Your Complete Guide to Direct Sourcing

Company leaders have had their hands full in recent years. The COVID-19 pandemic, a weakening economy, and increased unemployment have all contributed to layoffs, scrapped hiring strategies, reduced recruitment expenditures, and the reevaluation of what personnel companies should bring on board and when. As a result, companies face a talent landscape that differs from the one that existed even three years ago.

In an effort to save costs and find talent in this new talent landscape, several companies are exploring different hiring options. Direct sourcing recruitment is one strategy that is gaining traction. Recent studies have shown that 84% of large organizations either have a direct sourcing program in place now or aim to investigate the technique within the next two years, proving that the business case for direct sourcing has been broadly recognized.

Whether you need to acquire a contingent workforce on an ongoing basis or fill a specialized role, a direct sourcing solution may help. Find out below what direct sourcing is and why it’s important!

What is direct sourcing?

Direct sourcing recruitment is a method of filling open positions, in which an organization advertises job openings to a wide pool of internal and external candidates. Direct sourcing essentially implies that the best possible candidates are drawn to the open positions at the employing organization.
If you’re pursuing direct sourcing for the first time, here are some questions you may have:

What is direct sourcing recruitment?

Direct sourcing makes full use of a ready-made pool of qualified candidates. As a result, utilizing streamlined direct sourcing requires establishing a systematic and effective hiring procedure with the help of professional talent networks developed with partners such as High5.

How does a direct sourcing solution work?

Companies use their talent network for direct sourcing, meaning they look for potential employees in their own pool of qualified candidates. Current and former workers, retirees, freelancers, contractors, and second-and third-choice applicants who have gone through an organization’s application tracking system may all be included in this talent network.

How does direct sourcing differ from recruiting agencies?

Simply stated, the use of third-party agencies is the difference between recruiting agencies and direct sourcing, meaning companies typically employ direct sourcing recruitment strategies when they decide to forgo the services of external recruiting agencies. In other words, companies use direct sourcing recruitment to attract and retain top personnel through the internal promotion of the company’s employer brand.

Five Benefits of a Direct Sourcing Solution

If you use a direct sourcing solution to hire employees, you’re giving your company a leg up in terms of finding the best possible candidates. Here are just a few benefits of direct sourcing recruitment:

1. It makes it easier to find niche talent.

Having a private pool of independent talent to draw from makes it much easier to discover, engage, and re-engage essential skilled individuals when you need their services. Direct sourcing is especially helpful if you need to enlist the abilities of specialty talent only infrequently. In addition, former contractors who worked with you might be quickly reengaged with your company.

2. It saves money.

Direct sourcing eliminates the need for third-party recruiting firms, saving you considerable money in service fees. In addition, when you deal with contractors on your own, you can select the ones you wish to work with based on factors such as cost and compatibility with your company’s values.
Hiring an outside firm to find the best candidates increases the risk of paying too much for employees who aren’t a good cultural match. In fact, 75% of companies say they have made a wrong hire at some point, and each wrong hire can cost up to $15,000. Instead, you can better oversee your recruitment budget using direct in-house sourcing.

3. It can help you hire qualified talent faster.

There is no need to hire external recruiters because, with direct sourcing, you already know where to get the best candidates, meaning you don’t have to wait to hear back from recruiters while your positions remain unfilled. Instead, you can tap into a ready-made pool of enthusiastic workers by turning to direct sourcing.
If you already have the proper individuals on staff—active, skilled employees who want to work for you—you can cut down on time spent recruiting new employees while still filling any temporary vacancies. In addition, you can recruit contingent employees in as little as 24 hours, which means you can hire them quickly and still provide an excellent experience for your candidates.

With the support of platforms such as High5, hiring managers can take advantage of tried-and-true methods for scouting and assessing professional talent. As a result, it enables HR departments to accurately fill more open positions, meet their targets, and have more resources available to implement a long-term business expansion strategy.

4. It can empower your organization to meet or exceed DEI goals.

Although direct sourcing is typically touted for its financial savings and increased efficiency in the recruiting process, its influence on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is often forgotten. However, a direct sourcing solution opens a new door for companies pursuing DEI at the strategic level.
As a result of having a specialized staff and more control over the entire recruitment process, the company can implement its agreed-upon sourcing strategy and keep up with its existing DEI obligations and objectives.
High5, for example, promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion by posting openings for skilled workers on more than 100 minority websites and hundreds of other outlets. Organizations can achieve their diversity targets and perhaps surpass them through DEI collaborations, targeted marketing initiatives, and the use of best-in-class technologies.

5. It helps cultivate better work relationships and strengthens the culture.

For a long time, talent management has focused on attracting and keeping full-time employees, but this isn’t always possible with a contingent workforce. Reengaging top people is complicated by legal and compliance risks. You might be unable to speak with those people about a future assignment if they were found through an agency.

All these problems and concerns disappear when you can find and use talented individuals again and again. One of the benefits of a direct sourcing approach is the ability to develop meaningful connections with the most qualified short-term employees. With the correct tools, you can track employee progress, single out the most valuable contractors in your team, and keep them interested in working for you even when they’re not on the clock.

Building lasting bonds with top talent has many positive effects on a company, including but not limited to the quality of the work environment and the morale of the staff. Culture fosters commitment, and commitment encourages loyalty. You won’t be able to get the most out of your team, whether permanent or temporary, if they aren’t enthusiastic about their work.

In contrast, if you can establish a solid sense of culture and continue to work with talented people, you will have a far better chance of propelling your organization to success.

Tips for Starting Direct Sourcing Recruitment

Are you sold on these benefits? Then let’s talk about some tips to get your direct sourcing solution rolling!

1. Determine your staffing needs.

You’ll first need to gain an accurate picture of your present workforce composition. Gathering input from key stakeholders on issues, initiatives, future demand, and the appropriate skill mix is all part of this process.

2. Think about your long-term goals.

Considering how a direct sourcing channel can help with organizational issues and long-term company objectives is essential. Making a list of problems that a direct sourcing recruitment strategy will address is an important step in implementing direct sourcing recruitment. By doing so, you can ensure that all decisions, developments, partnerships, integrations, and configurations are in line with the implementation project’s overarching objectives

3. Have the proper support in place.

Having support from key business departments—including HR/talent acquisition, procurement, IT, legal, finance, and stakeholders from high-user business lines—is essential during the period spent developing a direct sourcing strategy. Involve the right individuals from the start and give them a clear picture of the time commitments required to complete the project successfully by naming the people who will need to be engaged.

4. Consider your current processes.

You should also be aware of how direct sourcing may affect your organization’s pre-existing processes, technologies, contracts with service providers, and post-implementation needs for in-house operations and technology.

5. Consult with a professional.

It’s a good idea to consult with professionals in the field, such as High5, who have a track record for successfully implementing direct sourcing for their customers. This will help you learn more about the most crucial factors to consider when implementing direct sourcing—such as the expected timeline and budget—while taking advantage of High5’s global reach.

Conclusion: Start Direct Sourcing with High5

High5 has completely transformed how businesses find and interact with qualified applicants by tapping into a global talent pool. We are experienced in the field and have proven success. For example, one of our clients, a medical manufacturer, achieved a 35-day reduction in the time it takes to fill open positions and a 20% decrease in hiring costs with a proactive approach to direct sourcing with the help of High5.

Do you want to see results like that? High5’s Talent Clouds allow you to implement your hiring strategy easily, saving you time and money. The High5 trusted talent platform makes it easy to quickly bring on a large number of new employees and stay in touch with past temporary employees. In addition, employers benefit from a larger pool of qualified applicants because of this global network’s comprehensive coverage of jobs, contract preferences, and specialized fields.

Although using direct sourcing may be daunting, doing so should be straightforward if you work with a reliable partner such as High5. A successful direct sourcing strategy may be implemented sooner than you realize as long as agility, flexibility, and efficiency are prioritized. So don’t delay.

Get started with High5 today!