Career Connector

Direct sourcing is a services-led digital talent portal ecosystem provisioned by recruitment partners to proactively help businesses to reach out to potential candidates to fill job and contracting vacancies, bypassing traditional job boards and relying less on recruiters. It allows companies to target talent with specific skills and experience aligned with their needs.

USTech Solutions goes beyond just technology with its Talent as a Service (TaaS) approach. We provide businesses with a comprehensive solution, encompassing the necessary technology for direct sourcing with the necessary soft services (such as HR, compliance, technology implementation etc.), required to make it work, and with access to immediate talent through the 12M+ ready-to-work candidate CVs on offer through our diversity hiring programs.

Unlike using third-party job boards and recruiters, direct sourcing is about building direct relationships with potential candidates. Companies leverage their own networks, social media, events, and employer branding efforts to attract talent directly. This allows them to tap into a wider pool of potential candidates, including passive job seekers not actively searching for new opportunities.

Companies that implement direct sourcing effectively often see cost savings in the long run. They avoid or reduce reliance on recruitment agency fees and have more control over the recruitment process.

Traditional methods may be effective for filling general positions, but they are generally less targeted and may not always attract the most qualified individuals for niche roles.

Direct Sourcing is ideally suited to project-based roles requiring niche skills or experience or those in high demand. For instance, analysts, software developers, project managers, cybersecurity specialists and AI specialists, and data scientists with specific certifications can be most effectively recruited via direct sourcing.

Proactive outreach allows you to target a large pool of people not actively searching for jobs. These passive candidates are often high performers who are satisfied with their work, but may be open to a new challenge or a better offer. They’re more likely to possess the skills and experience you seek.

According to a study by LinkedIn, 70% of the global workforce are open to new opportunities even if they are not actively looking.

Additionally, direct sourcing enables firms to retain relationships with alumni and past contractors who may want to work for them again. Equally, it empowers them to leverage their employer brand online, attracting new talent who are drawn to the company’s reputation and culture.

In short, yes. With direct sourcing you can pre vet candidates to increase the size of your addressable talent pool. You can even elect to encourage candidates to progress through pre-vetting checks and skills tests prior to a job opportunity arising. Additionally, by focusing on a targeted group and reducing reliance on expensive agencies and job boards, direct sourcing can streamline the hiring process and potentially lower recruitment costs.

Companies take the initiative by reaching out to promising candidates, demonstrating genuine interest. This personalized approach fosters a positive experience throughout the process. Candidates feel valued by being kept informed and considered for future opportunities. This not only enhances the immediate recruitment experience but also builds a strong brand relationship that can benefit the company in the long run.

Direct sourcing offers significant benefits in recruitment, but there are also legal considerations companies need to be aware of to avoid potential risk. The simplest way to avoid compliance headaches is to work with a provider like USTech Solutions that offers value-adding services—such as EOR outsourcing support—along with a data safe and compliant technology ecosystem. 

Worker classification :

• Employee vs. independent contractor: Direct sourcing can involve engaging both employees and independent contractors. It’s crucial to correctly classify workers based on the level of control the company has over their work schedule, tools, and methods. Misclassification can lead to tax penalties and other legal liabilities.

• Labor laws: Employee classification determines which labor laws apply. Companies must comply with relevant labor laws regarding minimum wage, overtime pay, benefits, and worker’s compensation for classified employees.

Anti-discrimination laws:

• Equal opportunity: Direct sourcing efforts should be conducted without discrimination based on protected characteristics like race, gender, age, or disability.
• Targeted outreach: While targeting specific skills is acceptable, ensure your outreach isn’t limited to a specific demographic that could be seen as discriminatory.

Data privacy regulations:

• Candidate data collection: When collecting and storing candidate data, companies must comply with data privacy regulations like GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act). This includes obtaining consent for data collection and ensuring proper data security measures.

Contractual agreements:

• Independent contractor agreements: For independent contractors, clear and well-defined contracts should be established. These contracts should outline the scope of work, payment terms, and ownership of intellectual property.

Building a strong employer brand and having a dedicated team with sourcing expertise are key to success. USTech Solutions delivers these services as part of our Talent-as-a-Service offering. Genie, our integrated AI recruitment co-pilot lets you craft compelling outreach messages and streamlines managing a large candidate pool. Unlike other direct sourcing platforms, we empower brands to white label their portal and segment potential candidates into talent pools based on experience, skills, and ‘fit.’

A direct sourcing platform should manage the full employee life cycle, including attracting, hiring, managing, paying and communicating with talent over the lifetime of your relationship. The best direct sourcing platforms focus on career-long relationships with individuals and building authentic, long-term relationships, not in ‘transactional’ terms.

One of the impressive benefits of adopting direct sourcing with USTech Solutions is that the entire relationship with candidates from ‘source-to-pay’ is transacted and plays out through a talent portal that can track every mouse-click and activity. Your direct sourcing portal becomes a communications hub, a transactional vehicle, a compliance guardian, tutor and a single version of the truth.

The use of this data-rich platform means you can track key metrics like time-to-hire, quality of hire (retention rates), cost-per-hire, diversity quotient, and source of hire, etc. to evaluate the effectiveness of your hiring. Having this greater transparency lets talent leaders quickly learn from experiences and adapt strategies accordingly.

Direct sourcing can be incorporated into your existing recruitment approach, information flows and systems architecture without requiring extensive change.

For example, you can adopt a blended approach by leveraging job boards for high-volume roles, while using direct sourcing for strategic positions requiring niche skill sets.

Alternatively, you can see your direct sourcing channel as a Tier-1 supplier and feed opportunities to your direct sourcing platform 5 days before publishing to a broader indirect supply chain. This way, any direct candidates interested in the opportunity will see it first, avoiding agency costs. Case studies suggest that companies adopting direct sourcing in this way can save up to 15% on agency costs in the first year of operation.