What is Direct Sourcing?
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Direct Sourcing Solutions for Recruitment
More than 90% of employers face skills shortages. With their associated pain points, these skills gaps have become business-critical issues across industries.
What is direct sourcing?
In simple terms, engaging the right people, either permanent or contingent, is taking too long and costing too much. This is particularly true for businesses with specific skills needs, such as the Engineering, Life Sciences or Banking and Finance industries, for example.
So, what is direct sourcing? And how does it solve common recruitment problems?
Direct sourcing is a talent attraction strategy that helps companies to build a robust pipeline of suitable candidates by activating and continuously developing their employer brand. This approach is especially effective for organisations looking to recruit in large volumes, but can equally work on highly specific skill sets in targeted geographies too.
And the proof is in our partnerships. Hays recently worked with a client on their direct sourcing strategy, with a view to generating a quicker hiring process. They subsequently successfully onboarded over 1,000 workers. In doing so, the associated cost of talent decreased by 5%, and more importantly their time to effectiveness – the time taken not just to identify, select and engage a worker, but the additional time it takes for that person to become effective in the role - reduced by 25%.
In this blog, we’ll see how direct sourcing could apply to your business.
What is direct sourcing in recruiting?
A direct sourcing strategy combines the strength of your brand with new technologies and a marketing strategy built on engagement in order to build and nurture a network of skills and talent aligned to your future demand. Direct sourcing is often deployed as part of, or alongside, a Managed Service Programme (MSP), but works perfectly well in permanent talent markets also.
By leveraging your brand's appeal, direct sourcing can help to position you as a top choice for prospective employees, without relying on a third-party supplier. This approach works by actively seeking out and engaging with talent communities, using your branding, processes and technology to attract talent. You effectively become a ‘Career Destination of Choice’.
What are the benefits of direct sourcing?
What does direct sourcing mean for companies that deploy it as a part of their hiring process?
Accelerate talent acquisition
The speed at which you can attract talent is more critical than ever. A direct sourcing solution employs sophisticated demand planning, helping you to anticipate future skill requirements. This proactive approach ensures that you remain ahead, ready to meet business-critical talent demands swiftly.
Directly engage top talent
Direct sourcing also changes how companies connect with candidates. By harnessing the power of your brand, this approach ensures that your recruitment teams are more effectively positioned to promote your roles. This improves match quality and encourages focused attention on your vacancies.
Maintain your employer brand
A strong employer brand is essential to attracting the right eyes. Direct sourcing builds an entire recruitment process — from initial contact to onboarding. Your provider then conducts the full process under your brand's banner. This consistency ensures a uniformly high-quality experience for candidates and hiring managers alike, strengthening your brand now and in the future.
Make cost savings when sourcing talent
Adopting direct sourcing can often result in significant cost savings compared to the use of agency sourced workers. This approach reduces immediate expenses and optimises your long-term investment in recruitment — offering a cost-effective solution for talent acquisition.
When should you employ a direct sourcing strategy?
Deciding when to implement a direct sourcing strategy is crucial for innovating your recruitment approach. It’s important to remember that this strategy isn't a one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, this approach shines in specific scenarios where it can significantly impact your talent acquisition and management efforts, such as:
- High-volume hiring: Direct sourcing is ideal if your organisation frequently fills high-volume roles and you're keen on deepening your talent networks. It's particularly effective in sectors or regions with high demand for specific skill sets.
- Employer brand enhancement: Do you prioritise the protection and enhancement of your employer brand while hiring? By conducting all recruitment activities under your brand and adhering to your brand guidelines, you maintain control over the candidate experience.
- Efficiency and cost-effectiveness: Organisations aiming to reduce the time to hire and make recruitment cost savings could find direct sourcing a beneficial workforce strategy compared to more traditional staffing methods.
Are there any limitations to direct sourcing?
While direct sourcing brings advantages in the right situations, there are also considerations to make.
- Are you filling unique positions? Traditional recruitment approaches may still hold the upper hand for niche roles or those that are challenging to fill.
- Do you have an established brand? Without a strong employer brand, attracting top talent might not happen immediately.
- Is this a long-term solution? Rushing the implementation can lead to less-than-ideal results. We usually advise a phased approach, using direct sourcing for the most appropriate roles before scaling.
- Do you have the best processes in place? A healthy onboarding process greatly enhances the effectiveness of direct sourcing – there is nothing worse than a highly effective Talent Attraction strategy that is let down by perceived blockages in the time it takes to onboard and induct your new worker!
Start your direct sourcing programme
Our direct sourcing approach caters to organisations with strong brand presence and significant demand. Leveraging a blend of innovative sourcing methods, data analytics and modern insights, we build dynamic talent networks, rich in skilled professionals to meet the challenges you face.
With every aspect of sourcing, screening, and internal management unified under your brand, we bring a seamless experience for both your team and prospective hires. Learn more about our direct sourcing services.
AUTHOR
David Spence
Global Head of Growth, Enterprise Solutions at Hays
Working alongside the Enterprise Solutions leadership team, David leads on our sales and bids strategy. His key focus areas including increasing team capabilities and enhancing our use of data and analysis, in order to build better workforce solutions for our clients across the globe.
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