Direct Sourcing Benefits

3-minute read

2022 and the buzz about Direct Sourcing is getting noisy

According to Staffing Industry Analysts, 26% of US businesses today use direct sourcing and 41% plan to seriously consider it within the next two years. That’s because—so they say—it’s proven to result in economies of over 15% (generally savings on staffing agency fees).

So what is it? And how can you include Direct Sourcing into your hiring strategy?

Overview of Direct Sourcing Process

Direct Sourcing Benefits

#1 Reduce recruitment agency costs

Going direct for talent means you don’t have to pay agencies to find the best-fit talent you need.

#2 Boost productivity and retention

Access individuals who’ve worked for you (or in a partner business perhaps) in the past, who are already interested in your brand and its values, or have previously invested time in approaching you for a previous role or position. These individuals are likely to be more motivated to work for you (boosting productivity) and WANT to work for your enterprise (reducing attrition).

#3 Speed time-to-fill

We’re talking about a pool of candidates you already know about, or are just one message away from wanting to apply for your next role! That means you don’t have to wait for indirect partners to run around and find candidates for you. Use of direct sourcing is demonstrating its value in consistently reducing time-to-fill of vacant roles.

#4 Decrease risk

For people your organization already knows, you can make a hiring decision with the confidence that someone in your business already knows (and can potentially vouch for) the individual you are considering hiring. They may even have a track-record of previous work performed for your organization. For individuals applying via social media or taking an interest in your business, there’s always the opportunity to pre-vet your talent pool—so you know that any of the available talent is already one step closer to joining your business because they’ve already cleared the hurdle of background checks.

#5 Increase recruiting efficiency

Adoption of direct sourcing means the cost of recruitments goes down. Much of the work has already been done by self-service tools your candidates have done themselves in their own time. It’s also possible to integrate video interviews into your direct sourcing portal so that you already have a video testimonial of prospective candidates.

Adopting Direct Sourcing

One of the greatest challenges facing the recruiting industry at present is changing attitudes and behaviors around work packaging and resourcing. Decisions relating to the allocation and sourcing of work are normally so fragmented between IT, procurement and HR functions. Another issue is the segregation of full-time recruitment functions, indirect contingent staffing vendor management, procurement programs to source consultants and outsourcing; and IT teams responsible for automation (including the provisioning of robots that can be used to fulfil tasks instead of humans). In the case of Direct Sourcing adoption, it works better when departmental managers are encouraged to adopt a ‘direct sourcing first’ policy.