadleaf draws on its “stewardship experience” from RPO programs to leverage a client’s employer’s brand.
  • The company’s experience in candidate outreach and attraction methods makes building a private database of qualified and interested candidates an easy transition.
  • MSPs already pair technology with best practices for contingent staffing, so using talent pooling technology—like LiveHire—creates an efficient and targeted solution to hiring.

Benefits of direct sourcing

  • Better access to talent: Direct sourcing reduces your organization’s submittal-to-fill ratios and ensures you have a continuous talent pool for key roles.

  • Private talent pool: This feature of direct sourcing is an asset because candidates in this pool cannot be “touched” by other companies. This means that those in the pool have expressed interest in being considered for current or future positions with that company and are nurtured to ensure availability for the next open role. Additionally, the curation team managing this talent pool will not consider these specific candidates as placements at another company or competitor.
  • An improved slate of candidates: Much of the direct sourcing talent pools are compiled of alumni, retirees, and “silver medalist candidates”—those who made it to the final round of the hiring process but were not hired. Silver medalist candidates are extremely valuable to a company’s recruitment strategy because these individuals have already been vetted as highly considerable for a position previously. In exchange, these individuals have already expressed sincere interest in working for the company and are familiar with the brand. The job market is consistently changing, and candidates that were not selected for one position may be perfect for another. It is hugely advantageous to begin with an already qualified and informed talent pool when in the hiring process.
  • Streamlined process: With direct sourcing, all the recruitment “heavy lifting” is taken care of by technology and your curation partner. Analytics provided by companies like LiveHire supply job forecasting so organizations can implement direct sourcing into their hiring strategies and target the roles and locations where this practice will be the most effective. Ultimately, this reduces the time to hire.
  • Positive and consistent candidate experience: AI matching ensures that sourced candidates are qualified and able to engage in work assignments quickly. Two-way messaging provides timely communication to deliver a positive candidate experience at every step of the recruitment process—resulting in higher conversion rates.
  • Curated talent community: The use of AI helps drive efficiency and engagement without having to engage secondary staffing suppliers.
  • Cost savings: By eliminating the need for several suppliers when looking for candidates, the suppliers that are utilized are strategic, and therefore, cost-effective. Companies can achieve maximum value from this practice by checking their own talent pool first to fulfill the desired position. If the talent is not there, then the company can turn to other third-party staffing agencies to help them acquire candidates. Ideally, the goal is to leverage your own full-time candidate population for contingent opportunities, build your employer brand, and achieve cost savings. Organizations will experience a reduced time to hire by tapping into an engaged opted-in talent community who are already interested in working for your company.

Direct sourcing and the hiring strategy funnel

The essential question to workforce strategy planning is “how can a company stand out to bring more candidates into their “hiring funnel?” A business must understand the need to fill the “top” of the funnel when hiring and attracting candidates and applicants. However, a business must see this funnel through in terms of placements and retention. Filling the talent shortage improves bottom line business initiatives and outcomes and, in turn, delivers client needs. Implementing a direct sourcing model allows a company to establish your contingent worker program so that it can sustain the journey. Direct sourcing strategies focus on filling the top of the funnel and continuing the flow without losing candidates or having candidates “fall out.” To keep filling this funnel, direct sourcing strategies must consider elements like talent compensation and management to stay ahead and retain talent.

“War for talent” solution

Amid today’s “Great Resignation,” the consensus among many is that the talent has won and it’s a candidate-driven market. The companies succeeding in this war are those that are thinking outside the box. Hiring in precedent, or “the way we have always done it,” is how companies fall behind. Organizations are now recognizing the necessity and the value of understanding and managing their “total talent.” Companies should find solid tools to help build your total talent acquisition strategy. Partnering with a total talent management solutions provider expands your talent community–by engaging the largest pool of potential candidates possible–and increases the probability of procuring higher-quality talent on a consistent hiring basis. Direct sourcing solutions provide an alternative way to ensure greater success in talent curation and pipelining.